How Long, O Lord?

How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil
By: D.A. Carson

This is an excellent and important read for Christians on suffering and evil.

Carson is quick to point out that this book is not necessarily written for unbelievers and that it is also not necessarily written for those who are currently going through a time of pain or suffering. This book was recommended to me with that in mind and so I had waited until my season of pain was over, and I agree that that is appropriate caution to take.

Another important takeaway is that Carson does not claim to have all the answers. There are things that the Bible doesn't explain to us- i.e. a lot of the 'how's'- and God has chosen to not reveal all of his mysteries. So no, this book will not answer every single one of your questions or objections to your liking, but living in faith and trusting God with those things is not a bad place to be.

Carson's goal in this book is to provide Christians with foundational thoughts on evil and suffering so that when we come to times of pain, we can remember these truths and filter our circumstances in light of what the Bible teaches and in light of who God is.

If we have a right view of God and if we always see suffering in light of the cross, then we can suffer well. It doesn't mean we won't feel pain or that we won't grieve, but we can't get those two things wrong.

He rightly discusses the different kinds of suffering- not all suffering is equal and is not all effects of the same cause. It is necessary to view each person's suffering on a case by case instead of making any sort of sweeping judgments on certain types of suffering- rape, abuse, illness, war, poverty, natural disasters, hell, etc. And in every scenario he addresses, he provides ample Biblical support.

As others have commented in reviews, his chapter on Job is especially helpful- Job has done nothing to 'deserve' the suffering he endures, and in the end God does not give him the 'answers' Job is looking for. And that is most commonly where we think we find ourselves in our seasons of pain. Carson's dissection of Job's response, in conjunction with the rest of the book, gives us a good point of reference and place to know how we should also respond to God.

I also appreciated his chapter on providence. I have recently done much study on compatibilism and struggling with what to do with the tension of God's sovereignty and human responsibility and feel that Carson does an excellent job of explaining what the Bible teaches- as well as where the mysteries lie.

Here are a few (of the vast amount) of quotes I found helpful:

"However hard some things are to understand, it is never helpful to start picking and choosing biblical truths we find congenial, as if the Bible is an open-shelved supermarket where we are at perfect liberty to choose only the chocolate bars. For the Christian, it is God’s Word, and it is not negotiable. What answers we find may not be exhaustive, but they give us the God who is there, and who gives us some measure of comfort and assurance. The alternative is a god we manufacture, and who provides no comfort at all. Whatever comfort we feel is self -delusion, and it will be stripped away at the end when we give an account to the God who has spoken to us, not only in Scripture, but supremely in his Son Jesus Christ."

"We have learned to live with irony and paradox, because we have come to see that, for the cross to make any sense at all, we simply must affirm that God was sovereign, that human beings were rebellious and morally responsible, that God’s love and justice were displayed, and that Christ died voluntarily. If we forsake any one of these truths, the significance of the cross is destroyed and we are lost."

"By being too protective of God, we are in fact building a grid out of only a subset of the biblical materials, and filtering out some of what is revealed in the Bible about the God who has graciously disclosed himself. The result, rather sadly, is a god who is either less than sovereign or less than personal, either incompetent and frustrated or impassive and stoical. But the God and Father is our Lord Jesus Christ is utterly transcendent and passionately personal. These are among the ‘givens’ of Scripture, and we sacrifice them to our peril. "

"When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith?"

"When Christians think seriously about evil and suffering, one of the paramount reasons we are so sure that God is to be trusted is because he sent his Son to suffer cruelly on our behalf...The God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all about, not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience. "

"Pain tends to make people better, or bitter. If we find it is developing in us a pattern of bitterness, we are in desperate straits. And one of the first steps to reverse such bitterness is to come before the Lord, broken and confused and hurt as we may be, and read his Word, seek his face, and ask him to provide the comfort that only he can. For in a fallen world, pain and suffering can be God’s megaphone, to an individual or to a nation, distracting our attention from the selfishness of a life that functionally disowns God, no matter what we say in our creeds."

Okay, I'll stop. But really, so much to be gleaned from this book.