The Problem of Evil
Why Subject Important 1. Because Evil Is Universal l 2. (Which Points To Universal Good) The ONLY Positive Argument For Atheism l “Theodicy” – “The means of giving a rational justification for God in the face of evil in the world. ”
Why Didn’t God Create… A World In Which Evil Does Not Exist?
God Could Have Done So! Psalm 115: 3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 135: 6 Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. Isaiah 14: 24 The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand,
A World God COULD Have Created l No Sin l No Evil l No Pain l No Disasters l No Death l God Not Surprised l God Not Disappointed l God Not Angry l God Not Regretful l Never Changes His Mind
A World God COULD Have Created
The World We Live In l Sin l Evil Exists! l Pain Exists! l Disasters l Death Exist! Exists! GOD l Surprised! l Disappointed! l Angry! l Regretful! l Changes Mind His
Surprise God’s Disappointment Anger Regret Genesis 6: 6 -7 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.
God’s Regret 1 Samuel 15: 10 -11 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands. And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. Verse 35 - …And the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.
God’s Regret Jeremiah 3: 6 -7 Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. I thought, After she has done all these things she will return to Me; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
God Changed His Mind? Exodus 32: 10 Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation. Moses “Stood In The Breach” Exodus 32: 14 So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.
God Changed His Mind? 2 Kings 20: 1 -6 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had gone out of the
God Changed His Mind? middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life……
God Changed His Mind? Jonah 3: 4, 9 -10 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! vv. 9 -10 Who knows? God may relent and – change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. - NRSV
God Changed His Mind? Judges 10: 13 -16 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress. The sons of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please deliver us this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer.
Why God Changed His Mind Jeremiah 18: 6 Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
Why God Changed His Mind Jeremiah 18: 7 -11 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not
Why God Changed His Mind listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
Why God Changed His Mind l In Every Instance Where God Changed His Mind… l It Was In Response To Man’s Action l. Whether Good l. Or Bad
How Can This Be? l IF, In Fact, “God, Before Time Began, Foresaw EVERYTHING That Was To Happen” l How Could He Then… l Regret l Be Disappointed l Be Grieved l Change His Mind Norman Geisler, “Creating God In The Image of Man”, p. 108: “God literally cannot change his mind. ”
How Can This Be? l Need To Scrap “Blueprint View” of Future
How Can This Be? Because l God Gave Man (And Angels) Free Will (The Freedom To Choose)
The Freedom To Choose Deuteronomy 30: 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
The Freedom To Choose Joshua 24: 15 If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
The Freedom To Choose 2 Peter 2: 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; Jude 6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
Why Give Free Will? HELLO, BOB You Are Wonderful! You Are Handsome! You Are Smart! I LOVE YOU!
Why Give Free Will? William Barclay – “Unless love is a free response it is not love. Had God been only law he could have created a world in which men moved like automata, having no more choice than a machine. But, if God had made men like that, there would have been no possibility of a personal relationship between him and them. Love is of necessity the free response of the heart; and, therefore, God, by a deliberate act of self-limitation, had to endow men with free will. ”
Why Give Free Will? “God gave man free-will, and he respects that free-will. In the last analysis not even he can interfere with it. “Before man there stands an open choice; and it has to be so. Without choice there can be no goodness and without choice there can be no love. A coerced goodness is not real goodness; and a coerced love is not love at all. If men deliberately choose to turn their backs on God after he has sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world, not even he can do anything about it. “
Why Give Free Will? C. S. Lewisin Mere Christianity – “He gave them free will because a world of mere automata could never love and therefore never know infinite happiness. ”
Why Give Free Will? Isaac Singer: “We have to believe in free will. We have no choice!”
Why Give Free Will? Because God Is Love!
God Loves And Wants Our Love! l Genuine Love Possible Only With… FREE WILL (The Freedom To Choose) l Genuine Love Involves Free Choice l Cannot l Genuine l Cannot Be Coerced! Service Involves The Same Be Coerced!
God Is Love 1 John 4: 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4: 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
God Is Love John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Romans 5: 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
When Evil Things Happen…
Ever Heard These Statements? l “God Must Have His Reasons” l “We Mustn’t Question God’s Wisdom” l “It’s The Unfathomable Will of God” l “We Just Need To Accept God’s Will” Assume God Is Responsible!
The Spiritual Source of Evil l Of Sickness, Disability and Disease Luke 13: 16 And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years…
The Spiritual Source of Evil l Of Sickness, Disability and Disease Acts 10: 38 You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
The Spiritual Source of Evil l Of The Pharisees’ Wickedness John 8: 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The Spiritual Source of Evil l Of Spiritual Blindness 2 Corinthians 4: 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The Spiritual Source of Evil Ephesians 6: 11 -12 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The Human Source of Evil l Man’s Free Choice To Reject God Isaiah 65: 12 I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will bow down to the slaughter. Because I called, but you did not answer; I spoke, but you did not hear. And you did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.
The Human Source of Evil l Man’s Free Choice To Reject God Acts 13: 46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
Remember …
Evil Is Made Possible Because Free Will Exists
Free Will Exists Because God Loves Us
Our Response To Evil l Be Thankful For God’s Great Love l Don’t Blame God For Evil l Resist Evil l Satan’s Evil Choices (Temptation) l Evil Choices of Others l Our Own Evil Choices
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