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By Pastor Glenn Pease
1.
JOB THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFERER Based on Job 1:1
2.
SUFFERING IS NOT GOOD‑A STUDY IN JOB.
3. WHY TRAGEDY? Based on Job 1:6f
4. GOOD AND EVIL
Based on Gen. 3:6
5. GOOD AND EVIL II Based on Gen. 3:22‑24
6. A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO SUFFERING Based on John 9:1‑23
7. ACCIDENTAL SUFFERING Based on Acts 20:7‑12
8. THE SEVEN CAUSES OF SUFFERING Based on Luke
13:1-17
9. DEATH AND THE WILL OF GOD ACTS 7:51‑60
10. PART II DEATH AND THE
SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
11. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH Based on I Cor. 15:51‑58
12. SUCCESSFUL SUFFERING Based on James 1:1‑8
13. GOOD OUT OF EVIL Based on Phil. 1:12‑26
14. GOOD OUT OF EVIL PART2 Based
on James 1:12
15. A BELIEVER'S RESPONSE TO
DEATH based on II Sam. 12:15‑23
16. DELIVERED FROM DEATH BASED ON PSALM 116
17. THE VALUE OF DEATH BASED ON
PSALM 116
18. THE RIGHT TO QUESTION GOD
Based on Hab. 1:1-4
1. JOB THE
RIGHTEOUS SUFFERER Based on Job 1:1
One of the first
impressions I gained at the Baptist General Conference annual meeting in Green Bay was that
Christians are perpetually suffering.
Every day we were reminded of leaders in our conference who are fighting
with cancer. Just in our small
denomination of 130,000 people there are hundreds who have cancer, and hundreds
more who suffer from other diseases. On
top of this, accidents are taking life, or leaving people injured and maimed
everyday. If this be the case in just
one arm of the body of Christ, how great must be the suffering of the whole
body?
A Russian pastor just recently released form prison for
exchange for some Russian spies spoke to the conference twice. He told of his great sorrow because of
fellow pastors and lay‑believers who still languish in Russian prisons,
not for being criminals, but for being Christians. (This was 1979). There is
no doubt about it, it’s a great day to be alive, but the facts are that
Christians are suffering persecution and martyrdom all over the world. In our part of the world where we have peace
we suffer from disease and accidents.
In conflict torn countries Christians face all of this plus the sufferings
inflicted by man.
It is no wonder that Paul prayed that Christians might be
strengthened in the inner man.
Christians need internal shock absorbers to keep on going in spite of
the blows dealt by life. The best shock
absorbers are right thoughts about suffering.
Wrong ideas and theories to explain it only adds to the burden. Helmut Thielicke, the great German preacher
and scholar, who has traveled across America many times was asked, "What
is the greatest weakness of American Christians?" He responded, "Their views of
suffering." American Christians
suffer one by one and have not gone through the holocost of war with its cities
bombed and thousands dying all around them.
The result is, most of the deepest thinking on suffering comes from
Christians in England and Europe where they have been through it.
They will not be comforted when you squeeze rose‑water
on their cancer. The facts of life have
forced them to rethink the popular simple views that Christians hold in sunny
times. Fortunately for us God has given
us another way to think deeply about the mysteries of suffering. We do not have to go through the fire to see
the light. The book of Job reveals the
debate on suffering as no other piece of literature on earth. Just as Jesus suffered for us that we need
not experience hell, so Job suffered that we need not go through hell on earth
to come to right ideas about suffering.
Thank God we do not all have to learn by experience. It is possible to learn much from the
experience of others. All of us will
experience suffering, but few if any will have to go the route of Job. His severe experience can help all of us
make our less severe journey smoother by giving to us the shock absorbers of
right ideas.
In the book of Job we learn from the mistakes of others. This is the path of wisdom, for we cannot
live long enough to make them all ourselves.
We can make plenty of them, however, and the fact is, many go on making
the same mistakes made by the friends of Job.
They were good and godly men, but are the great examples of how wrong
good and godly men can be when it comes to suffering. Their mistake was the common mistake still being made by
Christians. They tried to impose their
simple explanation on all of reality.
They followed the path of all who are dogmatic. In order to get all of the evidence to
support their theory, they just ignored the facts that didn't fit. They hated complexity. They demanded that Job conform to their nice
neat simple formula for explaining his, and all suffering.
