7.14.2005

"If God created everything then He must have created evil also" [4/4]

What is the answer, then? God could have created a world which was better than this one, a world where people freely loved Him and there was no sin or suffering or death. He could have created a world where tens of thousands of people are not killed by tsunamis, earthquakes, and plagues; nor by drugs, guns, and germ warfare. For whatever reason, God chose not to create that world, or, at least, created an initally 'good' world with the knowledge that it would become as it has. He is the Creator: He is the one who is responsible. Ultimately, He will avenge suffering, punish those who have done evil, reward those who have done good, and right the wrongs which He has permitted/caused to have occurred. And, perhaps, the way we come to truly know something is by it's contrast: therefore, to know God's love, it benefits us to know hate. To know God's justice, it benefits us to know injustice. To know God's mercy and grace, it benefits us to know His sternness and wrath. To know His power fully, it benefits us to see His power demonstrated both in the saving of those who call on Him and in the destruction of those who do not.

[end 4/4]

7.10.2005

"If God created everything then He must have created evil also" [3/4]

And let us not even bother with the argument that God did not want automatons and so He had no alternative but to create us to be capable of profound evil in order for us to be capable of genuine love. Is God not free? Is God not bound by His very nature to be without sin, without blemish? No one seems to claim that God is not free because He is unable to sin, yet the most popular refuge in this argument is that God had to create man with the capacity for sin so that he would be free to love Him. Moreover, those who advance this argument are left with a very difficult problem: When God fully realizes His kingdom on earth and all those who have opposed Him are removed from His presence forever, there will no longer be any sin. In that day, when sin is banished from God's presence forever, will we suddenly become automatons who incapable of genuine love? Or, for all eternity, will God permit the potential of sin to remain so that we can be truly 'free'? Of course not. There is an implicit belief, then, that it is possible for humans to be free and yet not sin, nor have the capacity to sin, at least in this eternal state. Moreover, love and obedience to God is not invalidated by this lack of choice. If it is possible in eternity, then there is no reason to claim that it would have been impossible for God to create beings capable of genuine love while incapable of sin.

[part 3/4]

7.09.2005

"If God created everything then He must have created evil also" [2/4]

To be perfectly honest, the best answer that I can give you is that God created the world He created, and that world has a lot of terrible experiences in it that don't make sense. As a follower of Jesus, I can take comfort when I suffer for my proclamation of Him, even if I were to suffer terribly for it. But, for the child who is kidnapped and killed for no other reason that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time; for the wife and mother who is paralyzed in a drive-by shooting for no other reason that that others enjoy causing misery; for the tribe that is wiped out by a neighboring people for no other reason than an ancient feud, the details of which are nearly forgotten--for these things I see no justification, 'no sanctification through suffering.'

[end part 2 of 4]

7.06.2005

Just to get some discussion going...

Alright, I realized my last paper, though of course erudite and fascinating, was just plain long to post. For those of you desperately curious to find out how it all ends, let me know. Actually, it's in need of some revision at this point, since there were some issues that came up at a healing conference we went to at the Scottsdale Vineyard that I wanted to address. I am done with classes for a little while - 2 whole months with no classes. Followed by 4 years straight of classes with no breaks, most likely! So I'm going to enjoy my free time while it lasts. I recently finished up an apologetics class, and had to interact with issues like the existence of evil, the nature of God's sovereignty, and it ended up leading into some really interesting discussions of the implications of limited atonement. I'm still trying to get my understanding of all this stuff, so hopefully as I process through some of this it will all get clearer. As part of that process I wanted to post some excerpts from a paper I wrote recently and get some other perspectives on it. Here's the stage 1 of 4 stages to my argument, basically interacting with aspects of the Problem of Evil and specifically the statement "If God created everything then He must have created evil also."

...

I grant that this statement is accurate. If, as Paul writes in Colossians 1:15-16, all things were created through, for, and by Jesus, then the conclusion seems inescapable that He is the one responsible for everything, good or bad, and that He is responsible regardless of whether He created it directly or merely created its potentiality. Moreover, He is the one by whose word of power all things are sustained (Hebrews 1:3), so presumably He is able to cause things which are evil to cease existing by simply ceasing His sustaining power for the evil in question. One could argue that evil is merely an illusion and doesn't really exist, but this hardly seems worth considering, for if evil is only an illusion, then the problem of evil disappears altogether. Alternatively, one might argue that evil is simply a privation of good, an 'ontological parasite.' While I think that is closer to the truth, we would have only to rephrase the question to ask why God made a creation where these privations, these parasites, could exist and thrive and we would find ourselves back at the beginning and facing the same difficult questions. Nor will I offer the patronizing answer that this particular world is the best world that God could possibly have created; we all know it could be better. And, while I am grateful for whatever measure of freedom God has given us to make choices in our lives, I don't value my freedom so much that I think it justifies the freedom of the murder or rapist or madman.

[end of part 1/4]