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Jan 4, 2022 · Broadly stated, the “problem of evil” is the seeming contradiction between an all-powerful, all-loving God and the human experience of suffering and evil in the world. Critics claim that the existence of evil is proof that the omnipotent, omnibenevolent God of the Bible cannot exist. Since “ bad things happen to good people,” critics ...
- Omnibenevolent
Philosophically speaking, God’s omnibenevolence is a...
- Love
All of God’s attributes are in perfect harmony. Everything...
- Book of Job
This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and...
- What is The Difference Between Natural Evil and Moral Evil
Moral evil is evil that is caused by human activity. Murder,...
- Omnibenevolent
- What Is The Problem of Evil?
- Responding to The Problem of Evil
- The Way of Theodicy
- Licensing The GGT: God’s Sovereignty Over All Evil
- Limiting The GGT: The Inscrutability of God’s Purposes
The so-called “problem of evil” is an argument against the existence of God that reasons along these lines: 1. A perfectly powerful being canprevent any evil. 2. A perfectly good being willprevent evil as far as he can. 3. God is perfectly powerful and good. 4. So, if a perfectly powerful and good God exists, there will be no evil. 5. There is evil...
Nonstarters
A Christian must be truthful and face the question honestly. It will not do to deny that evil exists (#5 above), for evil is the very presumption of the gospel. Nor can we deny that God could prevent evil (#1 above) or that he is perfect in power and goodness (#3). However, we can (and should) question the second premise above – that a perfectly good God must prevent all evil – for it doesn’t necessarily follow from God’s perfect goodness that he will prevent every evil he can prevent. Perhap...
The Ways of Theodicy and Inscrutability
Our response the problem of evil, then, may take either of two approaches. We may argue that the second premise above is false and seek to demonstrate that it is false by showing God’s reasons for permitting evil – the way of “theodicy.” Or we could argue that the second premise is unproven because unbelievers can’t rule outGod’s having a good reason for permitting evil – the way of “inscrutability.” The way of theodicy (from the Greek theos, “God,” and dikaios, “just”; hence, a justification...
Two popular theodicies that have no biblical basis.
Some theodicies that have been offered lack solid biblical grounding. The free will theodicy, for example, argues that moral evil is due to human abuse of free will. The value of free will is a great good: the possibility of morally good choice and of human beings imaging God by way of these choices. But free will has the unfortunate consequence of allowing for the possibility of moral evil. In response to this we might ask, if free will of this sort is so valuable then why doesn’t God have i...
Four popular theodicies have some biblical basis
By contrast, at least four theodicies have been offered that have some biblical basis. The punishment theodicy argues that suffering is a result of God’s just punishment of evildoers (Gen 3:14-19; Rom 1:24-32, 5:12, 6:23, 8:20-21; Isa 29:5-6; Ezek 38:19; Rev 6:12; 11:13; 16:18). In punishment God aims at the good of displaying his judgment against sin. The soul-building theodicy argues that suffering leads us from self-centeredness to other-centeredness (Heb 12:5-11; Rom 5:3-5; 2Cor 4:17; Jas...
These theodicies fall under the umbrella of the “greater good theodicy.”
A “greater good theodicy” (GGT) argues that the pain and suffering in God’s world play a necessary role in bringing about greater goods that could not be brought about otherwise. The question that remains, then, is just this: does the Bible really teach that God aims at great goods by way of various evils?
God’s Sovereignty over Natural Evil
It is one thing to acknowledge God’s sovereign and purposeful providence over the moral and natural evils mentioned in the Job, Joseph, and Jesus narratives. It is quite another to claim that God is sovereign over all moral and natural evils. But this is what the Bible repeatedly teaches. This takes us a considerable way towards licensing the GGT as a generalapproach to the problem of evil. The Bible presents multitudes of examples of God intentionally bringing about natural evils – famine, d...
God’s Sovereignty over Moral Evil
In addition, and perhaps surprisingly, the Bible presents God as having such meticulous control over the course of human history that a wide range of moral evils – murder, adultery, disobedience to parents, rejecting wise counsel, even human hatred – can be regarded as “of the Lord.” Without erasing or suppressing the intentionality of creatures – and this includes their deliberations, their reasoning, their choosing between alternatives they consider and reflect upon – God’s own intentionali...
God’s Sovereignty over All Evil
So the Job, Joseph, and Jesus passages are not anomalies, but part and parcel of a more general view the Bible takes on the subject, with respect to both natural and moral evil. Indeed, in addition to this large swath of ‘particular’ texts about individual cases of evil, there are quite a few “universal” texts which seem to trace all calamities, all human decision-making, all events whatsoever, back to the will of God. 1. God’s sovereignty over all calamity (Ecc 7:13-14; Isa 45:7; Lam 3:37-38...
Establishing the Burden of Proof
Of course, each specific theodicy mentioned earlier has significant limitations. For instance, the Bible frequently discourages the idea that the punishment theodicy can explain all evils in the world (Job 1:1, 1:8, 2:3, 42:7-8; John 9:1-3; Acts 28:1-6). More generally, Christians can never know enough about a person’s situation, or about God’s purposes, to rule in a specific theodicy as being God’s reason for permitting evil in a particular case. In fact, it would be entirely presumptuous to...
Analogies for our Cognitive Limitations
It is widely recognized that we have cognitive limitations with respect to discerning goods and connections, at least in territories where we lack the relevant expertise, experience, or vantage point. Some examples: 1. It doesn’t seem to me that there is a perfectly spherical rock on the dark side of the moon right now, but that’s no reason to conclude that such a rock isn’tthere. 2. It didn’t seem to any medievals that the theories of special relativity or quantum mechanics were true, but th...
Biblical Argument for Divine Inscrutability
The theme of divine inscrutability is not only exceedingly defensible common sense. It also looms large in the Bible, having both pastoral and apologetic implications. It closes the mouths of Christians who would insensitively offer “God’s reasons” to those who suffer (when they don’t know such reasons). And it closes the mouths of critics who would irrationally preclude divine reasons for the suffering. Imagine we were on the scene in the cases of Job (as his friend), Joseph (as his brother)...
Jan 31, 2022 · This leads me to the fourth thing God is doing about the problem of evil. You see, God sent his son to die for evil men, offering mercy instead of justice so there could be forgiveness rather than condemnation. God is patiently waiting, giving men a chance to turn to him for forgiveness. Peter, in 2 Peter 3, writes, “The Lord is not slow ...
Aug 6, 2019 · The opening chapters emphasize Job’s godliness: he is “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). This characterization is acknowledged by God himself, twice (Job 1:8; 2:3). In the midst of Satan’s attacks, God even says, astonishingly, that this suffering is “without reason” (Job 2:3).
This is known as the Logical problem of evil which claims that it is logically impossible for both God (as defined with omnipotence & omnibenevolence) and evil to both exist. P1. An omnipotent God has the power to eliminate evil. P2. An omnibenevolent God has the motivation to eliminate evil. P3.
Jul 17, 2020 · The problem of evil, known as theodicy, has led many to doubt God’s goodness and existence. Theodicy has come up again and again throughout history, and most major theologians will deal with it at one time or another. While there are many ways thinkers have gone about answering the question, few do it as well as Augustine.
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Jun 10, 2009 · Christians cannot refute the problem of evil by appealing only to the future, which the skeptic, not presupposing biblical eschatology, recognizes as the fallacy of argumentum ad futuris. 2 Further, Meister’s argument misrepresents biblical eschatology, for Scripture nowhere teaches that God will abolish all evil.
