Issue 4, 1996

Volume 2, Number 4 · Four articles

Read the contents of this issue, or download the full edition as a PDF.

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In this issue

Suffering
Losing the Life of Our Dreams: A Christian View of Suffering
Why did God let this happen? Pastor M. Craig Barnes says the myth of personal wholeness has made suffering an accusation, and he reads the missing fruit in Eden as a picture of what it means to be a thankful creature rather than a creator.
M. Craig Barnes15 min read
Suffering
The Terrible Necessity of Tribulation: C.S. Lewis on Human Suffering
Why would a loving God allow pain? James Edwards works through C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain and argues that tribulation is the terrible necessity by which God draws a rebel will out of self-sufficiency and back to himself.
James Edwards11 min read
Suffering
Baptized into Christ’s Death
What does it mean to be baptized into Christ’s death when a friend is dying of cancer? Shirley Smith argues that baptism promises suffering as well as new life, and that only the cross can give pain a meaning that theology and therapy cannot.
Shirley Smith9 min read
Discipleship
Bible Study of the Gospel of Mark: Chapter 9
What did the disciples see on the mountain, and why could they not heal the boy below it? Susan Cyre works through Mark 9, from the transfiguration to the argument over who is greatest and the warnings about causing others to stumble.
Sue Cyre9 min read