Is God the author of evil in this world?!

Recently we looked at the question of providence and evil in theology class... and here comes the disturbing question: Is God the author of sin?! Here are some notes on the topic of providence and evil!

(Photo taken in Jerusalem, Sept 2015. Armed police is normal everyday sight everywhere.)

·         The logical problem: [The Christian] God is all loving & all powerful; as all-loving, God would be willing to abolish evil; as all-powerful, God would be able to abolish evil; evil exists; therefore [this] God does not. The basic strategy for a response to the logical problem is that if God has a good reason to allow evil, then the existence of evil is not incompatible with the existence and nature of God. God allows evil to exist, but it’s not immediately caused by God. Church grows and gets purified as a result.

·         The evidential problem of evil: The existence of so much evil is incompatible with the probability of the existence of an all-loving and all-powerful God. The evidential problem admits that God and the existence of evil are not logically incompatible, yet considers if the amount or kinds of evil in the world count as probable evidence against the existence of God. This approach argues that the large amount of evil in the world and/or the existence of unjustified evil (variously called surd, superfluous, pointless, gratuitous) mitigate against a plausible belief in God because we assume God would not allow for the existence of evil that appears to have no good purpose. Sometimes even Christians don’t understand evil. For example, prosperity gospel, where people who gave very little substance to evil. There are also people who are on the other spectrum: everything is about evil spirit, how evil things are in the world, etc. Evil is irrational: why evil happens in the world is beyond our ability to reason. Otherwise, if we are smart enough, we can save ourselves. The cross is also not rational, it’s a mystery revealed to us. It doesn’t matter what good purpose/intention it’s supposed to bring out, the evil acts needed to achieve it can never be justified/synthesised/rationalised. Communism may be a good idea but in practicality we never seen any society benefiting from it. Utilitarianism is Nazi like (eg. a Japanese missions lecturer said that when Japanese uses comfort woman/forced labour: the act is wrong but the purpose is good…?! When people oppress people, these things cannot be justified.)

·         The existential problem of evil: As often called the "religious," "personal," or "pastoral" problem of evil, the existential problem is one that asks, "Why my suffering and/or evil at this time in this way in this place?" Why would I want to trust and love the God (who may or may not exist) who – if he exists – is responsible for all the evil in my world and in my life?

·         The problem of natural evil: Whatever may be said of moral evil, how can anyone but God be said to be to blame for the natural evils of the world?

What are three solutions to the problem of evil, and what is the response to these solutions?

Think about real world examples of big scale evils such as human trafficking.

1)      Finitism: Abandon the idea of God’s omnipotence.

Often takes the form of a dualism, two ultimate principles in the universe: God and the power of evil. This evil is uncreated, simply a force that has always been present. There is a struggle between God and this evil power, with no certainty as to the ultimate outcome.  For example, ying and yang in the Chinese culture.

2)      Modification of the concept of God’s goodness.

Determinism: Calvinism=God’s causing of all things, including human acts. The relationship of God to certain evil actions of human beings.

God hardening the heart of Pharaoh?

God is the ultimate cause of sin, not the immediate cause of it. God does not commit sin; human commit sin although God wills it decretively. It was Judas, not God, who betrayed Christ. God neither sins nor is responsible for sin.

3)      Denial of evil.

Pantheism. The only reality is God, infinite mind. Spirit is real and eternal; matter is unreal and temporal. Matter has no real existence even in the mind. One of the most serious evils, disease, is therefore an illusion; what is experienced as disease is caused by wrong belief; the cure for sickness is not to be achieved through medicine, but is to be found in knowledge of the truth that pain is imaginary. For example, Buddhism, Christian Science.

Three problems stand out: 1) Christian science has not fully banished evil. 2)The existence of the illusion must be explained, because it’s so widespread. 3) The theory does not work, Christian Scientists do become ill and die.

The first three options are not biblical. Evil doesn’t fit into anything, and can’t be resolved by any system. Some hard core determinist may agree with point two. Evil is bigger than us.

Evil as a necessary accompaniment of the creation of humanity:

l   Mild Calvinism.

l   Humans would not be genuinely human without free will. God cannot create a genuinely free being and at the same time guarantee that this being will always do exactly what God desires of him. Apparently God felt, for reasons that were evident to him but that we can only partly understand, that it was better to make human beings than androids. And the possibility of evil was a necessary accompaniment of God’s good plan to make people fully human.

l   God has created us to love him. But love isn’t love if it is coerced. Genuine love requires free will.

l   Apparently, for humans to have a genuine moral choice with the possibility of genuine punishment for disobedience meant that they could die.

l   Argument against this view: Tsunami cannot be justified, even if it does good in the advancement of God’s kingdom.

l   The sustenance of life required conditions that could lead to death instead. For example, the same water we need for life can in other circumstances cause death by drowning. Under certain conditions, the very fire providing that warmth for the maintenance of life can kill us. If God was to have a world in which there would be genuine moral choices along with genuine punishment for disobedience and ultimately death, there would have to be warning signals of sufficient intensity to cause us to alter our behaviour. And this signal is pain.

l   If God could not create the world without the accompanying possibility of evil, why did he create at all, or why did he not create the world without human beings? We cannot answer that question since we are not God.