Their simple formula was that all suffering was a sign of
divine displeasure. When men are good
and godly they do not suffer, for God blesses them. When they do suffer they have ceased to be good and godly. They have sinned, and all suffering is
punishment for sin. The beauty of this
formula is that anyone can grasp it. It
solves the mystery of suffering and explains everything. If you suffer it is just a reaping of what you have sown. There is really no mystery to solve. It has only one major defect‑it is not
true. This is what Job keeps saying
over and over in his defense.
Many Christians, however never read the book of Job, or do not
understand it if they do. The result is
that many Christians suffer great mental agony because they try to explain
everything by this simple but false formula.
They cry out in affliction saying, what have I done to deserve
this? This implies that all suffering
is deserved and is punishment for bad behavior. They may be conscious of some sin in their life, but there is no
way that their sin can be so great as to deserve such severe punishment. So they get angry at God and accuse Him of
cruelty and injustice. They know people
much worse than themselves who do not suffer at all. Their faith is often damaged, and they suffer mental and
spiritual torment all because they start with bad theology and a wrong view of
suffering.
If we learn nothing else from our study of Job, let's learn
the folly of trying to force all of the facts into a simple formula. There is a fascinating Greek legend about a
robber named Procrustes. He had a very
unusual way of treating guests who came to his home. He had only one bed for guests, and so everyone had to sleep in
it. Since he wanted each guest to fit
the bed just right, he would stretch short guests on a stretcher so they were
the right length, and, of course, if they were too long, he cut them off so as
to fit. Needless to say he was not a
popular host. His perverted practice
has led to the word Procrustean. It
describes the friends of Job perfectly.
It is a word that refers to people who will cut off facts, or stretch
the truth, or anything else that is necessary to squeeze all of reality into
the bed of their iron‑clad formula.
The book of Job is anti‑Procrustean, and it demands that
we stretch our minds rather than the truth.
It forces us to see life from a larger perspective, and to expand our
theology to cover a greater diversity of facts. The book of Job forbids us from getting a hold of a piece of the
puzzle and calling that the picture.
Let's look at some of the Procrustean beds which men have
tried to force all of the facts of life to fit into, but which the book of Job
rejects as inadequate formulas to explain suffering. You may not like this study anymore than Job's friends did, for
maybe you will find your pet theory among them. Don't feel too bad, however, for if there were not a lot of false
ideas about suffering, God would not have devoted so much of His Word to the
purpose of fighting them. All of us
will be forced by this book to reexamine how we think about suffering.
The first false view of suffering is:
1. Suffering is the result of the sin of the sufferer. It is agreed by numerous commentators that
the main purpose of the book of Job is to destroy this popular and almost
universal view of suffering. Most
religions of the world follow this formula.
The whole doctrine of reincarnation is built around this theory. If babies suffer and die they must have
sinned in a previous existence. If good
and rightous people have terrible diseases, it can only be explained by the
sins they committed in a former life.
The main purpose of the doctrine of
reincarnation is to force all of reality to fit this formula. Those who really believe this formula have
solved the problem of suffering by denying that there is a problem. If masses of boat people are drowning, and
thousands of children are dying, and disease is turning people into zombies of
affliction, there is nothing to get upset about, for they all deserve what they
are suffering. All suffering is
punishment for sin, and so all is fair and God is just. This theory enables those who hold it to
watch people die like flies without compassion, for they see no evil in suffering. It is all good because it is just punishment
for sin.
Believe it or not, this is the theory of suffering held by
Job's friends. No wonder those who add
to life's misery by this cruel counsel are called "Job's friends." They did not believe in reincarnation, but
they did believe that all Job was suffering was justified, and that it was
God's way of punishing him, and trying to get him to repent. They each take turns at trying to break Job
down so he will confess his secret sin.
The best arguments for their view of suffering that you will find
anywhere are right here in the book of Job.
As eloquent and forceful as they were, however, they never convinced Job
that he was being punished for sin.
They could throw at him Scripture verses by the dozen that say, whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth. Job knew
that was true of much suffering, but he refused to accept it as an explanation
for all suffering, and especially his own.
