Millersville Bible Church Apologetics Class What About Evil & Suffering? (Part 2)

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1 Millersville Bible Church Apologetics Class What About Evil & Suffering? (Part 2) And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 Four Categories of Reality: 1 o Good Good good in the ultimate sense. The Bible says no one does good (Rom. 3:10-12). Yet there are times when people are said to do good things. They must meet two qualifications: 1. must conform outwardly to the law of God; and 2. must be motivated internally by a genuine love for God. o Bad Good is that good that outwardly conforms to the law of God but is motivated by impure motives. o Bad Bad has no redeeming benefit for those who commit it. It is pure evil. o Good Bad this is what we are concerned mainly with today. For believers, God brings ultimate good out of the evil we experience. These blessings in disguise can be so well hidden to us that we scant see any redeeming value. But we must remember that we have no more insight into the secret counsel of God than Joseph did when he endured the multitude of bad things that happened to him. What if someone states, God should remove all evil right now from the world. The proper response is, Should He start with you? You can ask people all over the world this question, Have you ever done anything wrong? Undoubtedly, you will receive the same answer. Yes! Often times people will even laugh, recognizing the foolishness of claiming to have never done anything wrong. If, therefore, they condemn themselves, why should they be surprised if God condemns them? Another may ask, If God is love, why doesn t He just forgive everyone? (When asking this question, people are generally not asking, What must I do to be forgiven? But rather they are expressing the thought that God should be like some indulgent grandfather who looks the other way when offenses are committed.) At this point, let them know what they are 1 I am indebted to R.C. Sproul for his thoughts on the Four Categories of Reality. 1

2 requiring of God. You are really asking, How can a righteous judge allow a criminal to suffer? How can a just judge allow a violent offender to be punished? What if God should use the exact-reward method. What would be the result? Evil and suffering would be stamped out, but so would we. Would God be just in applying the exact-reward method? Certainly! That would be justice. When God does apply this principle, we shudder, and are thankful He has not chosen to deal with us in such a manner (see Ananias & Saphira in Acts 5:1-11). What about you? This week think of your expectations of others and how often they go unmet. If you have children who are old enough this will happen more often than if you do not. Think about your spouse, co-workers, family members, and the expectations you have then think about God s expectations for us. If even a small amount of reflective thought is spent in this area, there will be little doubt that we are great proponents of grace and mercy for ourselves, but are more apt to treat others on the basis of the exact reward concept. the Human race had never been exposed to suffering and evil? Would we understand or fully appreciate the goodness and perfection of God? Would we understand how incredible it will be one day to have all suffering and evil removed? Would we understand the antithesis of God is death and destruction in all cases? If God were to eliminate the consequences of evil choices, He would be a deceiver by allowing us to live in an illusory world! The existence of evil & suffering demonstrate that the God of the Bible is the only viable solution to the perplexities raised by such realities. God has a purpose for suffering and evil (for a time): to bring about the greatest growth in His children here on earth, while at the same time bringing the greatest glory to Himself. There is no doubt that at present we see through a glass, darkly, but a day will come when we will know fully (1 Cor. 13:12). To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 2

3 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:5a-10 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 The Narrow and Wide Angle View of Evil and Suffering You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ~ Genesis 50:20 ~ Narrow Lens Wide Angle Lens (Immediate) (Big Picture) 1. I take no pleasure in the 1. LORD will gain glory for Himself death of anyone (Ezek. 18:32). Before Pharaoh and his army (Ex. 14:4). God will be shown supreme and His people will be redeemed. 2. Asked for the cup to pass 2. Redeem sinners (all who that He might not suffer believe) from an eternity in hell. crucifixion. 3. Don t enjoy disciplining our 3. Have solemn responsibility to children. train our children to do right. Otherwise, disaster looms. Why God has determined evil & suffering on this earth, a summary. Christian Worldview Logic: o To allow the free moral agents He has created to learn for themselves why evil is wrong. o To provide an environment (classroom) where people can learn what evil causes not a better world, but a world full of people like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Sadaam Hussein. A world filled with actions such as divorce, murder, hatred, discord, jealousy, selfishness, pride, etc 3

4 o To experience suffering vicariously in someone else s place. o To demonstrate the need for people to be punished for their own acts of evil. o To demonstrate the need for a Savior. o To begin to appreciate what a wondrous place Heaven will be a place without evil and suffering. Scripture tells us: o True freedom is actually being bound to the Word of God. o To bring about the greatest growth in His children here on earth, while at the same time bringing the greatest glory to Himself. See Psalm 33:11, Ephesians 1:11, Romans 11:36, Exodus 14:4. Remember: o God has intervened throughout history in order to keep evil in check. o The lifespan of evil is short in light of eternity. God will stamp out all evil! o For the believer all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own free will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. ~ Westminster Confession of Faith ~ According to Kierkegaard, it is unthinkable to blame God for anything, and no proof of His goodness is needed. For this reason Christianity cannot answer the question: Why? For in the absolute sense, Why? cannot be asked. The absolute is the absolute. The best proof that there is a just providence is to say: I will believe it whatever happens. All proof is foolishness, a kind of double-mindedness which by two paths (the objective and the subjective) wants to arrive simultaneously at the same point. The believer says to himself: The most detestable of all would be for you to allow yourself, in any ever so hidden thought, to insult God by thinking of Him as having done wrong. Therefore, if someone wishes to write a big book to justify or indict God as far as I am concerned, I will believe. Where it seems that I might be able to understand, I will still prefer to believe, for it is more blessed to believe as long as we human beings live in this world, understanding easily becomes something imagined, a chummy importunity and where I cannot understand, yes, there it is blessed to believe. ~ Soren Kierkegaard ~ Likewise, Karl Barth held that God gave Job no answer to the problem of suffering, but simply asked Job to trust Him: He [God] does not ask for his understanding, agreement or applause. On the contrary, he simply asks that he should be content not to know why and to what extent he exists, and does so in this way and not another. He simply asks that he should admit that it is not he who plans and controls. 4

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