How Long, O Lord?

Reflections on Suffering and Evil

SECOND EDITION

D. A. Carson

© 1990, 2006 by D. A. Carson

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516–6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carson, D. A.

How long, O Lord?: reflections on suffering and evil / D. A. Carson.—2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 10: 0-8010-3125-7 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-8010-3125-0 (pbk.)

1. Suffering—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Theodicy. 3. Good and evil.
I. Title.
BT732.7.C37 2006
231.8—dc22 2006010847

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™ Copyright © 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Denzill Raymer and Colin Hemer

in memoriam

My soul is in anguish.

How long, O Lord, how long?

Psalm 6:3 NIV

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

Part 1 Thinking about Suffering and Evil

1. First Steps

2. False Steps

Part 2 Parts of the Puzzle: Biblical Themes for Suffering People

3. The Price of Sin

4. Social Evils, Poverty, War, Natural Disasters

5. The Suffering People of God

6. Curses and Holy Wars—and Hell

7. Illness, Death, Bereavement

8. From the Vantage of the End

9. Job: Mystery and Faith

10. The Suffering God

Part 3 Glimpses of the Whole Puzzle: Evil and Suffering in the World of a Good and Sovereign God

11. The Mystery of Providence

12. The Comfort of Providence: Learning to Trust

13. Some Pastoral Reflections

Appendix: Reflections on AIDS

Scripture Index

Subject Index

Preface to the Second Edition

None of my other books has elicited as many moving letters from readers as this one. For the unavoidable reality is that if we live long enough, we will suffer—and this attempt to think about suffering and evil from within a biblical perspective helped some believers, at least, who were struggling through deep waters. So I am grateful that it is being republished in this revised edition.

The structure of the argument has not changed. Many of the illustrations have been brought up to date, and a number of other improvements have been attempted. Discussion of AIDS, for instance, needs not only updated statistics, but a number of other substantial changes. The NIV has been replaced by the TNIV.

Yet I have tried to preserve the level of discussion of the first edition, along with the balance of Scripture. Indeed, if you want to plunge into the biblical and theological material right away, skip chapter 2: not every reader wants to survey “false steps” before beginning to think through what the Bible says. Regardless of where you start, my hope ...