God is Deeply Concerned about Disease and Suffering

Flickr/Martin Deutsch

In the face of dreadful news such as a cancer diagnosis, many sincere Christian friends come to our side in comfort. “We don't know all of God’s purposes,” they'll advise, “but we need to be able to say, ‘Thank you God for this disease.’ The challenge is to believe without knowing all the answers.” Others will urge us to recognize that “God knows what he is doing,” as if cancer is God’s mysterious initiative. Yet others will suggest that suffering is deserved, either as punishment, or to improve us, or both.

The principal concern in all of this for us in the Roberta Winter Institute is the distortion in many people’s ideas about God. We are convinced that God is deeply concerned about disease and suffering, and not in the business—perish the thought—of inflicting us with pain to deepen our spiritual lives. “If that is God's initiative,” Ralph Winter once asked, “why did his Son go around relieving people of pain and suffering?”

Read more: The Why of the RWI

The Only How-To Article You'll Ever Need

Here at the RWI we talk a lot about destroying the works of the devil. You could say it's a strange obsession of ours. And you'd be right. But we're okay with that because Jesus talked a lot about it, too. The New Testament tells us in no uncertain terms that Jesus has come and whose reign He is here to end.

The acts of love Jesus performs throughout the Gospels, He's clear to show, are also acts of rebellion against the one He calls "the Prince of this World" (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). When He heals a crippled woman on the Sabbath, He paints the picture of what's actually going on like this " . . . should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?" (Luke 13:16, added emphasis).

There are numerous lists in the Bible of the signs of the Kingdom of Heaven as it comes, and the prior rule is abolished. But what does it look like for us, today? And, more importantly, how is it accomplished?

We were hoping you'd ask.

Introducing International Development As Cosmic Battle

Flickr/Pan .

Picture the world as it was in the beginning of Genesis: A world without form, lost in deep darkness, where chaos and desolation reigned. Now shift your gaze: See the only immortal God who, as Paul wrote in 1 Timothy, "dwells in unapproachable light."

Since the beginning there has been this juxtaposition, dark and light, evil and good, evening and then morning, always in that order. This is also the pattern of scripture; God draws springs out of the desert, makes creation out of desolation and pruning hooks from swords. 

In this beautiful excerpt from her book, Chaos is Not God's Will, theologian Beth Snodderly posits that the model for the war of the ages is also the model for international development.

" . . . In a cosmic battle for the rulership of this planet, God is deliberately overcoming evil with good until, in the end, Jesus will reign in his Kingdom of shalom. But until God ushers in that final perfect new heaven and new earth, there is a need for believers to engage intentionally in international development efforts to demonstrate God’s will for people, for societies, and for God’s originally good creation."

Greg Boyd's Warfare Worldview, Lecture II

In this video of Greg Boyd's second lecture at the 2013 Ralph D. Winter Lectureship on Friday, April 26, Greg wraps up his teaching about the Warfare Worldview in the Old Testament and then moves on into the New Testament. Video shot and edited by Kevin Renel.

Greg Boyd Ralph D. Winter Lectureship 4-26-2013

The views expressed in this lecture are those of Greg Boyd, not necessarily of The Roberta Winter Institute. 

Photos from the Ralph D. Winter Lectureship, April 25 and 26, 2013

Photos courtesy of Greg Parsons (unless otherwise specified)