Every Christian will eventually have to work through his or her theodicy (i.e. Why does a good God let bad things happen to people?). Some will swing to the side of hyper-Calvinism, which sees God as the author of all manner of evil, from the Holocaust to the hangnail. Others will see God as an eternal victim of a universe gone wrong, as He battles to wrest control from Satan, who alone is responsible for everything that can, from a human perspective, be labeled “bad.”

I’ve been reading Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God, and he makes what appears to be an offhand statement that I thought shed profound light on the question as to whether God causes suffering. He asks, “How can we experience God’s comfort if we never experience suffering?” This same question could be asked about many of the other ways we experience God:

• How can we experience God’s provision, if we do not experience want?
• How can we experience God’s mercy, if we are not aware of His wrath?
• How can we experience God’s protection, if we live a life devoid of danger?
• How can we experience God’s healing, if we never suffer illness?
• How can we experience God’s freedom, if we have never known bondage?

One could argue that these instances are simply God following Satan around, redeeming all the bad things he does. But what if He sovereignly ordains some of these experiences so that we may know Him better?

Oh you’ll meet the Lord in the furnace,
A long time before you meet Him in the sky.
- Rich Mullins, “Where You Are”

@rickwarren’s Tweet on Thursday got me thinking: Some subgroups of Christians will be shocked when they see who is in heaven.”I have sheep that arent of this fold”- Jesus

First, I’ve got nothing against Brother Rick—he once bought me mini doughnuts and a pint of milk, and told me he was a Bapticostal, thereby securing my affections. I’m not even sure exactly where he was going with the Tweet, but I know that the passage he cited has often been interpreted as an inclusivist text:

“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” – John 10:16

On a daily basis, Jesus reveals Himself personally in visions to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and animists—without the help of a missionary—and they experience radical conversion. But inclusivists believe there may be people in other religions who are saved apart from putting faith in Jesus. In other words, Jesus saves them without their knowledge.

Of course, these are not the Hitlers, Pol Pots or Idi Amins of their respective religions we’re talking about here. They are the sweetly ignorant savages who have good hearts but are geographically isolated from the gospel. That would be so cool if it weren’t so Pelagian.

Does the context—and the meaning—of John 10:16 really support the idea that people can be saved apart from putting conscious faith in Jesus?

I heard recently that a college acquaintance succumbed to cancer at 40, and I was reminded again of the blessing and the curse that is cancer.

It’s entirely possible that a cancerous cell is even now lurking somewhere in my body, having received its assignment of mutation from a twisted strand of DNA gone wrong somewhere between me and Adam.

I’m not wishing for it, but I’ve known others who made the transition from life to Life courtesy of a bullet, a windshield or a blocked artery. So, how could I curse God for giving me three months or three years to set my house in order and say goodbye, to drain every last good word from my soul—particularly those that become trapped on the tongue when the Grim Reaper is off attending to someone else’s business?

The thing worse than the physical suffering of the afflicted must be the grief of the long goodbye, the interminable boarding of the plane before it sets off for an exciting new destination, those left behind standing forlorn on the tarmac.

Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
or the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
or the wheel broken at the well. – Ecclesiastes 12:6