Sermon Material #1

Thesis:

Temporal and eternal pain are natural, logical consequences of sin. God is not beating the world with a stick.

Outline:

Intro: If you step off the top of the Sears tower, you splatter across the sidewalk not because of Illinois state law but because of the implacable and impersonal law of gravity. The consequences are your own doing and not anyone else's responsibility.

1. Sin is disobedience to God's will.
a. Sin results from rebellion. (Genesis 3)
b. Rebellion separates people from God's will. (Romans 7:14-20)

2. Temporal pain results from the fragmenting of human will.
a. Man's original purpose precluded interpersonal conflict. (Augustine's argued that people were created to love God. The focus was on God, not each other. See also Genesis 1:27-31.)
b. Fragmentation of human will is universal (Galatians 3:22). This causes people to not get along (Hobbes claimed that the state of nature is war as people vie for the same goods and seek to avoid the same hurts).

3. Eternal pain is permanent separation from God.
a. We choose separation. (John 3:20, The Great Divorce)
b. This separation is often referred to as Hell and is always self-inflicted. ("There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'"--C.S. Lewis)

4. Thus, suffering is not imposed by God and neither (for humans) is Hell. Both are effects of natural law; they are simple artifacts of the nature of the universe. (Romans 2:15)

Conclusion: Reuse variant of intro.