Sep 7, 2026 · 30 min · 11 segments
So … why do some good people suffer so badly while, at the same time, some evil people have easy lives? This is ‘The Enigma of the Ages’. This podcast explores different attitudes towards pain and…
Michael PennyGuestWilliam HenryHost
Sylvia PennyGuest
No, no, I don't think things are that simple, Will, and it's certainly not true.
His observations were that sometimes evil people prospered and good people suffered undeservedly.
In fact, Job himself was a case in point, and he strongly, strongly argued against their views.
Yes, and from memory, Jesus' reply was that neither the man nor his parents had sinned, that his disability had nothing to do with sin.
Yeah, and in Luke chapter 13, that records that some Jews told Jesus of the time when Pontius Pilate killed certain Galileans while they were making sacrifices in the temple.
And he actually emphasizes his point by adding in verses four and five, or those 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them.
Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no.
You know, and there's other places in the scripture, too, where we get this idea.
At the end of Acts, for example, when Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, he was gathering wood for a fire when a viper came out of the heat and fastened on his hands.
When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, oh, the this man must be a murderer for though he escaped from the sea the goddess justice has not allowed him to live
and then when nothing happened to paul they changed their minds and they decided he must be a god
In his commentary on Luke, Norval Geldenhugh states the following, commenting on New Testament times.
At that time, it was generally accepted notion that whenever calamities visit people, this was proof that they were exceptionally sinful and that for that reason, God allowed them to be overtaken by such disasters.
Okay, so Jesus really dispels that idea, doesn't he? But to what extent do you think that people nowadays believe that good deeds are rewarded and that bad deeds are punished?
No, no, I don't think things are that simple, Will, and it's certainly not true.
His observations were that sometimes evil people prospered and good people suffered undeservedly.
In fact, Job himself was a case in point, and he strongly, strongly argued against their views.
Yes, and from memory, Jesus' reply was that neither the man nor his parents had sinned, that his disability had nothing to do with sin.
Yeah, and in Luke chapter 13, that records that some Jews told Jesus of the time when Pontius Pilate killed certain Galileans while they were making sacrifices in the temple.
And he actually emphasizes his point by adding in verses four and five, or those 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them.
Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no.
You know, and there's other places in the scripture, too, where we get this idea.
At the end of Acts, for example, when Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, he was gathering wood for a fire when a viper came out of the heat and fastened on his hands.
When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, oh, the this man must be a murderer for though he escaped from the sea the goddess justice has not allowed him to live
and then when nothing happened to paul they changed their minds and they decided he must be a god
In his commentary on Luke, Norval Geldenhugh states the following, commenting on New Testament times.
At that time, it was generally accepted notion that whenever calamities visit people, this was proof that they were exceptionally sinful and that for that reason, God allowed them to be overtaken by such disasters.
Okay, so Jesus really dispels that idea, doesn't he? But to what extent do you think that people nowadays believe that good deeds are rewarded and that bad deeds are punished?
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