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This photo shows a papyrus fragment from the Gospel of John, discovered in Egypt, the oldest known fragment from any part of the New Testament, dated from the first half of the 2nd Century A.D. Script appears on both sides, the front contains John 1, verses 31-33 and the back, verses 37-38. The fragment resides in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE REAL JESUS? PART 23: Sin & Suffering , John 9
It seems that we often want to make a connection between the bad things that happen in this world and the God we believe is in charge of this world. Some years ago when California experienced a devastating earthquake. desperate to make sense of this tragedy, one southern California church asked Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, to come to their congregation the week following the quake to help them discern what God might be saying to the folks in the LA Basin. It seemed that they were looking for some confirmation that maybe God was judging Hollywood for its loose morals.
Mouw, however, was not interested in playing into any naive equating of that catastrophe with God's wrath and so Dr. Mouw chose as his sermon text the portion of the Elijah story that says, ". . . but God was not in the earthquake"!
But, aren't there passages in the Bible that suggest a connection between sin and suffering? Isn't that what Job's friends suggested to Job?
Join us this Sunday as we look at what Jesus has to say about "SIN & SUFFERING" from John chapter 9, Part 23 in our series on John entitled, "Do You believe in the Real Jesus?"
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