Outline: Why God Lets People Suffer
OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS
Preface: The Preface explains why this book was written, and what I hope the reader will learn from reading it.
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Chapter 1: On Suffering and God Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything and a time for every activity under heaven.
Chapter one examines the nature of suffering and begins to look at the Scriptural basis of suffering. Using Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 and Romans 8: 28, we establish God’s control and His care.
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Chapter 2: To Teach Us About God
Job 40: 8 Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?
Chapter two explores why we need to use the Bible to learn about God. Job’s plight, Jonah’s life and Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus illustrate that when people ignore or close their hearts to the truth in the Bible and when they devise their own ideas of God, God allows and sometimes causes them to suffer to teach them about who He is.
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Chapter 3: As the Result of Freedom of Choice
Joshua 24:15 Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve
Chapter three demonstrates that, since the Garden of Eden, God has given us freedom of choice. Studying the life of Samson and looking at our own lives illustrate that often our suffering comes as the natural consequence of our choosing not to do things God’s way.
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Chapter 4: As the Result of Others’ Sin
Joshua 22: 20 And he did not perish alone for his iniquity
Chapter four uses life experiences, and experiences of Achan and of David to establish two principles. First, the Bible can be trusted as a handbook on life. The second principle is that whenever someone sins, others will suffer as a result of that sin. This second principle impresses on us our responsibilities as individuals, as leaders, and as people who elect leaders.
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Chapter 5: For Discipline
Proverbs 3: 12 The Lord disciplines those He loves
Chapter five begins with “The Lord disciplines those He loves.” During the course of this chapter, we look at God our Father and learn about parenting from contrasting His role model to those of an ungodly human parent and about being a child of God from His relationship with His Son.
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Chapter 6: To Show Us Our Need for Him and Perfect Our Faith
Psalm 119:50 My comfort in my suffering is this that Your promise preserves my life
Chapter six looks at events and wisdom in the Old and New Testaments and at events in lives today to show how suffering gets people to turn to God. In this chapter we explore the meaning of a perfect or complete faith.
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Chapter 7: To Make Us Like Him Philippians 3: 10 I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like him in his death
Chapter seven uses Scripture and life accounts to establish that we learn by suffering. The Gospel accounts of the crucifixion detail what it cost Jesus to be obedient, what He suffered willingly. The chapter then looks at three epistles to leave us with the knowledge that no matter what suffering we may endure, Jesus, having suffered more, can comfort and sustain us.
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Chapter 8: So We May Comfort Others
2Corinthians 1:4 We can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God
Chapter eight focuses on a reason for suffering which most people acknowledge, once it is brought to their attention. Throughout the Bible and throughout our lives we see that suffering enables us to help others who are facing similar suffering. We learn to look at our own suffering through the filter of whom we can help as a result of what we have endured.
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Chapter 9: To Bring Others to Faith Through God’s Work
John 11: 45 Many therefore of the Jews, who had come to Mary and beheld what He had done, believed in Him
Chapter nine reveals God’s use of suffering to show His glory so that others will be brought to faith. We see this in a man miraculously cured of a brain tumor and in the Lord’s power to heal the blind man and to raise Lazarus. This and the next chapter end with the realization that God will use our suffering to save others.
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Chapter 10: To Bring Others to Faith Through Our Testimony
Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John they were astonished
Chapter ten uses many parts of the Bible to establish that, as believers, we are different. We look at our own lives to find that we have hope and strength that others do not possess. That difference is a testimony to Him who gives it to us and the way God can use us to bring others to faith.
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Chapter 11: To Contrast This Life to Eternity
Rom. 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us
Chapter eleven connects Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Revelation to show that the New Testament lifts us from the focus of our limited time in this world to a focus of eternity with God. Some lives show this new focus is a gift that sustains us.
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Chapter 12: From Faith to Trust to Joy
Psalm 118: 14 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation
Chapter fourteen examines what we trust and looks at the impact a trust in God has on a life. We end by looking closely at 1Peter 1: 6-9 and returning to Romans 8:28.
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THE FOLLOWING TWO CHAPTERS WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE FIRST PRINTING OF WHY GOD LETS PEOPLE SUFFER:
Chapter 13: As a Sign of the End Times
Rev. 21: 7 He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son
Chapter thirteen establishes the reliability of the Bible by looking at fulfilled prophecy and foreshadowing. It then reveals a picture of the suffering that will occur as a sign if the end times, primarily from the Gospels. It looks at the question of what makes this time different from all the other times people thought the Lord was coming back.
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Chapter 14: To Bring About His Plan
Proverbs 16: 9 The mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps
Chapter fourteen reasserts the promise of Romans 8:28, that God has a plan for each of us and examines how God uses people to bring about His plans. We look at the life of Joseph, at Jesus’ death and at the Holocaust to illustrate that sometimes people must suffer to bring about God’s full plan of redemption. We contrast Leah and Rachel in the midst of their suffering to Joseph in the midst of his suffering to highlight the difference in Joseph. His faith, that he was part of God’s plan, made all the difference.
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