T. Allen Burr | Lincoln Christian University (original) (raw)

Papers by T. Allen Burr

hurt, misery, sorrow, trouble, vexation, and a litany of other things. Essentially, Job is asking... more hurt, misery, sorrow, trouble, vexation, and a litany of other things. Essentially, Job is asking, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive suffering?" Suffering as we know it was birthed from the original sin of man. When God discovered the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He laid a curse upon them: Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children … And unto Adam He said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life … (Gen. 3:16-17, KJV). The Hebrew word used here for "sorrow" is the word ʻetseb which signifies pain, hurt, toil, sorrow, labor, and hardship. 2 The curse of Adam is that of suffering. And yet, as image bearers of God, we are not alienated from His likeness due to suffering, in fact suffering is sine qua non to a Christian's Christlikeness. However, many philosophers from a variety of backgrounds have expounded upon the purpose that suffering serves, and it would do well to have an understanding of their arguments. For C.S. Lewis, the purpose of suffering is twofold: to produce divine humility within mankind and to break men of their will in order that they may submit said will unto God. "The first answer, then, to the question why our cure should be painful, is that to render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain." 3 He notes that for mankind to surrender one's will, one's sense of selfgovernance, is all but impossible. When people are forced to surrender their will, they do not take it lightly. He goes on to say that "to surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death. We all remember this self-will as it was in childhood: the bitter, prolonged rage at every thwarting, the burst of passionate tears, the black, Satanic wish to kill or 2

His family's conversion is what led Smith to the woods to seek God. It was here that he heard fro... more His family's conversion is what led Smith to the woods to seek God. It was here that he heard from God, but more importantly, he reported, "When the light rested on me, I saw two Personages who stood above me in the light." Smith later reported that these two personages were none other than God the Father and Jesus Christ-this belief later becomes a foundational part of Latter-Day Saint (LDS) theology. 4 5 6 Three years later, Smith would be visited by the angel Moroni who gave him God's commission for his life. Smith was called to restore the fullness of the Gospel to the earth. He would find the full Gospel recorded on golden plates and would be enabled to translate the plates through the use of the Urim and Thummim that God had prepared for him. 7 8 Four years later, Smith obtained the golden plates, as foretold by Moroni. He held onto the plates for two years before beginning to translate them into English. In 1829, Oliver Cowdery heard about the things that were happening in Smith's life from Joseph Smith, Sr. Cowdery then joined Smith in his efforts to translate the golden plates, working primarily as a scribe. 9 During this process, Cowdery and Smith were ordained by John the Baptist into the Aaronic priesthood, and nearly a year later, Christ's apostles Peter, James, and John ordained them into the Melchizedek priesthood. Shortly thereafter, Smith and Cowdery "laid hands on each other and

hurt, misery, sorrow, trouble, vexation, and a litany of other things. Essentially, Job is asking... more hurt, misery, sorrow, trouble, vexation, and a litany of other things. Essentially, Job is asking, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive suffering?" Suffering as we know it was birthed from the original sin of man. When God discovered the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He laid a curse upon them: Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children … And unto Adam He said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life … (Gen. 3:16-17, KJV). The Hebrew word used here for "sorrow" is the word ʻetseb which signifies pain, hurt, toil, sorrow, labor, and hardship. 2 The curse of Adam is that of suffering. And yet, as image bearers of God, we are not alienated from His likeness due to suffering, in fact suffering is sine qua non to a Christian's Christlikeness. However, many philosophers from a variety of backgrounds have expounded upon the purpose that suffering serves, and it would do well to have an understanding of their arguments. For C.S. Lewis, the purpose of suffering is twofold: to produce divine humility within mankind and to break men of their will in order that they may submit said will unto God. "The first answer, then, to the question why our cure should be painful, is that to render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain." 3 He notes that for mankind to surrender one's will, one's sense of selfgovernance, is all but impossible. When people are forced to surrender their will, they do not take it lightly. He goes on to say that "to surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death. We all remember this self-will as it was in childhood: the bitter, prolonged rage at every thwarting, the burst of passionate tears, the black, Satanic wish to kill or 2

His family's conversion is what led Smith to the woods to seek God. It was here that he heard fro... more His family's conversion is what led Smith to the woods to seek God. It was here that he heard from God, but more importantly, he reported, "When the light rested on me, I saw two Personages who stood above me in the light." Smith later reported that these two personages were none other than God the Father and Jesus Christ-this belief later becomes a foundational part of Latter-Day Saint (LDS) theology. 4 5 6 Three years later, Smith would be visited by the angel Moroni who gave him God's commission for his life. Smith was called to restore the fullness of the Gospel to the earth. He would find the full Gospel recorded on golden plates and would be enabled to translate the plates through the use of the Urim and Thummim that God had prepared for him. 7 8 Four years later, Smith obtained the golden plates, as foretold by Moroni. He held onto the plates for two years before beginning to translate them into English. In 1829, Oliver Cowdery heard about the things that were happening in Smith's life from Joseph Smith, Sr. Cowdery then joined Smith in his efforts to translate the golden plates, working primarily as a scribe. 9 During this process, Cowdery and Smith were ordained by John the Baptist into the Aaronic priesthood, and nearly a year later, Christ's apostles Peter, James, and John ordained them into the Melchizedek priesthood. Shortly thereafter, Smith and Cowdery "laid hands on each other and