Which
'monster' created evil?
|
By Spencer
Gear
[1]
Pollster
George Barna in the USA "was
commissioned . . . to inquire of people what one question they would
ask of God if they had the opportunity. By an overwhelming
margin, the most urgent question was this: Why is
there so much
suffering in the world?" (in
Rhodes 2004, p. 8, quoting Strobel
2000).
Christian
statesman, John R. W.
Stott, stated
that he considered "the fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the
single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been
in
every
generation." (Stott 1986, p. 311). I think that he has hit
the
mark. As Christians, how do we give a good answer to the
problems
of evil and suffering in our world?
Those of us alive today have witnessed on our TVs
one of the most horrific examples of suffering and destruction
in
our world. I'm speaking of the tsunami disaster that hit the Indian
Ocean region on 26
December 2004?
Running
for their lives: Tsunami, 26 December
2004
[That] massive earthquake
measuring 9.3 on the Richter Scale created a tsunami causing
devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The
Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The
death toll is . . . estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the
true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst
affected with as many as 219,000 people killed (Wikipedia 2005).
Most of us also would have witnessed film coverage of the 11th Sept.
2001 Twin Towers disaster and other violence from those aeroplane
hijackers in the USA. We know about the famines &
floods,
murders, sexual abuse, disease worldwide, HIV/AIDS epidemic, cancer,
heart disease, the Holocaust in which Hitler gassed 6 million Jews and
others, the Russian Gulag, your aches and pains, etc.
Job
5:7 states, "Yet man is born
to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward" [2]
Job
14:1, ""Man born of woman is
of few days and full of trouble."
We have many examples of evil and suffering in the Bible.
Job
lost his family & all of his possessions (Book of Job); David
was pursued and persecuted by the jealous and angry Saul for a long
time (1 Sam. 20:33; 21:10; 23:8);
The
wife of Hosea was unfaithful to him (Hosea 1:2; 2:2, 4);
Joseph
in the OT was badly treated by his brothers and sold into slavery (Gen.
37:27-28);
Herod's
step-daughter asked for and got the head of John the Baptist on a plate
(Matt. 14:6-10);
Paul,
the apostle, was jailed several times, was shipwrecked, beaten and left
for dead (2 Cor. 11:25). [these illustrations suggested by
Rhodes 2004, p. 12].
These examples show that
those who obey God and seek to be
faithful believers still experience horrible suffering.
"Christians are not exempt from horrible tragedies" and such pain and
suffering do not mean their spirituality is deficient (Rhodes 2004, p.
12).
In this message I want to ask and try to answer two questions:
First, which
'monster'
created evil?
Second,
why
doesn't God
do something about it?
This line of reasoning has been a popular one on university campuses
for
hundreds of years. It goes like this:
1. "If
God is all-good,
He would
destroy evil.
2. "If
God is
all-powerful, He could destroy evil.
3. "But
evil is not
destroyed.
4.
"Hence,
there is no such God"
(Geisler & Brooks 1990, p.
63).
It's a much older objection than the last few hundreds of
years.
Epicurus, a Greek philosopher who lived ca. 300 B.C. (about the time of
Aristotle) said it like this:
Either
God wants to abolish evil
and cannot,
or he can but does not want to,
or he cannot and does not want to,
or lastly he can and wants to.
If he wants to remove evil, and cannot,
he is not omnipotent;
If he can, but does not want to,
he is not benevolent [i.e. doesn't desire to do good];
If he neither can nor wants to,
he is neither omnipotent nor benevolent;
But if God can abolish evil and wants to,
how does evil exist? (cited in Tobin 2000-2004)
I will challenge those assumptions in this message and come to a very
different conclusion than Epicurus, the sceptical university students,
or those who claim a totally good God cannot allow evil to exist.
We
all know what suffering and pain feel like
– to some extent. But what is evil?
The Bible's first use of "evil" is in Gen. 2:17 when
God spoke to Adam about "the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil." What is "good"? To obey God's law, i.e. to
do what
is morally correct. What is "evil"? To disobey
God's law;
to commit moral wrong. "All that is opposed to the will of
God is
an
evil to be avoided" (Keil & Delitzsch n.d., p. 86).
Christian theologian and
apologist, Norman Geisler, stated it like
this: "The problem of evil is a serious challenge to the defense of
Christianity. . . [Here] is the problem; how can an
absolutely
good Being (God) be compatible with evil, [which is] the opposite of
good?" (Geisler 1999, p. 219).
