I’ve just recently discovered your blog. I really like what you have to say.

I really appreciate the way you have answered the challenge of “If there is suffering, there cannot be a good, powerful God” WITHOUT answering the “why is there suffering?” question. God has chosen not to fully explain himself, and he was given the perfect opportunity to do so at the end of Job, and his response was just “I’m God.” Which is a response, but not an “answer.”

Attempts to say that hurricanes are the result of some sort of evil, or that painful diseases are because of the devil…. They are simply not adequate, they do not explain why God ALLOWS these things to occur. Now I’m not expecting immortality, paradise, or amnesty for man’s mistakes (personally or collectively), but I still struggle with understanding just exactly what purpose of God’s is served by natural disasters or painful prologued illnesses. It’s very much like what you said about the 14 bad apologetics (which I really enjoyed) these sorts of “pseudo-answers” are very much “false answers.” To offer them as answers to somebody really looking for answers, out of a fear that having no answer means that there is no God — that does more harm than good. Maybe it’s comforting to some people to apply all the adjectives starting with “omni” to God and neatly tie up these questions, but I think for many people to see a Christian who is satisfied with these explanations — it really makes them wonder about how deep that person has thought about things.

At least God did make sure and let us know that his son did not escape this suffering. Maybe by this, God was saying, “Look, if my son has to suffer, then this really is necessary — even if you cannot understand the reasons.” I know that’s certainly not an answer to “why is there suffering?”, but it is a sort of confirmation that suffering is somehow necessary, and a message that he does care, even though he allows the suffering.

If we experience evil because of adverse natural consequences (e.g., flood), is the evil the flood’s or is it ours? If God uses natural consequences to give judgment upon people (flood, fire on Sodom, plagues in Egypt) those natural events cannot be said to be evil. Natural events must therefore be morally neutral and only evil depending on the experiential context of the people involved, or on the nature of the person causing the event. So, for example, the devil sending a flood would be evil. Or we would be acting wrongfully if we build in a flood plain–we would not have been proper stewards and gardeners to build there.

Regards,
#John

That’s true enough, but I would say they become “evil” when they affect human beings adversely. You could point out that human beings don’t have to be in those areas and that would draw the matter back to human culpability for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As I see it, natural processes of the earth aren’t evil or good. They’re just natural processes of the earth because God created the earth with the element of change, which requires both destruction and construction.

The position I hold is the classical free moral will, and God’s justice, position.

That is, there are two forms of evil in the world, moral evil and natural (or perhaps unnatural) evil.

The classical Christian view is that God created everything good, but gave the first Man the power to choose contrary to God’s will. The tool for that choice was the tree dubbed “the knowledge of good and evil”. The Man made a moral decision to take of the fruit, and God placed him under sentence of death, “dying you shall die”.

As his descendants we share the same ability to make free moral choices and inflict the consequences of our moral choices on others. That is the root of moral evil in the world.

However Man was created in God’s image, that is representing God’s authority on the Earth. The judgement on him also had to be applied to his dominion and the Earth began the process of tearing itself apart.

Now the Earth produces fire and flood, earthquake and famine. Although it can be bad, the moral evil humans are capable of can make immeasurably worse.

Famine, compounded by government corruption… flood, compounded by administrative incompetence… fire, compounded by the actions of arsonists… A lot of (un)natural evils are exacerbated by human actions.

I see an interplay between good and evil. Somewhat like the game of reversi, in which pieces are colored white on one side and black on the other and they are flipped repeatedly throughout the game. So God used Joseph’s misfortune to bring about good, but that move later turned into evil when his descendants were enslaved, and that led to demonstrations of God’s might, and so on. So, evil into good and good into evil. I guess it all ends when Jesus’s work trumps all other events. But even in the age of glory, Satan and evil still exist if there is eternal damnation. Evil is defeated but not destroyed, as the colored sides of the counters still exist right under the victorious sides.

Christopher Wright does a good jod tackling the problem of evil issue in his book, “The God i don’t understand”. I’m reading it now.

The answer is that He is willing AND able, AND ALSO HAS done something about evil.

Simply because man doesn’t like the answer that God has given doesn’t mean He hasn’t answered it.

Real email address is kirby _at_ wallaceinfo _dot_see_oh_em.

Oops. Wrong post I replied to. Apply it here, please. Thanks!

Again, it’s called Epicurus’ Riddle, and it’s been around for quite some time.

I asked my Pastor one time, “Why does it seem, when my husband and I are so faithful to all God asks us, we are always attacked on every side. And those who are not faithful, seem to have so much? They don’t struggle financially, they never have problems with their cars, they seem to struggle with nothing. It’s like Satan stays away from them.”

He told me, “Sheri, if there comes a time that you aren’t being attacked by the evil one, then you are doing something wrong. He’s only going to attack those who pose a threat to him. But remember, God will always be there to turn those bad situations around, you will be blessed through them and He will be glorified through your suffering.”

Never before had I heard more true words. I never questioned God on this again. I started seeing evidence of Him being glorified. Our friends and family would ask us how we could stay so faithful when we went through so much, and that would open up opportunities to witness and pray. The evidence was that ALL of our needs were met every month, and still are. That’s what God promises us, and that’s what we show.

What an honor to be used by God in such a marvelous way.