Why? Because it just did not fit
the facts of life. You cannot just take
a truth, even a Biblical truth, and impose it on all of life's experiences.
It is a Biblical truth that men reap what they sow. It is a Biblical truth that sin leads to
suffering. It is Biblical truth that whom
the Lord loveth He chasteneth. No one
will deny that these are sound Biblical truths. Nevertheless, if they do not fit the facts of a specific case,
they are not true of that case. The
best of medicine is of no value for a sickness it cannot cure. Suffering can be educational, but this truth
is of no value to the man who is killed, or left in a coma, by an
accident. What the facts clearly reveal
about Job is:
No. 1. Verse 1 tells us he was blameless and
upright, and one who feared God and turned away from evil.
No. 2. In verse 8 God confirms this description and
adds, "There is none like him on earth."
It is established from the start that the man we are dealing
with is in the center of God's will. He
is as near perfect as any man named anywhere in the Bible. This means that any theory of suffering that
does not take into account that even the most righteous can suffer terribly is
false. Job was not being chastened by
the Lord, for the Lord loved him and held him up as the best example of
godliness. His suffering had nothing to
do with his sin, and, therefore, all of the arguments of Job's friends which
try to convince him he has angered God are themselves what made God angry. At
the end of the book they are only spared from God's wrath by Job's prayer and
sacrifice on their behalf. Their theory which was so false in relation to Job
was almost true for themselves in that they came close to great suffering for
their sin of teaching that all suffering is due to sin. This is a serious sin, for
God has gone to great lengths to make it clear that it is a false view of
suffering, and to be ignorant where knowledge is available is sinful.
Does this mean the righteous do not suffer because of sin? No,
it does not mean that at all. The Bible
is full of examples of saints who suffer due to their sin. Poor Peter weeping
because of his cowardly denial of his Lord is a prime example. It is not that
there is not truth to the formula that suffering is due to sin. It is just that
it becomes a false view of suffering when you try to impose it on all
experiences of suffering. A partial
truth made into a whole truth becomes a lie.
When you take something relative and make it absolute you are guilty of
idolatry and sin against God. That is
what the friends of Job did, and the book of Job exists to help us avoid their
mistake.
If you think all suffering is punishment for sin, you will be
forced to pervert the image of God into a cruel creator rather than the merciful
creator that He is. Imagine how cruel it would be to imply that all who have
cancer or some other fatal disease are suffering because they deserve it. Such cruelty is a sin that God forbids by
this book. The parents of a girl born
with a crippled foot were asked why they did not have the child's foot
straightened by surgery. They replied,
"If we had the foot straightened He'd find some other way of punishing
us." They looked upon their
suffering as God's punishment, and the result was they had a perverted and
pagan view of God. Had they understood
the book of Job, and that tragic things can happen even to the innocent, they
would have been motivated to turn to God in faith rather than from Him in fear.
We don't have time to look at other false views of
suffering. The main truths to grasp is
that the righteous can and do suffer, and wicked sometimes do not. These are the facts of life. The question of course is why? Why isn't it true that only the wicked
suffer, and that only the righteous prosper?
It seems like the friends of Job ought to be right. Why are they so wrong? They were wrong because of the cross. The cross was in God's heart and mind long
before Jesus came. The teaching of Job
was essential to prepare the way for the Messiah. No one could ever believe in a Messiah who was a man of sorrows,
and who would suffer crucifixion between two thieves if they were convinced
that only the wicked suffer and the righteous escape it.
Those Jews who never learned the message of Job missed God's
greatest gift, for they rejected Jesus because, like Job's friends, they said
he must be a sinner, for he suffers.
The poet said of Jesus:
The best of men
That e'er wore earth about
him was a sufferer;
A soft, meek, patient,
humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman
that ever breathed.
We can look at the cross and
praise God for our suffering Lord, and what He purchased for us by His
suffering. Those who believed, and yet
believe, that the righteous can never suffer, can never grasp the truth of the
cross and the fact that God Himself suffers‑the only absolute RIGHTEOUS
SUFFERER.