When I preached this message at my local church, I used the term a few
times, "physical evil," speaking of the slaughter of 300,000 people in
the tsunami of 26 December 2004 and Noah's flood.
After the message, a person took me to task about speaking of "physical
evil" as "evil," because "evil" was a moral category and we cannot
speak this way of the physical universe. The person's point was that
when God judges and people are killed, devastated or injured, it cannot
be spoken of as the result of "evil, physical evil."
Theologians down through the centuries seem to have referred to
"physical evil." For example, Charles Hodge used the category
when he asked: "How can the existence of evil, physical and moral, be
reconciled with the benevolence and holiness of a God infinite in his
wisdom and power?" (n.d., p. 429)
Geisler summarises: "How, then, can natural evil be
explained[?] In logical form it is stated:
1. Moral evil is explained by free
choice.
2. But some natural evil does not result from free choice.
3. Natural evil cannot be explained by free choice among creatures.
4. Hence, God must be responsible for natural evil.
5. But natural evils cause innocent suffering and death.
6. Therefore, God is responsible for innocent suffering and
death." (1999, pp. 222-223).
John Feinberg writes of "the problem of natural evil (evil which occurs
in the process of the funtioning of the natural order)" (1984, p. 387).
So, theologians have had no problems with speaking of God-sent
disasters or calamity as "natural evil."
III. God's view
on the origin of evil
|
A.
He made a world that was very good (Genesis ch. 1)
1:1,
"In the beginning
God created
the heavens and the earth."
1:10,
"God called
the dry ground 'land,' and the gathered waters
he
called 'seas.' And God saw that it was good."
1:12,
"The land
produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according
to
their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their
kinds. And God saw that it was good."
1:18,
The sun and
moon in the sky: "And God saw that it was good."
1:21,
God created
the creatures of the land and sea, "And God saw
that
it was good."
1:25,
"And God saw
that it was good."
1:27,
"So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them."
1:31,
"God saw all
that he had made, and it was very good."
God's creation of everything was VERY GOOD (v.
31) in the beginning of the universe. There was no suffering,
evil, natural disasters or anything bad when God created the heavens
and the earth. The absolutely good God created everything
that
was very good. What went wrong?
B.
The test was given
to man
Genesis 2:15-17 states, "The LORD God
took the man and put him in the Garden
of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the
man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not
eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat
of it you will surely die.'"
Please note that the man whom God placed in the
garden had the ability to choose to eat from that tree or NOT to eat
from that tree. This is critical for our understanding of the
origin of evil. God made free-will human beings who had the
power
of choice between alternatives.
What was the tree called? "The tree of the knowledge of good
and
evil." OR, literally, "the tree of the knowing good and evil"
(Leupold 1942, p. 127). Please note that: good AND evil.
Free will human beings were given the power of choice from
the
first
man and woman who ever existed. It was the power to choose
evil
OR good. If they chose evil, what would be the
consequence.
Gen. 2:17 states it clearly: "For when you eat of it you will surely
die."
Did Adam die physically immediately? No!
That didn't happen until 100s of years later. According to
Gen.
5:5, "Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he
died."
So, what kind of death was it that happened when Adam ate
from
the tree?
The Bible speaks of 3
types of death and only the
context will tell us to which death is referred. There is:
1. Physical
death;
2. Spiritual
death
(This is the death that "forces guilty persons
to
hide from the presence of God, as his couple [Adam & Eve] did
when
it was time for fellowship in the Garden, Gen 3:8.")
3. The
"second death"
as in Rev. 20:14 "when a person is
finally, totally and eternally separated from God without hope of
reversal, after a lifetime of rejecting God" (Kaiser Jr. et. al. 1996,
p. 92).
Dying means separation from God. Even though physical death did not
happen immediately for Adam, the separation from God happened at the
instant of Adam's disobedience. Physical death is not the
most
serious dimension of this separation from God. The most serious is the
inner spiritual separation. Once Adam sinned, he
began on
the road of death and if one does not repent, it ultimately leads to
eternal separation -- damnation, hell (based on Leupold 1942, p. 128).
In Isa. 59:2 confirms this: "But your iniquities
have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from
you, so that he will not hear."
The New Testament puts it this way: "As for you, you were dead
in your transgressions and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Eph. 4:18, "They
are
darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God."
