The last twenty-four hours have seen widespread reporting of
the latest TGC 'kerfuffle,' this time over Mark Driscoll's comments
about Joel Osteen. I guess I am becoming rather jaded, but I am
surprised there is surprise: he is the man, after all, who gave T. D.
Jakes a clean bill of health last year.
More interesting, however, is the hint that some unnamed modern reformed types make too much of suffering. The apparent connection Pastor Driscoll makes between this and a world which apparently over-uses antidepressants is interesting and no doubt worthy of discussion. For me, it triggered a chain of related thoughts in my mind. Do we make too much of suffering? Is depression sinful? Is it always the result of personal sin? Or poor preaching? Or defective theology and unbalanced homiletic emphases? I am convinced that this is not so. Once one moves in that direction, one is positing a tight and necessary connection between personal issues and specific suffering. That is not biblical and is pastorally very dangerous. Yes, suffering can sometimes be that way: the man who cheats on his wife and loses his family suffers as a direct result of his personal sin. But is the depressed person necessarily suffering because of some specific sin? The Bible, I believe, teaches that this is not so.
Preaching through Job recently, I was very struck by the Lord's final intervention. Job has suffered incredibly throughout the book; and we, the readers, know that none of this is his fault. It is the result of the battle between God and the Accuser and, if anything, Job's suffering is thus the result of his devotion to the Lord, which Satan wishes to test.
More interesting, however, is the hint that some unnamed modern reformed types make too much of suffering. The apparent connection Pastor Driscoll makes between this and a world which apparently over-uses antidepressants is interesting and no doubt worthy of discussion. For me, it triggered a chain of related thoughts in my mind. Do we make too much of suffering? Is depression sinful? Is it always the result of personal sin? Or poor preaching? Or defective theology and unbalanced homiletic emphases? I am convinced that this is not so. Once one moves in that direction, one is positing a tight and necessary connection between personal issues and specific suffering. That is not biblical and is pastorally very dangerous. Yes, suffering can sometimes be that way: the man who cheats on his wife and loses his family suffers as a direct result of his personal sin. But is the depressed person necessarily suffering because of some specific sin? The Bible, I believe, teaches that this is not so.
Preaching through Job recently, I was very struck by the Lord's final intervention. Job has suffered incredibly throughout the book; and we, the readers, know that none of this is his fault. It is the result of the battle between God and the Accuser and, if anything, Job's suffering is thus the result of his devotion to the Lord, which Satan wishes to test.
And by the end of Job's last big speech (Job 31) he is
depressed, and with good reason. The man has lost everything. Continue at Carl Trueman
love Job's immediate reaction to the first wave of tragedies that rocked his life, robbed him of his possessions, and took the lives of his children, all in one single, horrific day: "He said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord'" (