Sermon Tone Analysis

There is a subject that comes up many times whenever we talk to the lost about the God of the Bible and His nature.

It has led many people to reject God and has challenged Christians in their faith.

The topic: the problem of evil.

The problem of evil has represented the most serious objection to the Christian faith.

Some very brilliant philosophers have thought that this problem conclusively refutes belief in the Christian God.[1]

Just consider this for a moment: think of some terrible tragedy that seems to have no positive value whatsoever: the genocides of Hitler and Stalin; a child suffering terrible pain as he or she slowly dies of cancer; an African baby dying of starvation, etc.

We can keep coming up with terrible things that men and women do that are evil.

This has caused so many unbelievers to ask, “How could a good God allow this?”

The presence of evil even leads some to go on the offensive against God.

Some unbelievers can be pretty arrogant in their statements about God.

I have listened to many debates in which atheists have with their words “shaking their fist” at God, going as far as calling God an immoral, sinful being because He allows evil in this world.

They see God give commands within the Old Testament (without any understanding of the context or circumstances) to slaughter whole cities and nations, young and old alike, and they criticize God as being wicked.

This argument against God is a common argument, and it is an old argument.

The earliest record I know of the problem of evil being described is from a philosopher in about 300BC named Epicurus.

That sound may sound familiar to you.

When Paul was in Athens he had some dialogue with men who were Epicurean philosophers.

Epicurus said this:

“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to.

If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent.

If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked.

If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?”[2]

What Epicurus, philosophers, and unbelievers are trying to say when they give this argument is that we as Christians cannot logically accept these three premises: God is all-powerful, God is all-good, and nevertheless evil exists in the world.

If God is all powerful, he should want to get rid of evil.

He must be able to prevent it and rid the world of it.[3]

Peter says in that we must “sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, and be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us.

We need to be ready to answer this argument against God.

If we are sharing the gospel with people as we should, this topic will come up.

So how do we deal with it?

I would like to begin by making three assertions:

1. God is Good

2. God is Powerful

3. Evil Exists

These three statements are true.

God reveals Himself as being good and holy.

He reveals Himself as being powerful.

And scripture makes it clear (as we see on a daily basis), there is evil in the world.

The unbeliever says that the third assertion is mutually exclusive from the first two; they all cannot be the case at the same time.

But I disagree.

The presence of evil does not in some way make God impotent or evil, and the presence of evil in no way contradicts God’s nature.

God is Holy.

He does no moral evil.

God is light, and in Him there is not even a hint of darkness ().

What we see in this argument and many others that unbelievers make is that they misrepresent God and the teaching of His word.

They say that God is evil when, if they wanted to represent God correctly, they would do as we do: We begin with a presupposition about what the Bible teaches; that God is holy and good, and then we try to fit the presence of evil into the picture in such a way that His holiness is not violated.

But, of course, most unbelievers really have no desire to do this.

They are just grasping for reasons to take God off the throne so they can sit on it themselves.

The problem of evil, and unbelievers accusing God of evil, I believe, can be answered in many way, and it really depends on the attitude of the one giving the argument.

IN this lesson, I will be dealing with the objections of unbelievers that are looking for excuses to live how they want.

The purpose of this lesson is not to deal with the question of why God allows His people; Christians, to suffer.

We can deal with that topic in another lesson.

So how do we respond to this kind of argument against God? Whenever unbelievers attack God, I believe it is fitting as His people, who have His word, to respond to the unbeliever with it.

Whether they believe it is the word of God or not is irrelevant.

God’s word is sharp and powerful.

And we need to use it and speak it with authority.

We should not for the sake of argument pretend that it is not the word of God.

When we do so we lay down our greatest tool in defending the faith.

If I were confronted with this argument against God, I would respond with one of three questions, if not all three during the dialogue.

The first is.

1.

Who are you to argue against God?

Who Are You?

You will see in all three of these responses, that at times, I am not compelled to respond to an objection directly depending on who it is offering it and their apparent motives for doing so.

Most people who offer this argument about God and evil usually don’t want one anyway.

Because of this, I attack what the issues really are, first being their autonomy, pride, and arrogance for trying to use God as an excuse for their rebellion.

One of our first responses to such attacks should be “Who do you think you are, speaking against the creator of the universe like this?”

“who are you, O man, who answers back to God?

The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?

21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”

(NASB95)[4]

This is also how God responds to the questioning of His will:

Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge?

3 "Now gird up your loins like man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me! 4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5 Who set its measurements?

Since you know.

Or who stretched the line on it?

6 "On what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone” ().

God goes through a list of reasons, four chapters worth, telling Job why he had no reason, as a man, to question or challenge God.

Then the LORD said to Job, 2 "Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

Let him who reproves God answer it."

3 Then Job answered the LORD and said, 4 "Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

5 "Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more."

()

The word of God has a way of shutting mouths, no matter how evil or rebellious they may be.

This is what happened with Job, and it can have a way of doing it even to those who reject the Lord.

What is Your Standard of Morality and Truth?

This response is a more philosophical response to the question, but it is a great approach to defending truth.

It is based on the verse in : “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him.

5 Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes.”

Instead of answering the objection head on (sharing in the foolishness of the unbeliever by allowing him to put God on trial), this response gets to the heart of the issue, showing the unbeliever that they do not even have objective basis to ask these questions of God.

As stated earlier, the unbeliever looks at the presence of evil in a world created by an all-knowing, all-powerful, good God is a logical inconsistency and contradiction.

But these attacks are begging the question, “by what moral standard do you make any judgments, let alone moral judgments against God?”

In the end, the problem of evil is not a logical issue for the believer, but the unbeliever, because they have no logical or rational basis to make such an argument against God.[5]

When atheists proclaim the evil of rape, murder, and abusing children, theists can agree.

But only from a theistic worldview can someone observe all that takes place in the world and consider it genuinely evil in any meaningful, objective sense.

Any statement declaring some action or activity as “evil” assumes some objective standard by which good and evil can be judged.[6]

You must have an absolute standard of morality to base it on.

The only way to have absolute, objective standard of morality or an absolute standard of truth is to have an absolute moral law giver.

The unbeliever on their own has no logical basis to stand on.

He/she in essence needs to borrow from God’s standard to criticize God.