Richard Coffen's work is for the average reader. At the outset he rejects the simplistic notion that everything that occurs is God's will. He distinguishes between punishment, discipline, and consequences. Both punishment and discipline are arbitrary and volitional. They depend on the decision of an authority. Consequences are neither arbitrary nor volitional. They are the inevitable result of previous actions. Disasters are neither punishment nor discipline.
Coffen also rejects the glib idea that God honors special people by demonstrating His grace through their pain. We do not suffer "for Jesus' sake." The Old Testament has many examples attributing terrible things to Yahweh. He is described as short-tempered and revengeful. Yet there is one Lord of both Testaments. Coffen believes that Yahweh accepted responsibility for evil. This position is more to emphasize monotheism than to confuse Israelite minds with an evil being they might be tempted to worship.
If the world is a laboratory in which Satan's theories are being put to the test, haven't enough dreadful things happened to prove the point? Suffering results from evil (Matt. 13:24-30), but we should not seek demons as causative agents of every disease and suffering.
God is not impassible, argues Coffen. He is not the unmoved mover of Aristotle or even the Westminster Confession. Jesus wept, and He will wipe away all tears.
By not offering a simple answer, the book does not satisfy every reader. But there is no simple answer. If Coffen forces us to think again, to be more sensitive in our approach to the suffering of others, to our own troubles, or to dialogue freely with our Lord, he will have achieved his purpose.