2. SUFFERING IS NOT GOOD‑A STUDY IN JOB.
We have special seats as we watch the drama of Job
unfold. God has, by this opening
chapter, invited us into the balcony to watch the whole thing from a heavenly
perspective. We get to see from the
view of God and Satan, and who knows how many millions of celestial spectators. It is a sort of cosmic, SMILE YOUR ON CANDID
CAMERA, set up. We are all in on it,
but Job has no idea what is going on. We know that all of the dirty tricks of
Satan are deliberately designed so we can all see Job's reaction. We also know that when the entertainment is
all over Job will be rewarded for being a good sport through it all.
In this analogy Satan is the Allen Funt of the spirit world
who goes about constantly trying to dream up new ways to reveal human responses
to trying situations. All of this could
be great fun if God would just call Satan off on account of unnecessary roughness. If Satan would have been less violent the whole drama could be
enjoyable. Had he just plotted for all
his possessions to be robbed, that would have been an interesting thing to
watch. But Satan pulled no
punches. He wiped Job out and without
mercy saw to it that the vast majority of his servants and all of his children
were killed. This spoils the whole show
for those who are not sadistic.
Many have felt that God made a bad deal with Satan. Robert Frost has God explaining later to
Job: "I was just showing off to
the devil." Job responds,
"That was very human of you."
Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, goes so far as to say that God felt
guilty for what He let Satan do to Job.
The reason he says God sent His Son into the world to die on the cross
was because He felt so guilty about Job.
The cross was not only to atone for man's guilt, but for His own. This is certainly as extreme a view as ever
uttered, but what it reveals is man questions the justice of God in allowing
Satan to treat Job like He did. It just
does not set right with man that God would give this much freedom to the forces
of evil. He should have put more
restricted limits on Satan.
This is man's biggest problem with evil. Why does God in His sovereignty not stop
evil from being so powerful. The
feeling is, if God is forced to permit evil, He is not all powerful, and if He
freely permits it, He is not all good.
God is forced, it seems, to give up one or the other of these
attributes. Since all of Scripture
however reveals God to be both all powerful and all good, man is forced to try
to figure out how this can be when God permits evil to be as powerful as it is.
One of the answers to this dilemma is, God can allow evil to
be powerful if the end result is greater good.
In other words, God is justified in permitting any degree of evil that
He, in His sovereign power and wisdom, can turn to good. For example, God allows Satan to buffet Paul
with his thorn in the flesh, because that evil of suffering will help Paul
escape the greater evil of pride that could ruin his whole ministry. Here is a clear case of God giving Satan
freedom to do what He could use for good.
This means that the reason God does not destroy Satan and cast him into
the lake of fire is because, in a fallen sinful world, the works of Satan can
be used for the purpose of God. God
allows Satan freedom because it is useful for His own ultimate goals. God is in control, therefore, and evil will
not be able to do anything that God cannot overcome, and make count for good in
the long run. This being the case, God
is off the hook, and He is justified in permitting evil.
This truth is easily perverted into error. Some conclude that evil is not real. If evil is used for good, they reason that
evil is really a part of the good. If
the good can only come by way of evil, then evil is good. If good can come of evil then evil is not
really bad, and, therefore, not genuinely evil. This kind of thinking leads to the Christian Science conclusion
that evil is not real at all, but is the result of false thinking. The Bible makes it clear, however, that evil is real, and that it is bad and
not good. God can use it for good, but
it is evil and destructive, and not His will.
The fact that God is superior to evil, and able to counteract it's
negative power does not mean that evil is not real and awful. The fact is some evil will persist forever,
and that is why hell is a reality. We
must avoid the superficial conclusion that all is really good if we only
understand everything. Because evil is
real, there is much in life that is worthless and meaningless.
Those who think that evil is really good do not realize that
by denying the reality of evil they make God responsible for all that we see as
evil. The Bible makes it clear that
evil is real and God hates it, and is not the author of it. Sometimes Christians feel that God
sovereignty means that He controls everything that happens in this universe. If
that was the case, then there is no such thing as freedom, and God is totally
responsible for all evil. If God
controls all that we do, then all of our sin must be His doing, and, therefore,
His will. God then is responsible for
all sin, for it He controls everything, who else can be held responsible? Since that conclusion is totally at odds
with the Biblical revelation, we must go back to God's sovereignty and come up
with another view of it that does not make Him the author of sin.
