by William Finck
August 26, 2018
Scripture Reading: Psalm 44:19-23:
Being here [at FGCP] in March after the death of Pastor Mark Downey, and now passing through again after the burial of Clifton Emahiser, I thought I should seek to offer our community some encouragement.
Disaster and Death: Why Do We Suffer?
This is a broad topic. I won't ever be able to discuss every detail. But Yahweh willing, here we will hit on the important aspects. Perhaps anyone who hears this will stop blaming God for our woes.
In modern times when we have floods and drought, when we have pestilence and disease, very few people who are affected by these things ever even consider what manner of sin they have committed, or what manner of sin they have allowed to exist in their communities, that they should suffer such things. But as our ancient ancestors believed, when such calamities befall us, they are clearly punishments from Yahweh our God. The proof that such a concept was prevalent even in relatively recent times is found in the very origin of the word that is used to describe such calamities, which is crisis. In English, a crisis is a time of danger or trouble. But in Greek the word is decision or judgment, and in our Scriptures it describes the judgment of God. While modern secularized dictionaries attempt to obfuscate this connection, it is the true origin of the modern English use of the word.
