Resources on Suffering
Before the end of the year, I hope to have reread Calvin’s Institutes. This morning I completed Book 1, which concludes with Calvin’s teaching on God’s providence. To aid me in my readings, I am using David Calhoun’s fine devotional volume on the Institutes. I found these words especially helpful: The doctrine of providence for Calvin is not so much a matter of explanation of what happens as it is a confession of faith. It does not answer all our questions, but it enables us to live without answers until the time comes when we will live without questions. Calvin’s understanding of the Bible’s teaching on providence has immensely practical application. “Gratitude of mind for the favorable outcome of things, patience…
Read MoreOn Psalm 6 William Plumer comments: “With believers when things get to the worst then they get better. To them darkness is the harbinger of light; grief, of gladness; humility, of exaltation; death, of life. The whole Psalm teaches thus . . . The pious man has a friend in heaven, and on that account has no reason to be violently overcome by his sorrow.” And Matthew Henry on Psalm 4:6: “It has often been the the lot of the best of men to be men of sorrows; our Lord Jesus himself was so.” ______ – William S. Plumer, Psalms: A Critical and Expository Commentary with Doctrinal and Practical Remarks. 1867 (Carlise, PA: Banner of Truth, 1990), 101. – Matthew Henry,…
Read MoreCharles Simeon (1759-1836) argues that “it is under sufferings that the superiority of the Christian’s state is to be seen to the greatest advantage.” He comments on Romans 8:28: “The Christian may be called to bear the heaviest afflictions; but they shall bring him to consideration, stir him up to prayer, wean him from the world, and lead him to seek his rest above — He maybe assaulted also with the most distressing temptations; but these will shew him the evil of his heart, and the faithfulness of his God: they will also teach him to sympathize with his tempted brethren: even death itself will be among the number of the things that shall prove beneficial to him. This is the most…
Read MoreYesterday I finished reading Bruce Gordon’s masterful biography of John Calvin. The highest praise I can give Calvin is that it compares positively with my two favorite biographies, Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo: A Biography and George Marsden’s Jonathan Edwards: A Life. Calvin was a towering figure of his age. But above all Calvin was a pastor, his heart attuned to the realities of life in God’s persecuted church. Gordon observes that “Resignation to fate and delusions of perfection were equally abhorrent to Calvin. God’s providence is an excuse for neither inaction nor wickedness; it encourages joy among the faithful, and fortifies them to face the hardships of the world, but it is not an inoculation. The Gospel teaches God’s everlasting kindness…
Read MoreWhen does effective preaching become possible? “Dr. Wilbur Chapman has this to say of the handicaps which befall the minister: ‘when trials are many, when burdens are heavy, when tears are blinding, when the heart is almost broken, then, as a rule, ministers come to an experience when effective preaching is possible.’” – William Childs Robinson, The Certainties of the Gospel (Zondervan: 1935), 130.
Read More“In the older world we left behind, people thought of adversity as inevitable. Adversity was a consequence of the fall for those of a Christian outlook. But even for non-Christians it was never seen as an unexpected intruder in life. It was never thought that life should be without pain. Pain, disease, setbacks, disappointments, and wrong done to us were all seen as part of our life in this world, part of its texture, a thread woven with all the other threads through the fabric of our daily experience. Adversity was seen, even, as a necessary component in life. Today we resent adversity as an interruption in our pleasure seeking, a rude disruption of our opportunities and our sense of…
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