Join us for a seminar taught by Rev. Will Turner!

Our world is full of evil and suffering. Evil and suffering that often lead to hopelessness. And such hopelessness raises questions: Why does God allow evil and suffering? Or to borrow the psalmist’s lament: “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Ps 10:1). Yet, as we will hope to show, while God doesn’t specifically answer the why question he does give an emphatic and definitive answer by shifting our attention to the question of who. Scripture’s theodicy is not a why, but a who. And the who is discovered in the story of a God who enters into our world of evil and suffering, who suffers and dies himself, but who rises triumphant. God’s answer of who (the person and work of Jesus Christ) offers us hope in the midst of a hopeless world. And this hope is meant to be shared. When our friends, family, and neighbors ask us for the reasons for the hope within us we tell them of Christ’s sufferings and resurrection (1 Peter 3:15). These are the reasons for our hope.