evil

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

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trustGodWhen people are confronted with the existence of evil, some will question the existence of God. When this happens, I encourage people to consider the nature of evil.  Evil and Good are value judgments, and as such, they must be measured against a morally perfect standard.  If some act deviates from this standard, it is deemed to be evil.

Early in his life, C.S. Lewis rejected the idea of God.  After a thorough investigation, he made an interesting statement:   “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call something crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.”  Lewis also made the point that a portrait is a good or a bad likeness depending on how it compares with the “perfect” original.

Any time you feel intense physical or emotional pain, you may find yourself asking the question:  “Why?”  Randy Alcorn offers an excellent discussion of suffering and the sovereignty of God in his book If Good Is Good:  Why Do We Hurt?  

God is both loving and sovereign . . . Knowing this should give us great confidence that even when we don’t see any redemptive meaning in our suffering, God can see it—and one day we will too. We can trust that God has a purpose for whatever he permits. We are limited to time; God is not. From the perspective of a timeless God, the distant future—when justice is fully granted, and evil and suffering are gone—is as real as the present. What he knows he will ultimately accomplish through suffering, for his glory and our good, is not merely a possibility but a reality he can already see, in all its fullness ~Randy Alcorn

Immorality, pain, suffering, evil, and ethical failures are, according to some people reasons to question the presence of a loving God.  I strongly disagree with this assessment, and  I believe they help to prove the existence of God.  I have written about this in the past, and encourage you to read my post: Why God?

My words are neither nonsensical nor vacuous, they are the thoughts of one who has walked the path of suffering and loss on more than one occasion, and I still believe in the goodness of God.

 

Why God?

/ insightbyseymour / Leave a comment

In the last two blogs, I’ve discussed the presence of evil in the world.  There are times when people meet evil face to face and then question the existence of God:  How can there be a God when there is so much evil in the world today?

My response to this question is a question:  How do you know evil exists?  To determine what is evil and what is good, a person must have some standard or moral law by which evil and good are measured.  A moral law of this sort requires a moral law giver, and that, I believe, is the God of the Bible.

With God as my starting point, I believe He created a universe in which there was no evil and no suffering.  This includes Adam and Eve who were created as perfect beings with the ability to choose right and wrong.

This is where things take a turn for the worse.  Adam and Eve freely chose to engage in an act of disobedience, and sin entered the world.  Their act of rebellion gave birth to sin and evil.

God did not directly create evil.  He created Adam and Eve with the ability to choose good or to choose evil.  “God created the fact of freedom; we perform the acts of freedom.  God made evil possible; men make evil actual (Norm Geisler).”

A couple of days ago, I made the comment that I find myself praying for peace.  The underlying assumption of that prayer is that evil will be eliminated.  When will this happen?  I don’t know about you, but I want it to happen immediately.

More often than not, I find that I do not understand God’s timetable.  In my understanding of theology, I believe God is in the process of eliminating evil.  The Scriptures tell us there will be a future day of peace when even the lion and lamb will lay down beside each other.

As we wait for this day to arrive, we need to realize that we are a key component in restraining evil.  This statement can be understood by seeing the contrast between the following statements made by Jesus.

  • Men loved the darkness because their deeds were evil.
  • You are the light of the world.
  •  God is light an in Him is no darkness at all.

Here is a thought to keep you thinking.  When your light shines in the darkness, is it perceived as one of condemnation or compasssion?  Is it a light that shows the Way or a light that pushes away?