The
Hebrew of Gen. 2:17 may be
translated, "dying [you shall]
die." From the moment that man ate of the forbidden tree he
was a
dying creature. The destructive germs were introduced on that
very occasion. The pains which both man and woman should
suffer
grew out of that one apostasy. The fact that man did not die
instantaneously was due to God's gracious purpose of redemption"
(Thiessen 1949, p. 258). [3]
Adam knew enough that if he chose to disobey God, he
knew the consequences – evil, death and judgment.
We are
not told the full details of what God told Adam, but we know that God
is just and that he would have told him enough for him to know that
there were evil consequences if he chose to break God's law.
Then along came Eve in Gen. 3, tempted by the
serpent (who was the devil), she was an instrument used by the devil to
tempt Adam by eating of the forbidden fruit. But please
understand that Adam made the personal choice to disobey God.
The
rest is history. All of the evil, suffering, and so-called
natural disasters stem from these acts of human freedom engaged in by
Adam and Eve.
The exact origin of evil and
suffering in this world stems from the free-will acts of the first
human beings. God did not create evil. He created
human
beings with "the ability to decide between alternatives." God
"created the fact of freedom; we perform the acts of freedom.
He
made evil possible; [people] made evil actual. Imperfection
came
through the abuse of our moral perfection as free creatures" (Geisler
& Brooks 1990, p. 63). [4]
From where did evil come? From Adam's free-will
choice and he acted on our behalf. God is not the cause of
evil. People are the cause
of evil and it started with Adam and Eve in the beginning.
Please
understand that Adam acted as our power of attorney, our
representative: "For as in Adam all die . . ." (I Cor. 15:22).
You
cannot force somebody to
love. Love
is something that is freely given. God wanted Adam, as
representing all people, to freely choose to obey God. That's
why
Adam was given a free will. Norman Geisler & Ron
Brooks put it bluntly when they wrote that "forced love is rape; and
God is not a
divine rapist. He will not do anything to coerce their decision"
(Geisler & Brooks 1990, p. 73).
A FREE-WILL choice, however,
leaves the possibility of a WRONG choice. Adam and Eve did it
and
evil entered the world. Evil in all of its monstrous
ramifications.
J. B. Phillips, the Bible translator, put it this
way,
Evil
is inherent in the risky gift
of free will. God could have made us machines, but to do so
would
have robbed us of our precious freedom of choice, and we would have
ceased to be human. Exercise of free choice in the direction
of
evil in what we call the "fall" of man, is the basic reason for evil
and suffering in the world. It is man's responsibility, not
God's
(Phillips 1969, pp. 88-89, cited in Little 1987, pp. 115-116).
The Garden of Eden had no natural
disasters or death until after
the sin of Adam and Eve (see Gen. 1-3).
There will be no natural disasters or death in the new heavens and
earth when God puts an end to evil once for all (see Rev. 21:4) [Rhodes
2000].
Earthquakes, tsunamis, 11th Septembers, wars
& violence, family breakdown, rape & abuse, all emanate
from
that free-will choice in the Garden of Eden.
Rom. 8:22 states: "We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to
the present time."
But you might be asking: If God is an all-powerful,
good God, why doesn't he exterminate all evil now?
V. What
would
happen if God exterminated all evil RIGHT NOW?
|
Is there one person in our
midst who is
sinlessly perfect? Since you became a Christian, have you
ever
been
completely free from sin? Who among us has committed a sinful
thought, word or deed this last month? What about last week?
This gets to the crux of why God does not do away with evil now.
Paul Little wrote:
If God
were to stamp out
evil
today, He would do a complete job. We want Him to stop war
but
stay remote from us. If God were to remove evil from the
universe, his action would be complete and would have to include our
lies and personal impurities, our lack o love, and our failure to do
good. Suppose God were to decree that tonight all evil would
be
removed from the universe—who of us would still be here after
midnight? (Little 1987, p.
109, emphasis in original).
We know this is the human situation for all people:
"There is no one
righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no
one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together
become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one"
(Rom. 3:10-12).
Even for the Christian believer, there is still this struggle with
sin and evil:
"I
know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I
have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For
what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to
do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to
do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does
it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil
is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's
law; but
I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against
the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work
within my members" (Rom. 7:21-23).
