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To: Solon who wrote (1086)	12/18/2012 12:39:59 AM
From: Greg or e	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2133

The Answer to Evil What can we say about the horrific evil that occurred in Connecticut? We weep with those who weep. There is a time simply to comfort those who mourn. God isn’t distant and uncaring about what happened. He is there. He hasn’t abandoned us. He is present and involved. He knows suffering firsthand – Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, suffered a violent death at the hands of evil men. God knows and He cares. He is here. God’s answer to evil is Jesus, whose birthday we celebrate in this season. He is God’s answer to evil. God responded Himself to the evil we perpetrate in this world. God came in the flesh, Emmanuel. He lived a perfect life, yet took the punishment each of us deserves for our evil. He got involved, He didn’t remain far off. He came to us. The angels’ message to the shepherds is still the answer to evil and suffering: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Jesus is the only one who holds the answer to evil. He identifies with us in the effects of evil in our lives because He lived a life in this evil world. He defeated evil and is the only answer of hope because He overcame the power of sin and the devil on the cross and by rising. He assures us that this evil world is not all there is and He has prepared a perfect world where all will be set right. He gives us the Holy Spirit to comfort us and empower us to endure when it seems sorrow will crush us. He will bring final and perfect justice when He returns. Behold Him. He is the only source of true joy in an evil world. Don’t try to find the strength in yourself. It’s not there. Don’t look for hope in others. We are all frail sinners and disappoint. Behold Jesus, God in the flesh. He is the answer for the hope and fears of all mankind because He alone has dealt with evil. The atheists may challenge Christianity with evil – how can a good God allow evil? But what does atheism have to answer evil? Nothing. No hope. No ultimate justice. No comfort. No explanation. We may not know why God has allowed this evil thing to happen. But we do know that He has provided the answer for it: His Son Jesus. He came to us because of what happened in Connecticut. He came because of every other evil act we commit in this world. He comes today to comfort and offer hope and grace to live through something that is otherwise impossible to cope with. And He will come again to deal with evil finally and eternally. That is the tiding of great joy that answers horrific evil. The only hope that offers comfort to those who weep. Posted by Melinda on December 15, 2012 at 08:23 AM in :Melinda Penner, Christianity & Culture, Theology \| Permalink

To: Solon who wrote (1086)	12/18/2012 1:11:55 AM
From: Greg or e	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2133

What is wrong with killing children? One of the interesting things I've noticed about all the emotional posturing about the Connecticut public school shootings is that a fair share of it is being done by people who claim there is no God, no good, and no evil. Some of those people also happen to be those who assert that the Earth has too many people. So, I find myself wondering if they are knowingly striking false poses in order to hide their amoral inhumanity at a time when sensitivities are particularly acute or if they are merely intellectually incoherent. The logical fact of the matter is that if there is no divine spark within us, if we are merely bits of stardust that happens to have congregated in one of many possible manners, then therre is nothing wrong or objectionable in rearranging the stardust a little. What difference does it make to an atom if it now happens to be part of arrangement X instead of arrangement Y? What difference does it make to the universe? And if consciousness does not exist, if it is the illusion that some of the more imaginative neurophilosophers claim it to be, then how can anyone possibly object to the elimination of the nonexistent? What tragedy can be found in the transformation from nothing to nothing? And if there are too many people on the Earth, in the country, then is not the reduction of that excessive number to be celebrated? And if it is good, moral, and legal to kill a child in a trans-natal abortion, how long after birth is such killing truly licit? Would it make the deaths of the young public schoolchildren more palatable to describe them as 24th trimester post-natal abortions? In an increasingly post-Christian pagan society, what is is wrong, precisely, with killing schoolchildren? Labels: philosophy, society