The Problem of Evil

I Peter 3:15: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

Why should we believe in God despite of all the evil in the world?

THEODICY (dike- goodness)

defending the goodness and justice of God; a vindication of God’s holiness and justice

1710- coined by Gottfried Leibniz- Essay of Theodicy about the Benevolence of God, the Freewill of Man, and the Origin of Evil.

IF GOD EXISTS, WHY DOES EVIL EXIST?

WHY WOULD A JUST A LOVING GOD CREATE A SYSTEM IN WHICH EVIL IS SO PERVASIVE?

JS Mill said:

If God were all powerful, He could destroy evil

If God were all good, He would want to destroy evil

But evil is not destroyed

Therefore, an all-powerful and all-good Goes does not exist.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GOD:

omni-benevolent- always good

Luke 18:19: “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.”

Psalm 100:5: “For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations.”

Psalm 106:1: “Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.”

God is the standard of what is right.

“God doesn’t do a thing because it is right; a thing is right and good because God does it.”

omnipotent- all-powerful

Genesis 18:14: “Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Jeremiah 32:17: “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:”

Matthew 19:26: “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy- sometimes God wins; sometimes God wins (Greg Boyd)

“It seems we must either believ that God does not prevent…or is not able to...”

Harold Kushner-When Bad Things Happen to Good People- God does his best, is with us in grief but is not able to prevent it...

God, like people, is a victim of sin; is at the mercy of circumstances...

THIS DENIES GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

Romans 11:36: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”

Psalm 115:3: “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”

I Chronicles 29:11-12: “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.”

omniscient- all-knowing

God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple act. -Grudem

OPEN THEISM THEODICY- Greg Boyd- God does not know what will happen. Two motifs- future determinism- God knows; future openness- God does not know what will happen but knows possibilities and contingencies.

divine ignorance passages- “Where art thou?” To Abraham, “Now I know you fear me.” Jeremiah 19:5: “They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:”

anthropomorphic passages-

John Sanders- The God Who Risks- a theodicy of divine providence

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE THEODICY- to deny the existence of evil- figments of imagination- the errors of mortal thinking- you only think there is evil. Mary Baker Eddy sought to destroy the authority of the Bible

There is, however, evil

EVILS IN THIS WORLD

natural calamity- impersonal- external; physical; temporal; not something a person does to another; disease; tidal waves; volcanos; viruses

Romans 8:20-22: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”

moral evil- people against others

Psalm 14:2-3: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men (all the sons of Adam), To see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

supernatural evil- Satan, the father of lies, a murderer; domains; principalities

I John 5:19: “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

This is the work of the god of this world. His government has nothing in its system designed for restraint, as opposed to God’s government.

restraining evil (influences)- conscience, home, government, the gospel preaching church

eternal evil- judgment; hell

A valid theodicy must affirm God’s omni- benevolence, power, and knowledge. God is sovereign— IN CONTROL!!!

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

FREE WILL THEODICY; AUTONOMOUS- the reason for evil is the freewill. God had to allow for the possibility of evil in order to preserve the most highly prized thing that exists: man’s free will. This reinvents God. The Bible does not value man’s freewill greater than God’s will…or a God whose own will can be thwarted by the freewill choices of man’s will. God- limited power and limited knowledge, giving man unlimited power and jurisdiction.

Big events swing on small details, like big doors swing on little hinges.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN:

life and death

Deuteronomy 32:39: “See now that I, even I, am he, And there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.”

Job 21:22: “Shall any teach God knowledge? Seeing he judgeth those that are high.”

James 4:14: “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4:15: “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

I Samuel 2:6-7: “The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and lifteth up.”

disease and defects

Exodus 4:11: “And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?”

II Chronicles 21:18: “And after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease.”

Genesis 12:17: “And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.”

II Kings 15:5: “And the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, judging the people of the land.”

over natural disasters

Genesis 7:4: “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”

Psalm 105:16-17: “Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: He brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, Even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:”

Psalm 147:18: “He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.”

Psalm 148:8: “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; Stormy wind fulfilling his word:”

Job 37:10-13: “By the breath of God frost is given: And the breadth of the waters is straitened. Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: He scattereth his bright cloud: And it is turned round about by his counsels: That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them Upon the face of the world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, Or for his land, or for mercy.”

destructive animals

Jonah 1:17: “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

concurrence- sailors threw him overboard; Jonah believed that God did it. The thing the sailors chose to do was in concurrence with the divine plan.

Jonah illustrates God’s sovereignty- exhaustibly sovereign; NO ACCIDENTS; ONLY ACTS OF PROVIDENCE

God sent the wind- sovereign over nature

God sent the whale- sovereign over animal kingdom

God sent the weed- over plant life

God sent the worm- sovereign over insects

all kinds of calamities

Ezekiel 14:21: “For thus saith the Lord God; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?”

Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” Evil- word speaks to calamities

Lamentations 3:37-38: “Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?”

Amos 3:6: “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?”

Job 42:2: “I know that thou canst do every thing, And that no thought can be withholden from thee.”

Daniel 4:35: “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”

Ephesians 1:11: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:”

seeming chance events

Proverbs 16:33: “The lot is cast into the lap; But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

God is sovereign over every detail.

Spurgeon- Fate- Whatever is must be; Providence- Whatever God ordains must be

story of Joseph- freewill of Joseph’s brethren; the sovereignty of God- concurrence- SCRIPTURE HOLDS TO BOTH

the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart

fulfilled prophecy- God said it will happen; yet there are thousands of minute decisions freely made by mankind

man’s freewill did not destroy God’s plan; it developed it

inspiration of scripture- from God and from man

II Samuel 12:11-12: “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

II Samuel 16:22: “So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.”

Jonathan Edwards points to concurrence at Calvary- the crucifying of Christ was a great sin; and as man committed it, it was exceedingly hateful and highly provoking to God, yet upon many great considerations it was the will of God that it should be done.”

Acts 4:27-28: “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”

Westminster Confession—

Is God the author of sin? God does not commit sin in willing that sin exists.

absence of sun brings darkness and cold

God permits sin in withholding and withdraws His grace

allowing man to be man, sin is allowed to enter, is permitted to exist

Augustine: Evil is a privation or corruption that exists in something that was originally good and perfect.

Aquinas: Evil is signified by the absence of good.

SIN:

the withholding of God’s grace

sickness is the absence of health

hate is the absence of love

TWO WILLS OF GOD

will of decree- God will decree things he doesn’t desire- higher purpose- will decree even though he hates it. Why? A higher purpose.

will of desire- God desires things he doesn’t decree- doesn’t desire but permits; God allows the things he hated

What does Paul say?

Romans 3:5: “But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)”

God permitted sin in the world for the higher purpose of God’s glory and showing forth His righteousness. Without sin we would not understand righteous…or love…or sacrifice...

Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

the presence of sin and evil allows God to demonstrate His righteousness and love. THERE MUST BE A CONTRAST IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPTS WHICH SURROUND THE ESSENCE OF OUR GOD.

Romans 9:22: “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:”

Romans 9:23: “And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,”

Romans 9:17: “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.”