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HYMUST
MAN
SUFFER
~
•
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
Theologians now say God lacks the power
to prevent suffering!
M
AJOR
airline c rash .
Devastating hurri–
canes. Potential nu–
clear mass destruc–
t ion of whole ctttes.
Does God lack the power to pre–
vent their occurrence?
October 1983
What about all of these evils–
the violence, the human suffer ing
that humanity has been going
through for nearly 6,000 years?
Process Theology
Now comes a new school of reli–
gious thought called process theol-
A sbaky takeoff, an aborted fligbt and
crash-all in a matter of seconds
ogy. These modero theologians say
that the question of why God allows
these tragedies, or why God is not
apparently powerful enough to stop
them, has vexed religious counsel–
ors for centuries. And well
it
may.
Because people simply do not
understand that question!
If
God is all good, if God is !ove,
he wouldn't want humanity to suf–
fer, would he? And if God is all
powerful, as the Bible says he is,
why doesn't he stop suffering? Why
doesn't he prevent it?
The credibility of God is now at
stake, say the theologians. The
world, they contend, has grown
weary of religious spokesmen trying
to defend God and explain why God
allows these things-and at the
same t ime saying that God is all
love, God is all good, God is all
powerful and he could stop it , yet
he doesn't. So modero theologians
now have come up with this new
theology called process theology in
an attempt to explain this apparent
paradox.
Recall for a moment that at the
t u ro of t he century theologians
were coming up with a then-new
theology. They were turoing to
what is called moderoism. In other
words, they were denying any deity
to Jesus Christ. He was not divine.
He had not existed befare his
human birth. He was only human.
And they denied his miracles.
And now a new generation of
religious thinkers is coming to the
new idea called process theology.
God, they say, is entirely loving, but
is lacking in power.
They say nothing of the real pur–
pose of life. They say nothing about
the restoration of the kingdom of
God, the only gospel that Jesus
Christ preached.
The Origin and Purpose of Life
But what is the real trouble with
this question? What is the reason
that God has not stopped all this
violence, all this human suffering?
In all the religions of this
world-the many different reli–
gions we call non-Christian, and
even the rel igion of Christíanity–
not one religion knows who and
what God is. What is God? Is he a
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