The Human Problem

The Prophets’ treatment of human suffering does not solve, but only eases, the problem it poses for theism. God’s sovereignty ensures that in the end the moral order in the universe will overcome sin. The connection thus made between God’s rule and man’s sin must be understood in the light of the Prophets’ theistic realism. God’s grace will assert itself and men will respond to it. The ultimate future will bring the solution of the human problem. The Prophets themselves had a faith so deep and mighty that, though it could be pained, it could not be shaken or challenged by suffering. They thought that if all men were guided by such a faith, evil would be eliminated from human life and good established. The conception of man implied in the thought of the Prophets combines a high estimation of what he is naturally and a very low estimation of what he is actually.