Greetings Dear Reader,
Anne has asked a question with which philosophers have wrestled
since there were philosophers. Let me
say first, there is not a simple or easy answer. There is an answer but it does not satisfy
the human mind disinclined to faith. I will
not gloss over this but I must have more brevity than I would want to have.
If you want to do a deep dive on this try reading Confronting
the Problem(s) of Evil
Biblical,
Philosophical, and Emotional Reflections on a Perpetual Question by
Joe Rigney. It is well worth the time it
takes to walk through his approach to this topic. Here I would like to remind everyone of the
first part of Anne’s questions:
This is something that
I don’t understand: what about all the truly horrible things in life? I mean
things like wars, terrorism, exterminations, children dying, people and animals
being tortured to death, you name it. How do you account for all that in
respect to God?
I am not going to take the path that I too often see where
one tries to “justify” things based on the necessity for faith in God’s sovereignty. I do believe that God is sovereign and that
he is in control of all things. I do
believe that he has a universe that is unfolding as it should. I believe that one of the problems is that we
have too small a view of God.
I am not trying to play the “mysterious ways” card
here. My brother explained it quite well
this way. His younger son cut one of his
fingers badly when he was quite small.
He cut it lengthwise from base to almost the tip. At the time the injury was devastating and
the worst thing imaginable to the small boy.
Today he does not remember the pain or the suffering. We who are parents have all seen this play
out.
To the child the injury is all-consuming and I have seen my
own children reject my help when they were small. We cry out over the ills of the world from
our perspective but do we really try to see them from God’s? All of our current ills are part of the preparation
for what is to come. We are offered the
opportunity to love each other now but eventually we will anyway.
It is only part of the answer, but I truly think that when
we either reject or accuse God based on the hurt we experience or see we are
looking too small. I do not view God as
simply allowing things that are wrong in our eyes. I think that we need to adopt an understanding
that though God is not responsible for the existence of evil he is accountable
for it.
Before those who share my faith burn me in effigy or reality
I am not saying that God is to blame but, rather, that he takes accountability
for our sin. He does this by loving us
beyond the evil we do. He does this by
having an ultimate response in place for all that is evil in the world. His response is to promise that “all things
will be made new again,” that he will “judge and repay,” and that he “is not
willing that any should perish.” The
entire process is to get things back to the “good” state that existed after creation
and before we defied God.
Another part of my brother’s response that is important here
is the understanding that this life is not the life. This world is not the destination. We will talk about the nature of evil
tomorrow but for now I would like you to dwell on this question Dear
Reader: Do you remember being in the womb
or being born? You see, we are in the
gestation process for the life that is promised us.
Please just remember that I am laying a slow foundation
here. Think through this a bit and
tomorrow we will talk about evil proper.
For now, though, if there is any possibility that there is a God, then
he is either all good or all evil. I do
not think an evil god would be able to give us good things. I do think that a sovereign good God can
allow us to create evil with our free will and have a plan in place to make
even our worst work out for good.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Thorn:
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