Life Library — Suffering
Life Ministry • The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
- Ethics and Suffering — How are Christians to respond to this shift in the ethics of medicine today? The path that seems most appropriate is to begin with recognizing the distinctiveness, in our case, of a Lutheran Christian worldview. It is a worldview that invites us to be “in the world, but not of the world.”
- How Long? — We ask, “How long will you defend the unjust, O God, and show favor to the wicked?” God points to the cross and says: “As long as I possibly can. And I invite you to wait and work with me, and bear with me the burden of this agonizing question, ‘How long?’ ”
- Surprised by Suffering — Martin Luther once wrote: “Without trials ... a person can know neither Scripture nor faith, nor can he fear and love God. If he has never suffered, he cannot understand what hope is.”
- The Problem of Suffering — It is hopeful to say that our suffering is from God, for then we know to whom we must turn is good and omnipotent and will turn our tears into joy in heaven. This is the theology of the cross.