Matthew
Henry, the Puritan commentator, makes this lovely comment about
the OT story of David and Nabal in I Sam. 25:13, that helps us to see
the evil in even a believer's heart:
Is this thy voice, O David? Can
the man after God's own heart speak thus unadvisedly with his lips? Has
he been so long in the school of affliction, where he should have
learned patience, and yet so passionate? Is this he who used to be dumb
and deaf when he was reproached (Ps. xxxviii. 13), who but the other
day spared him who sought his life, and yet now will not spare any
thing that belongs to him who has only put an affront upon his
messengers? He who at other times used to be calm and considerate is
now put into such a heat by a few hard words that nothing will atone
for them but the blood of a whole family. Lord, what is man! What are
the best of men, when God leaves them to themselves, to try them, that
they may know what is in their hearts? (Henry n.d.)
Whichever way we look at it, sinner or saint, there is this struggle
with sin and evil. So, if God were to wipe it all out at
midnight, how many of us would be still here?
But, you might ask. . .
VI. How
do we
explain the good God and evil?
|
We need a clear picture on
God's attributes. What is He
like? Is he a "monster" or something else?
1.
He's the living God and
not some dead idol.
"We have our hope set on the
living God" (I Tim. 4:10).
2.
He
is love
"Whoever does not love does
not know God, because God is love" (1
John
4:8).
3.
He's present everywhere
"Where can I go from your
Spirit? Where can I flee from your
presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make
my
bed in the depths, you are there" (Ps. 139:7-8).
4.
He
is holy
"There is no one holy like
the LORD" (1 Sam. 2:2).
5.
He
is
righteous and just
"For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice" (Ps. 11:7).
6.
He
is the
God of compassion
"As a father has compassion
on his children, so the LORD has
compassion
on those who fear him" (Ps. 103:13).
7.
He
is the
Sovereign God
"He rules forever by his
power" (Ps. 66:7).
B.
An atheist's argument
At the beginning of this
message I gave this line of reasoning
from
atheistic or agnostic people:
1. "If
God is all-good,
He would
destroy evil.
2. "If
God is
all-powerful, He could destroy evil.
3. "But
evil is not
destroyed.
4.
"Hence,
there is no such God"
(Geisler & Brooks 1990, p.
63).
C.
A
Christian response
"The
argument against God from
evil
makes some arrogant assumptions. Just because evil is not
destroyed right now does not mean that it never will be. The
argument implies that if God hasn't done anything as of today, then it
won't ever happen. But this assumes that the person making
the
argument has some inside information about the future. If we
restate the argument to correct this oversight in temporal perspective,
it turns out to be an argument that vindicates God.
1. If
God is
all-good, He will defeat evil.
2. If
God is
all-powerful, He can defeat evil.
3. Evil
is not yet
defeated.
4.
Therefore,
God can and will one day defeat evil"
(Geisler &
Brooks 1990, pp. 64-65).
There is one point that I raise in passing. I cannot develop it
here because it would involve significant extended exposition. If
we return to the temptation of Eve in the Garden as recorded in Gen.
3:1-5, we read:
Now the serpent was more crafty
than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the
woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the
garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in
the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree
that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you
will die.' "
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to
the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So, before the temptation of the first person on earth, there was a
"serpent" who represented the devil, who tempted Eve. How could
this be? There obviously was rebellion among the good angels
before the temptation of Eve.
Merrill Unger wrote that Satan was
the devil, a high angelic creature
who, before the creation of the human race, rebelled against the
Creator and became the chief antagonist of God and man. . . Satan
caused the fall of the human race as "the Serpent" (Gen. 3). His
judgment was predicted in Eden (vs. 15), and this was accomplished at
the cross (John 12:31-33). As created, his power was second only
to God (Ezek. 28:11-16). He is nevertheless only a creature,
limited, and permitted to have power by divine omnipotence and
omniscience (1984, p. 972).
D.
God's purpose in evil
WHY? is the BIG
question for us as human
beings. Why did that child die? Why was there a
tsunami
that killed 300,000 people? Why September 11? Why
HIV/AIDS
and its infection of children?
Remember Rom. 8:28? "And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose." He's the absolutely good
God who
works all things, including evil in
this world, for the good of those who love God.
Let's note these quick points:
1.
First, "there is a difference
between our knowing the purpose for
evil and God having a purpose for it. Even if we don't know
God's
purpose, He may still have a good reason for allowing evil in our
lives" (Geisler & Brooks 1990, p. 65).
2. God has told us some of
the purposes for evil.
Evil sometimes
warns us of worse
consequences. A
child who
touches a hot stove plate for the first time (I shudder the thought),
won't do it again.
Pain can help
stop us from destroying ourselves.
