Some Thoughts
“Sooner or later I must face the question in plain
language. What reason have we, except
our own desperate wishes, to believe that God is, by any standard we can
conceive, “good”? Doesn’t all the prima
facie evidence suggest exactly the opposite? What have we to set against it?
We set Christ against it.
But how if He were mistaken?
Almost His last words have a perfectly clear meaning. He had found that the Being He called Father
was horribly and infinitely different from what He had supposed. The trap, so long and carefully prepared and
so subtly baited, was at last sprung, on the cross. The vile practical joke had succeeded…Step by
step we were ‘led up the garden path.’
Time after time, when He seemed most gracious He was really preparing
the next torture.”
C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (New York: Bantam Books, Inc.,
1976), pp. 33-35
What is Evil?
Evil Acts (Murder)
Evil Books (Pornography)
Evil Sickness (Cancer, Blindness etc.)
What makes these thing evil?
Is it a substance like a virus that infects what is good and makes it
evil? Is there a “dark side” of the
universe that rivals the “good side” and they are in conflict?
Look at this argument.
If we want to get around this argument then we can deny evil
exists like the pantheists. But we
already saw the falsity in that. Evil
does exist and it doesn’t have to be a substance to be real.
How about evil being the absence of good? Or evil being a parasite that can’t exist
without its host or like a hole in something that should be solid?
A heart that lacks kindness may commit a great evil such as
murder.
Or how about evil being a case of bad relationships?
I take up a good gun, put in a good bullet, point it at my
good head, put my good finger on the good trigger and give it a good pull …. a
bad relationship occurs.
Where Did Evil Come From?
In the beginning God created a perfect world.
How do we get away from this?
What about our definition of perfection?
Does freedom make us morally perfect?
Does forced love equal real love?
To be truly free we had to have not only the opportunity to
choose good, but also the ability to choose evil. God risked that in creating free will.
Two Kinds of Depravity
Metaphysical Moral
Where In Matter In intention or will
Lack Of
Being or Powers Of
Good Purpose.
Effects What
it is What
is does
Leads To Nonexistence Wicked Acts
End Result Totally
Depraved Totally
Depraved Person
Car
is rust spot on is
one who has no in-
Road. tention
of doing good.
Is Free Will the ability to desire?
Or is Free Will the ability to decide between
alternatives?
Is Freedom totally unfettered with unlimited options and one
can do whatever one wants, or is freedom an unfettered choice between limited
options?
God created the fact of freedom, we perform the acts of
freedom. God made evil possible, man
made evil actual.
Did evil come from the abuse of our moral perfection as
creatures?
Why Cannot Evil Be Stopped?
This is the classic argument that has been around for a
while.
Can evil be destroyed without destroying freedom?
Freely given love is the result of freedom. The greatest good is freely given love.
Some of the assumptions in the above argument are arrogant.
What about this change in the argument?
Does this vindicate God?
What about the Purpose of Evil?
The agony seared question of “Why do I suffer?” We cannot answer each one as we do not have
the proper perspective. We cannot see in
the eternal.
Here is the skeptics argument.
Is there a difference between our knowing the purpose for
evil and God having a purpose for it?
Does God indeed have a purpose for evil?
What about pain?
Leprosy or Hansen’s disease.
What about suffering?
Joseph, Job etc.
What about the cross?
What does that tell us about God’s purpose for pain and suffering?
What About Hell?
Why does there have to be so much pain and suffering. Couldn’t there be just one less sin? Wouldn’t it be better to have one less person in hell?
The Universalists Argument
How does Free Will and freely given love play in this
argument? Do men go to hell because of
their free choice or because God sends them there?
Are there two kinds of people in the world?
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not
believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
‘Therefore I said
to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He,
you will die in your sins.”
“He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has
one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Couldn’t God Make a World Without Evil?
Here is the argument.
Create Nothing.
Is an eternal nothing better than something?
When God created all things and said, “It is good” what did
this say?
Would it be better for a moral God to make a non-moral
world?
If something is non-moral how can we compare it to anything
either moral or immoral?
Can a non-moral world ever be good?
Can we compare nothing to something?
Without Free Creatures
Are non-free creatures robots?
Is a world of robots a non-moral world?
Even is this world is non-moral and there would be no
possibility of immoral evil does that exempt the world from physical
degeneration? What about physical evil?
Would this be a trading for one evil for another?
Free Creatures that would not sin
Is it logically possible to have free will and not sin?
Jesus, Adam
Heaven.
Does everything that is logically possible always become
reality?
If God tampered with our free will so we would not sin would
our will still be free?
Would a world of freedom but with no sin allow such good as:
Creatures Free to Sin but All Saved
If there is free choice but all are saved does God not
manipulate that freedom?
Some say God will never stop pursuing someone until they
make the right choice. But does God go
against some peoples wills and force them to love Him? Is forced love a divine rape as some say?
Can a relationship be forced on a person?
Why Did God Choose This World?
If this is not the best world could it be the best
way to the best world? Is evil
overcome in this world? How? What about the eternal separation of those
who through freedom chose the “eternal quarantine”? How does that overcome evil?