Jesus: The Gentle Prophet of Doom
Natural disasters, pandemics, and wars raise some big questions. Why does God allow suffering? Why do innocent people suffer? Are we, in some way, facing God’s judgment? If you take the Bible seriously, you cannot ignore this last question. To avoid talking about sin, hell, and judgment would be a serious misrepresentation of Jesus Christ. He had a lot to say on these issues. Christians talk about these things too but I fear that sometimes we do so in a different tone to that of Jesus. Yesterday’s post was about ‘Jesus the Weeping Prophet of Doom’ ( https://fidzbit.blogspot.com/2020/04/jesus-weeping-prophet-of-doom.html ). This post is about ‘Jesus the Gentle Prophet of Doom’. But first we do have to go through a bit of fire and brimstone! In Matthew’s gospel most of chapter 11 is given over to one of Jesus’ ‘prophecies of doom’. The story goes something like this: Jesus’ colleague and cousin, John the Baptist, is in prison and going through a hard time. He turns to Jesus for e