COVID-19 and Achilles' Heel of the Christian Faith
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36421/veritas.v19i1.373Keywords:
Achilles' Heel of Christian Faith, Problem of Evil, Problem of Pain, Moral Evil, Natural Evil, Theodicy, CoronavirusAbstract
The beginning of 2020 was marked by one event that shocked the world. The new Coronavirus that has spread in Wuhan, China, since the end of 2019, massively began to spread to various countries around the world, becoming a pandemic called COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019). Humans around the world are faced with condition that shocks and destroys various aspects of life. Not only worry about the physical suffering caused by COVID-19 but also all aspects of political, economic, and social life, to human religiosity and spirituality. The problem of suffering can be likened to the "Achilles' heel" of the Christian faith or, in other words, the weak point of the Christian faith. Humans have struggled for centuries to answer the question of how a good and loving God allowed such evil and suffering to run rampant in His created world, and to this day he still struggles with the same question. Especially now that we are looking at the condition of the world being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, some of us may ask whether God really exists? Is He the sovereign God who is still at work in this world or has He let go? Is He a good God and cares about the suffering in the world? If He is a good God, why did He create this world with pathogenic viruses that cause deadly diseases? Then, how can we as God's people work to express His omnipotent and all-good presence concretely to the world that is struggling right now? Some of the crucial questions above will be discussed and answered in this editorial section.
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