Lepers
lose
fingers, toes and noses, most often not from the disease, but from
touching hot things and they can't feel the pain.
Remember these
people in the Old Testament!
Joseph, Job &
Samson. Each of them experienced suffering for a greater good
to
happen. Joseph told his brothers: "You intended to harm me,
but
God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives" (Gen. 50:20). Job said, "But he knows
the
way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold."
James 1:2-4,
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you
face
trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you
may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
To defeat evil,
God permitted some horrific evil. Jesus Christ
had done nothing
wrong. He was pure, without
sin. Yet he died a cruel death with criminals on the
cross.
Why? Because God had a greater good that He wanted to
achieve. Jesus' own words were: "For even the Son of Man did
not
come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many" (Mark 10:45). The greater good was the reconciliation
of
sinners to God and Christ suffered such evil for human beings to bring
them to God.
I can identify
with the words of C. S. Lewis,
"God whispers to
us in
our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is
His megaphone to rouse a deaf world" (Lewis 1962, p. 93).
After
three horrendous attacks of excruciating pain in rheumatic fever as a
child and four open-heart surgeries on my mitral valve (I have an
artificial valve), I can say that I thank God for using "His megaphone"
in my life.
There's one point that I need to mention in passing -- only
briefly.
To deal effectively with this topic would take more teaching.
Remember Gen. 3:1, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of
the wild animals the LORD
God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must
not
eat from any tree in the garden'?." A real
serpent cannot speak, so this serpent was somebody else. This is
confirmed in Rev. 12:9, ". . . that ancient serpent called the devil,
or Satan . . ."
Before this point in time, no human being had sinned, but here we have
Satan tempting Eve. Where did the evil Satan, with the ability to
tempt somebody, come from? Obviously he, as one of the fallen
angels, had rebelled against God before the temptation of Eve.
So, we are left to conclude that there was rebellion in heaven
among the angels before there was rebellion on earth by human beings.
Sometime between Gen. 1:31, when everything was declared "very
good," and Gen. 3:1 when Satan tempted Eve, there was sinning in the
angelic world.
This is what the NT says:
Second
Peter 2:4, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned,
but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for
judgment."
Jude v6, "And
the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but
abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound
with
everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day."
See also Isaiah 14:12-15.
That teaching is for another time.
Let's point to . . .
VII.
God's plan
for dealing with evil
|
Here
are the broad brush strokes of the origin of evil and
God's
plan for dealing with it [6].
There are eight stages throughout
human history.
1.
The absolutely
good God created
a total universe, including human
beings, that were "very
good" (Gen. 1:31).
2.
In the beginning, God created innocent and perfect human
beings
(Adam & Eve) with
free wills, so they could
obey or disobey God
(Gen. 2:15-17).
3.
These two human beings were our
representatives and
chose to
sin by
breaking God's law (Genesis 3). Sin, evil and suffering
entered
our world, with devastating consequences.
4.
God
prepared immediately for the Saviour.
Gen.
3:15
states that: "And I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your
head, and you will strike his heel." This was God's first
promise
of a Saviour. "The Savior would be the Seed of the woman, and
He
would ultimately—fatally—crush the serpent's
head.
This Christ did officially on the Cross (Col. 2:14) and will do
actually when He returns (Rom. 16:20; Rev. 20:10)" (Geisler 2004, p.
165).
5. Jesus
Christ
the Saviour came into the world to die and rise again, to
bring salvation
to human beings who would repent
&
receive him (Gal. 4:4-5; 1 John 2:1-2).
6. God's
people
(the church) are on earth to live a radically
different
life and to proclaim the message of salvation through Christ alone
(Matt. 28:19-20).
7. Jesus
Christ is
returning as King over all
people (Matt. 19:28)
and
this will lead to the final judgment of people.
8. The new
heavens
and the new earth will be established.
Rev. 21:1-4, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the
first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any
sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God
is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and
God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear
from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or
pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'"
Walter
Martin, author of The
Kingdom of the Cults (1985),
used to
say, "I've read the last chapter in the Bible, and we win!" (in Rhodes
2004, p. 80). From where we stand, this may not look like the
best possible world, but God has determined that "it is the best way to
the best world. If God is to both preserve freedom and defeat
evil, then this is the best way to do it" (Geisler & Brooks
1990,
p. 73).