A re-evaluation of what constitutes good and evil:

l   Good is not defined in terms of what brings personal pleasure to humans in a direct fashion. Good is defined in relationship to the will and being of God. Good is what glorifies him, fulfils his will, conforms to his nature. Romans 8:28 (We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.)

l   God’s superior knowledge and wisdom: We may not be the best judges of what is good and what is harmful to our welfare. It may seem good to me to eat sweet, sticky candy. My dentist (unless simply interested in fees) may see it quite differently.

l   Dimension of time or duration: Some experienced evils are actually very disturbing on a short-term basis, but in the long term work a much larger good.

l   Extent of the evil: God has many persons to care for. The Saturday rainfall that spoils a family picnic or round of golf may seem like an evil to me, but be a much greater good to the farmers whose parched fields surround the golf course or park.

l   The danger of this view of “greater good” is that one may take on a consequentialist view of ethics to justify their evil actions.

God as the author of sin?

l   An important question that cannot be ignored is how sin could have happened in the first place. If humans were created good, or at least without any evil nature, made in the image of god, and if the creation God had made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), then how could sin have occurred?

l   Example of a problematic passage: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things (KJV Isaiah 45:7). However, the KJV’s rendering of this word evil is inaccurate. This word ra’ah can also be translated “trouble,” “disaster”.

l   Reformed theologians typically shrink from ascribing the authorship of evil to God. Paul Helm says that while God “ordains moral evil, he is not the author of it.” John Frame says that while God is not the cause of evil, he is the ordainer of evil. Permission is not causation.

l   R. C. Sproul Jr., a hyper-Calvinist, in the pursuit of theological consistency, concludes that God must be the originator of evil. He lists the range of possible “suspects”: Adam, Eve, Satan, the environment, and God. God created a good environment and Adam, Eve and Satan were originally created good. That means none of these four candidates can be the source of sin and it is God himself who introduced evil into this world. Sproul Jr. thinks that the reason God wanted Adam and Eve to fall into sin was because of God’s eternal attribute of wrath, and “God is as delighted with his wrath as he is with all of his attributes.”

l   If God is accused of doing evil, Sproul Jr. would say “He’s God, he can do what he wants.” But what God does will be good and just, because we can’t rightly say, “God can break his promise or lie because ‘he’s God, and he can do what he wants.’” It’s impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). The Bible makes it clear that God is not the cause of sin: but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed (James 1:14). For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world (1 John 2:16).

l   Sproul Jr. acknowledges that God cannot sin but suggest that he created sin. Augustine would have denounced such dangerous theological notions. Evil is not a thing, but a corruption, defect and lack of what ought to be there (ie. an absence or corruption of goodness). Sproul Jr is opposing the Scriptures: “Everything God created is good.” (1Timothy 4:4).

l   Calvin himself confessed that he did not know how to account for the origin of evil.

l   God is not the author of sins, no more than John Watt (the inventor of the steam engine) is the author of all train accidents.

l   Sin is a corruption of God’s good creation: Goodness can exist without evil. Evil, however, requires reference to what is good. Evil is like counterfeit money: in order to detect the fake, we need to know what the genuine currency looks like.

l   The “germ theory” of sin, whereby one has to “catch” or “be infected by” sin is an incorrect understanding of the nature of sin. It is not necessary to come in contact with someone who has a fracture to fracture a bone; all that is needed is to twist a limb in the wrong way, and there is a broken bone! Similarly, sin results when a person’s will and relationship to God are twisted the wrong way, when the wrong one of two possibilities is actualised.

l   The first sin was voluntary. Augustine maintains that the first sin originated with finite moral agents. Though created without moral defect, they became the sinners. It was up to the creature to refrain from sinning. God created human being who possessed free will, but by the free will’s action, a radical, new occurrence broke into God’s good created order.

l   The serpent’s temptation appealed to desires that were not evil in themselves, but could be expressed and actualised in the wrong way (disobeying God). With this twist in relationship, sin has become a reality.

l   God, then, did not create sin. He merely provided the options necessary for human freedom, options that could result in sin.

l   The primal sin was a turning away from God (the greatest good) toward a lesser (created) good.

Specific evil as the result of specific sins:

l   Traps: AIDS as a punishment from God. Although this could be possible, but then who is not a sinner?

l   Some of the evil occurrences in life are caused by the sinful action of others. However, tragedy is not always the result of specific sin. The question “Why?” often reflects the mistaken idea that God sends each event as a direct response to our actions.

l   People are very ready to attribute sin when people are suffering. However, misfortune may also fall on the just and unjust alike.

l   But having given this caveat, we need to note that there are instances of sin bringing unfortunate results on the individual sinner. Much of the evil recounted in Scripture came upon people as a result of their own sin, or that of someone close to them.

God as the victim of evil:

l   God took sin and its evil effects on himself is a unique contribution by Christian doctrine to the solution of the problem of evil.

l   It is remarkable that, while knowing that he himself would become the major victim of the evil resulting from sin, God allowed sin to occur anyway.

l   Through incarnation, God is a fellow sufferer with us of the evil in this world, and consequently is able to deliver us from evil.

The life hereafter:

l   If this life were all that there is, then surely the problem of evil would be unresolvable.

l   Hell, the absence of God, is God’s simply giving that person at last what he or she has always asked for. It is not God, but one’s own choice that sends a person to hell.

Resources:

Theology lectures at Morling with Miyon Chung
Erikson, Millard J. Christian Theology.

God and Evil. Edited by Chad Meister and James K. Dew Jr.

Condolences to the talented young singer, Christina Grimme, and the 100+ shooting victims in the Orlando massacre. Video of Christina singing In Christ Alone.
https://youtu.be/luWazAbFvMY
Sometimes God allows terrible things to happen in your life and you don't know why. But that doesn't mean you should stop trusting Him. Christina Grimme, twitter 22 Feb 2013.

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.