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Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do bad things happen to good people?
By Melvin Tinker
Christian Focus. 169 pages.
ISBN 1 85792 322 7

Why do we need another book on suffering? You may well be asking this question, as I did as I started reading. I finished by thinking that Melvin Tinker's book had gone over old ground in a thoughtful and thought-provoking way as well as offering new insights from the books of the Bible that deal with people who are suffering.
The result is not only an apologetic and a pastoral help but also puts the reader into immediate contact with Job and the Psalmists as they struggle with the issues for real.
The problem is set out in the first chapter as being the 'apparent contradiction between belief in an all-powerful, loving God and the fact of suffering which is deemed evil'. He acknowledges this problem from the point of view of the honest seeker, and shows the weaknesses of the half-truths of some of the simple answers. Having given the problem and pointed to the solution in the first chapter, the rest of the book looks at the experience of Job, the Psalmists and two New Testament passages. I found the studies from Job particularly helpful, as the book looks at the trap of trying to have God in a systematised box which his two counsellors fell into. We see that they were basing their counsel on their own neat, but limited, theology rather than the Bible, and concluding that Job must have sinned as suffering was the result of sin. Don't we have similar traps to fall into in the 20th century?
All through the book we are led towards the biblical conclusion of the new heaven and the new earth. It has a gospel perspective. The book is a deceptively easy read, written in an everyday style with biblical and contemporary illustrations. It covers the issue at some depth though, and my advice would be to read more slowly than the style tempts you to. It is well worth a read.

Helen Campbell