God's sovereignty means that He is the only Person in the
universe who can take the risk of creating free willed beings because He is the
only Person who has the power and wisdom to make sure that the risk of evil
will not outweigh the good. He can end up with a universe of free willed
creatures and much good and love that could not otherwise exist. God's
sovereignty does not mean He does everything. It means that even though
millions of beings do things He does not will, He is able to work in all things
for good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.
God's will is not done on earth daily by millions, but because He is sovereign,
His will will eventually be done in spite of all the sin and evil and
rebellion.
This is one of the powerful messages of the book of Job. Satan
set free to do his worst was not able to destroy Jobs relationship to God, and
God's final reward and blessing of Job. Paul in the New Testament said nothing can
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The book of Job had
already made this truth clear. Life, then, from the Biblical viewpoint is a
comedy, and not a tragedy. A comedy is a story that, no matter how tragic the
events, ends well. Job is, therefore, a comedy, and all of human life is a
comedy, however many tragedies there are to endure.
Now all of this helps us to see suffering in a different
light. All of the values and blessings that come out of suffering are real
because God in His power and wisdom is able to use evil to bring forth good.
The suffering itself is evil. It has its origin in evil powers and wrong
choices, and it is evil in itself, for it will not be allowed to be a part of
God's eternal kingdom. Evil has no intrinsic goodness at all and so cannot be
eternal. The cause of suffering is evil, but the consequences can be good
because God can work in everything for good.
God is not the cause of any defect in the body, for the body
of the Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Just as you would not come into the sanctuary of your church and
destroy the pews and the walls or windows, and just as you would not throw
garbage all over to make it a place of filth which would be repulsive to God and
man, so God does not smash His temple in planes, trains, cars, or bikes, nor
does He spread cancer and other diseases through His temple to make the body
repulsive. All of the good that come
from Christian suffering these things are because God will work in everything
(however evil and repulsive) to bring forth good. If men will cooperate with God, there is no evil that cannot be
overcome to produce good. But do not
conclude that this means the evil or suffering is good, or that God is the
author of it for good. Both of these
conclusions lead to the false concept that evil is not real, and that God is
the author of evil. Anything that leads
to these conclusions is not Biblical thinking.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. It is impossible for God to sin, or to tempt anyone else to sin.
There are some Old Testament text that lead to confusion on
this, for they seem to be saying that God is the author of evil. Amos 3:6 says, "Shall there be evil in
a city, and the Lord hath not done it?"
The prophet is simply pointing out that God does punish sin by judgment,
and that judgment is called evil, because it is from man's point of view the
worse thing that can happen. It is an
evil to come under the wrath of God, but when God does judge it is in reality
not evil but justice. God never judges
unjustly or unfairly, and so there is no real evil in His wrath, but the Old
Testament often refers to it as evil from the Lord. It is the result of man's evil, and when he reaps what he has
sown, it is an evil crop of suffering, but in no way does this mean God is the author of evil. He prefers mercy, but mercy rejected leads
to justice, and justice for the sinner is an evil consequence.
Understanding all of this helps us avoid the agony of misconception. So many Christians look at the tragedies of
life and Rom. 8:28, and struggle to figure out how everything works together
for good. They watch their loved ones die,
and suffer months and years of loneliness and heartache, and all the while wonder
how they are suppose to see any good in it all. This is a futile struggle and frustration based on the
misconception that evil is not real, but that all is good, and that all is of
God. You owe it to yourself, and to all
the body of Christ to avoid giving anyone this superficial view of life. Evil is real and it hurts, and it is not
good, nor can God Himself make evil good, but He will work in all things, even
the most evil things, to bring forth good.
But the fact remains, that is the back door to blessing. It is best to come in front door and
experience blessing without having to endure the evil. Many a man's drunkenness has lead him to the
gutter where he looks up for God's mercy.
That is good, but better is the way of man who seeks God's mercy without
ever ending in the gutter. Job had
great blessings when it was all over, but I wonder if Job would have had his
choice, what would he decide? Would he
choose to go on with his ideal family and wealth, and social prestige, and
right relationship to God, and avoid all he had to suffer, or would he choose
to endure the agony he did for the sake of possessing more? We don't know what Job would do, but most
people in his shoes would, I am sure, choose the easiest route and avoid the
battle.
