By the Numbers

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

God & Evil


God & Evil
.

#Evil

.

Perhaps the most painful problem we have believing in a good God is why there’s so much evil in the world. This problem seems to turn more people away from belief in God. I’m not an internet theologian with all the answers but I’ll give you the best I have and hope it proves helpful. My understanding consists of six propositions. 
God’s Reality is shown in the Existence of Evil.
Contrary to atheist thinking that evil disproves God,  atheist C. S. Lewis came to realize it’s the very opposite. That is, if God doesn’t exist, then nothing can be evil since there is no standard by which we can measure evil. Evil then is just a given or the way things are and we’ve no God to hear our complaint. So the very fact that we make the complaint shows we inwardly feel there is someone who can know and care about us. Our anger at God is pointless if He doesn’t exist.
Now it seems pointless to be angry with any god but the Christian God of the Bible. A lesser god may be helpless to come to our aid. Any god limited in knowledge, wisdom, compassion, or power may not know, or care, or have ability to help us in our need. This would seem to eliminate lesser gods and excuse them from helping us in our distress. We then can place no hope in god as universal energy of which we are part and will lose our individuality. We can’t depend on a mere tribal or locality god who may be at war with other gods or worn down by distress himself unable to come to our aid. And if god is not perfectly good and compassionate why trust in him in the first place, he likely doesn’t care what happens to us. Only the Bible’s God perfect in every way but who allows evil even poses the problem. But how did this evil get started in the first place?
God Created a Good World of No Evil.
According to the Bible, God created a good world ideally suited for us. He made Adam from the ground in His image or in ways like Himself. Man was a person with a mind who could recognize the nature of animals and name them in accord with it. He could take care of the beautiful garden God designed to meet his need for beauty and for food. And being alone, God used Adam to fashion a helpmate for him. God designed male and female to be “one flesh” and she became the mother of humanity. Everything Adam and Eve needed was provided. Adam enjoyed perfect fellowship with God walking together in the garden paradise--but!.
God Allowed His Creatures the Freedom to do Evil.
But evil entered paradise. God told Adam he and Eve could enjoy fruit from all the trees of the garden but one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of course, it was a test of love and trust to be shown through obedience. And God solemnly warned that the day he eats of that tree he would surely die.
One day when Eve was near that mysterious forbidden tree, she heard a friendly voice. It instilled doubt that God was not good to forbid her eating from that tree. Eve’s reply to the beautiful serpent was that they could eat from every tree but that one. But in her excitement and doubt, she added they could not even touch it lest they die.
The serpent said what he’s been saying to us ever since, that God knows you will not die but know the reality of good and evil. Can’t you see God lied? Eve saw the tree was good for food—don’t we all have to eat? She realized it was beautiful fruit—what harm could that be? And it would make one wise—and we surely need wisdom. Wow! A three-time winner. God surely was mistaken. She ate some fruit and gave to her husband who happened by and he ate.
Immediately things changed—serious consequences occurred. Their spiritual eyes were opened. They realized their nakedness before God, and made fig leaf aprons to hide their shame. When they heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, rather than greeting Him with love, they sought refuge behind the trees of the garden.
God cried out to Adam, “Where are you Adam?” Adam was where the human race has been ever since. In guilt, shame, and separation from God. And Adam did what we all tend to do—blame someone else for our wrongdoing. He blamed the woman God gave him as if it was all God’s fault. She likewise blamed the serpent.
Man’s disobedience brought God’s curses—it’s the old adage “Crime does not pay.” God cursed the serpent to crawl on its belly. God cursed man to work by the sweat of his brow. God cursed woman to have pain in childbirth. And in mercy, God caste man out of the garden and from the tree of life lest he be forever cursed. Evil is simply corruption of the good like a wrecked car, rusted tools, fallen down house, moth eaten clothes, rotten fruit, blind eyes.
God Sent His Unique Son to Save Us from Evil.
But God’s plan is not to curse man forever but to give him life forever. The first of many promises and prophecies is Genesis 3:15. “And I will put enmity between you (the serpent used by the devil) and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” This refers to the ongoing conflict between good and evil and of Christ’s final defeat of Satan and of evil. We must be tested many times and many ways all the while with the choice of God or self, good or evil.  
God Will Justly Judge All Evil.
No human judge is completely qualified to judge crime and evil accurately. The judge and all of us are tainted with evil or what the Bible calls sin, rebellion, self-centeredness, missing the mark of God’s perfect standard. Moreover, we are naturally bias favoring some things above others, can’t know all the facts in a given situation, nor can interpret them correctly.
But the God of the Bible is perfect in knowledge, goodness, love, justice, truth, power, in all His ways. In our finitude, we won’t see it that way many times. But one day He will right all wrongs and reward all rights and we will be better able to understand the why and wherefores we can’t possibly understand now. In the meantime, we must fight our three great enemies the world system of evil, our own depraved sinful nature, and the devil with his demons. In the end, we win out and all evil is quarantined in hell to bother us no more. God doesn’t make us robots or annihilate us if we reject Him. Instead, God appeals to us in love. He forever says come to Me, and I will give you rest. And, we will one-day shine as the stars of Heaven. That’s Christian faith. But why did it have to be this way with all the sufferings and evils?
God is Omniscient and Glorified by Evil as well as Good.
The all-knowing and sovereign God knew it would be this way before creation—He heard every cry, knew every broken heart, saw every tear, felt every pain. He knew His unique Son, the God-man, would be shamefully displayed before a cruel heartless world (Rev. 13:8). Yes, He knew, this would not be the best world; but it would be the way to the best world.
Without the Fall of Adam into sin and the curses upon the world, God knew we would not understand and serve Him with immense love and gratitude for what He did for us as vile, selfish, wicked evil sinners. Without the Fall, the Cross, and the Resurrection, we could never know such things. God is glorified by great good, and God is glorified by great evil as well. Because of the Fall, we can know forgiveness, truth, love, hope, mercy, justice, and the sovereignty of God we could otherwise never know. Praise God for He works out all things for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). Amen (so be it). So few people understand that great truth.
If you’ve never understood Christianity before, but understand it now, won’t you say Lord Jesus Christ I trust You now as my Lord and Savior from this day forward. Now, if you are a disciple of Christ, but not living as close as you should, maybe you would like to renew your commitment. Eternity's rewards are must longer and more precious that the pleasures of sin for a season. Now you can serve the Lord in the most crucial way. Link with my blog and share the articles with those who don't know the Savior or who have little understanding of God's Word. God bless.
.

1 comment:

  1. Trials dark on every hand, And we cannot understand all the ways that God would lead us to that blessed promised land; but He'll guide us with His eye, and we'll follow till we die; we will understand it better by and by.
    ---Hymn by Charles A. Tindley

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.