At the end of time, I am convinced that we will look
back on world history and see that God has worked it all together for
good – even the tsunamis, cyclones, children shooting
children in
schools, and other illnesses and diseases. God's plan will be
seen in all of its fullness and we will see that God's plan is correct
and good (suggested by Swindoll 1999, p. 7, cited in Rhodes 2004, p.
17).
In my view, John Stott summarised it best:
I
could never myself believe in
God, if it were not for the cross. . . In the real world of
pain,
how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have
entered
many Buddhist temples of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded,
eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote
look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But
each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in
imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured
figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated,
limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and
intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That
is
the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain.
He
entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He
suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the
light of his. There is still a question mark against human
suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which
symbolizes divine suffering. 'The cross of Christ . . . is
God's
only self-justification in such a world' as ours (Stott 1986, pp.
335-336, including a quote from Forsyth 1916, p. 32).
May the Lord help us to see
that the one and only, true God, the
father of Jesus Christ and the sovereign Lord of the universe only ever
does all things perfectly well.
"If God is to both preserve freedom and
defeat evil, then this is the
best way to do it."
|
[1]
In the preparation of this article (which I preached at a local church)
I was helped greatly by the ministry of Ron Rhodes:
(a) "Notes on the Problem of
Evil" (2000), and (b) Ron Rhodes, Why
Do Bad Things Happen If God Is Good?
(2004). I am an Australian family relationships' counselling manager,
doctoral student in biblical studies, an active Christian apologist, and
may be
contacted
at: P. O. Box 3107, Hervey Bay 4655, Australia.
[2]
Unless otherwise stated, the
Bible translation used is The Holy
Bible: New International Version
(1978).
[3]
The insert, [you shall]
replaces "thou shalt" in Thiessen.
[4]
The insert, [people],
replaces "men" in Geisler & Brooks.
[5]
These points were
suggested by Ron Rhodes (2004, 29ff.).
[6]
Most of these points were
stated by Geisler (2004, pp.
164-172).
Forsyth, P. T. 1916, The
Justification of God,
Duckworth, London.
Geisler, N. L. 1999, Baker
Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics,
Baker Books, Grand
Rapids, Michigan.
Geisler, N. L. 2004, Systematic
Theology: Sin, Salvation
(vol. 3), BethanyHouse, Minneapolis
Minnesota.
Geisler, N. L. & Brooks, R. M. 1990, When Skeptics Ask,
Victor Books,
Wheaton, Illinois.
Henry, M. n.d., 'First Samuel', in Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole
Bible, available from:
http://www.apostolic-churches.net/bible/mhc/MHC09025.HTM
[16 May 2005].
Hodge, C. n.d., Systematic Theology, vols. 1-3, Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Holy Bible: New International
Version 1978, Zondervan Bible
Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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1996,
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Sayings of the Bible,
InterVarsity Press, Downers
Grove, Illinois.
Keil, C. F. & Delitzsch, F. n.d. (trans. J. Martin), Commentary on the Old
Testament: The
Pentateuch (vol. 1), William
B.
EerdmansPublishing
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of
Genesis, Evangelical Press,
London.
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Martin, W. 1985, The Kingdom of the
Cults, Bethany House
Publishers, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Phillips, J. B. 1960, God Our
Contemporary, Macmillan, New
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Scriptures Newsletter
(September 25, 2000),
Rhodes, R. 2004, Why Do Bad Things
Happen If God Is Good?
Harvest House Publishers, Eugene,
Oregon.
Stott, J. R. W. 1986, The Cross of
Christ, Inter-Varsity Press,
Leicester, England.
Strobel, L. 2000, 'Why Does God Allow Suffering?' Message delivered at
Saddleback Valley Community Church, El Toro, California
(26
February
2000).
Swindoll, C. 1999, The Mystery
of
God's Will, Word Publishing,
Nashville, TN.
Thiessen, H. C. 1949, Introductory
Lectures in Systematic Theology,
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, Grand Rapids,
Michigan.
Tobin, P. 2000-2004, 'God and
the Problem of Evil' (Online),
available
from:
Unger, M. F. 1984, 'Satan', in Evangelical
Dictionary of Theology, ed. W. A. Elwell, Baker Book House,
Grand Rapids, Michigan,
pp. 972-973.
Wikipedia 2005, 'December 26'
(Online), available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_26
[22 April 2005].
The Truth
Challenge
The
Apologetics' Challenge
Copyright (c) 2007 Spencer D. Gear. This document is free
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You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the OpenContent
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This document last updated at Date: 5 May 2007.