Since we don't have a choice, however, we need to be ready for
the battle. But let's not be naive and
think the battle is not real, but only a good we don't yet understand. Evil is real, and life is a battle with real
bullets. It is not all a mere play
where we all go out to celebrate afterwards.
You have seen too many good people suffer too believe that. You have witnessed too many broken homes and
hearts to think that way. Jesus would
not have wept if all was for the best.
All is not for the best. He
tried to prevent the destruction of Jerusalem, but he was rejected, and he wept
over the folly of the people that would lead them to such great suffering. It was not for the best; it was evil. Suffering is not good, but thank God this
not good cannot keep us from God's best if we, no matter what, remain loyal to
Him. Suffering is not good, but thank
God He will work with us, even in that which is not good, to bring forth what
is good.
3. WHY TRAGEDY? Based on Job 1:6f
Elie Wiesel, who survived Hitler's blood bath for the Jews,
as devoted his life to telling the world of this tragedy that he feels
surpasses hell in its horrors. His books have motivated others to write so
that there now exists a holocaust literature.
There are books, plays, articles, and poems, about history's most
unbelievable tragedy, which is the brutal murder of six million Jews. Wiesel did not see the entire million
children who were killed, but he saw enough so that he was never the same. He wrote:
"Never shall I forget
that night, the first night in camp, which has
turned my life into one long
night, seven times cursed and seven
times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget
the little faces of the
children, whose bodies I saw turned into
wreathes of smoke beneath
the silent blue sky."
In another place he wrote that people tend to think that a
murderer weakens when facing a child.
The child reawakens the killers lost humanity and he can't go through
with it. But it didn't happen. "Our Jewish children had no effect upon
the killers. Nor upon the world, nor
upon God." The result was that
Wiesel did not respond like Job, but like Satan expected Job to respond. Wiesel wrote, "Never shall I forget
those flames which consumed my faith forever.
How can a Jew say anything religious thereafter?"
Wiesel survived the tragedy but his faith did not. He could not understand how God could allow
evil to be so powerful, and so he concluded that God does not care. This is the test that Satan put Job through
many centuries earlier. All ten of his
children were wiped out in one blow, and all of his wealth was destroyed the
same day. Job also endured a
holocaust. His dream world was
shattered by a nightmare, and his ideal family was instantly reduced to no
family at all.
There is obviously something wrong in a world where things
like this can happen. If tragedy was
just an isolated incident here and there, and limited to the bad guys, we could
go along with Job's friends, and the problem of suffering would be easily
solved. But tragedy does not have any
respect of persons. The Jonestown
massacre was not a mafia convention, but over 900 mostly innocent people. They were women and children, many of whom
were good and godly. The worse airplane
crash in American history did not go down with a load of pimps and prostitutes,
but with respectable citizens, some of whom were God's children. War, famine, and terrorism are snuffing out
the lives of thousands every year, and disease takes a terrible toll, and in
all cases the good guys as well as the bad are victims.
If the problem of suffering in this world does not bother you,
you are yourself suffering from hardening of the heart, of softening of the
brain. Those who study Job's
sufferings, and the tragedies of the world are forced to consider the subject
called Theodicy. Theodicy is the
justification of the ways of God to men.
There have been many books written on this area of theology. Joni's second book, A Step Further is a
Theodicy, and it is a good one. Many
feel that the book of Job itself is a Theodicy. A Theodicy strives to show that as bad as things are, God is good
and He is in control, and evil is not winning the battle. A Theodicy is the defense of God in a world
where evil often seems to dominate.
The book of Job opens up the window of heaven, and enables us
to see the problem of suffering from a broader perspective. Job himself did not see what we can
see. He had to go through his tragedy
believing that God was the sole cause of it all. Life is so much harder when you have only a partial
perspective. Most of the ways we
explain suffering are only partial, and none of them fit every situation. A wife comes to consol and you are not long
in listening to her story before you could watch her husband hang with a smile
on your face. Then he comes in and
tells his side, and you wonder why there is nobody taking a collection to hang
his picture in the hall of fame for endurance.
The point is, when you see life
only from one side you have a distorted view.
We have a distorted view of most of life, and especially life's
tragedies.
The first thing the book of Job does for us is give us an insight into the conflict in heaven