The Problem of Evil-2
Notes
Transcript
When I was recovering from surgery a couple of weeks ago, Brother Jay filled in for me.
He taught a lesson on the End Times called: Grappling with Radical Evil
The lesson gives us pointers on how to live in victory over the radical evil that surrounds us at the present time. Evils prophesied by Jesus and the Apostles:
Matthew 24:9–13 (LSB) “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 “And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 “Many false prophets will arise and will deceive many. 12 “And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold. 13 “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
Matthew 24:12 (TPT) There will be such an increase of sin and lawlessness that those whose hearts once burned with passion for God and others will grow cold.
Christians would argue that persecution, martyrdom, hatred, betrayal, false prophets are NOT from God, but they are allowed BY God. They occur because of decisions allowed by God (Freewill)
What about: 2 Timothy 3:1–5 (LSB) But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Keep away from such men as these.
2 Timothy 3:1–5 (TPT) But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture of society will become extremely fierce and difficult for the people of God. 2 People will be self-centered lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. They will boast of great things as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. They will ignore their own families. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. 3 They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right. 4 With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and wrapped in clouds of their conceit. They will find their delight in the pleasures of this world more than the pleasures of the loving God. 5 They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!
Ask people who can’t believe in God because of evil in the world what they think of this!
I’m sure they would say” “Not an issue.”
Add into this mix something I just saw today:
It is good that more attention is now given to the mentally and emotionally hurting and that these struggles are no longer as stigmatized. But we also have reached a point where it’s almost fashionable to be diagnosed with a mental health condition.
Clearly, people are suffering. In a culture shaped by a “critical theory mood,” claims of suffering can be thought of as a desirable way of elevating a person’s moral status.
The lesson 3 weeks ago opened with the question:
Under what circumstances in your life (or in the world) have you wondered whether God was still in charge?
I listened to the various responses and especially Sherel bringing up her brother’s doubts.
More than just causing people to wonder, the problem of evil causes people to walk away from God.
Last week I went over “15 Things That Ruined Your Religious Convictions”
https://becausemomsays.com/things-that-ruined-religion-for-you/
Slide
But again, the problem of evil is one of the top reasons people walk away from God.
Tim Keller [died Friday of pancreatic cancer at age 72]: (Podcast) Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering
We immediately make it a problem concerning the existence of God. Bad starting point.
Christianity doesn’t have all the answers.
You can walk away.
But, then how do you live through suffering and evil in this life?
You HAVE to have some way of dealing with it since it is a fact of life.
Historically and culturally there are only about half a dozen approaches of ANY kind to this issue.
How does Christianity compare?
It comes off looking really good.
Like most other beliefs, Christians see the meaning of life is to arrive at the end to which we look (Christians - heavens).
On the other hand, The western (secular) worldview has the worst outlook of all cultures – no hope since it is only about here and now.
Secular worldview - suffering doesn’t help, it destroys
So, in spite of Christianity having the best approach to evil and suffering in the world, people choose to walk away (and this just may be their excuse to do so).
Keller talked about an author (not a Christian) named Pico Iyer who wrote The Value of Suffering
By Pico Iyer September 7, 2013 New York Times
[We look at all the instances of suffering in the world.] … does [seeing the suffering] … change all the many times when suffering leaves us with no seeming benefit at all, and only a resentment of those who tell us to look on the bright side and count our blessings and recall that time heals all wounds (when we know it doesn’t)? None of us expects life to be easy; Job merely wants an explanation for his constant unease. To live, as Nietzsche (and Roberta Flack) had it, is to suffer; to survive is to make sense of the suffering.
Iyer also talks about a Japanese painter who says:
Suffering is a privilege. It moves us toward thinking of essential things and shakes us out of complacency. Calamity cracks you open, moves you to change your ways.
The same situation of suffering can drive one away or drive you closer to God.
Tim Keller’s book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering… , [also deals with] the assertion that the world is filled with pointless evil:
"Tucked away within the assertion that the world is filled with pointless evil is a hidden premise, namely that if evil appears pointless to me, then it must be pointless … This reasoning is, of course, fallacious. Just because you can't see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one."
So the problem of evil and suffering for the atheist is devastating and the solution, just suck it up and see, is inadequate for anyone.
But, the response that Sherel mentioned on May 3rd:
Her brother, a PK (raised in church) says something like: I can’t believe in a god who allows babies to be raped, tortured and killed.
How can we believe in a God who allows evil and suffering?
Well, one of the simple answers that we started with last week, is just don’t believe in God” become an atheist.
There are number of problems with that approach:
At the top of the list of problems is the foolishness of such a belief:
Foolish because if you have eyes, ears and a brain, how can you possibly think all the universe just “popped” into being?
Romans 1:18–20 (LSB) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Job 12:7–10 (LSB) “But now ask the beasts, and let them instruct you; And the birds of the sky, and let them tell you. 8 “Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you; And let the fish of the sea recount it to you. 9 “Who among all these does not know That the hand of Yahweh has done this, 10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all the flesh of man?
Theologian R. C. Sproul writes:
“The New Testament maintains that unbelief is generated not so much by intellectual causes as by moral and psychological ones. The problem is not that there is insufficient evidence to convince rational beings that there is a God, but that rational beings have a natural hostility to the being of God.”
Note that Sproul is not speaking so much of the unbelief that comes through loss, disappointment, and pain but the unbelief that comes through hardening the heart.
Another problem is pointed out in:
Dr. Michael Brown, (2023). Why so many Christians have left the faith: says: “in 2021, radio host Eric Metaxas published his book Is Atheism Dead? “Atheism simply doesn’t deliver the goods, especially during times of crisis and hardship. That’s because atheism doesn’t have the goods.”
Next week:
Theodicy. An answer to the problem of evil that attempts to “justify the ways of God to man” by explaining God’s reasons for allowing evil. Two of the more important theodicies are the “soul-making theodicy,” which argues that God allows evil so as to make it possible for humans to develop certain desirable virtues, and the “free will theodicy,” which argues that God had to allow for the possibility of evil if he wished to give humans (and angelic beings) free will.
Evans, C. S. (2002). Pocket dictionary of apologetics & philosophy of religion (p. 114). InterVarsity Press.