Hard Questions about God - The Text Messages

July 12, 2020July 12, 2020

Grappling with the Hard Questions (Part 2) A Biblical Answer

Finally, lets address the question of whether God either exists or is good in the light of the fact that evil exists from the standpoint of what God has done to deal with it. The supposition of the skeptic is that God was taken by surprise by the rebellion of the first man and woman in the garden of Eden and is either unwilling or unable to deal with the evil their sinful choice ushered into the world but what does the Bible say?

Was the Lord surprised by the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden? No; that in and of itself is an amazing and astounding truth – God knew and still God made man. God KNEW that Adam and Eve would go against His will and disobey the only command He had given them. He KNEW that the “intent of the thoughts” of the hearts of men would be, as Genesis 6:5 says “only evil continuously.” He KNEW that He would have to intervene at great cost to Himself to rescue mankind from the consequences of their rebellion.

First off, God was not surprised by the rebellion of men, the Bible makes it clear that “from the foundation of the world…names were written in the Book of Life” (Revelation 17:8) and that judgment would fall upon those whose names were not written in it (see Revelation 3:5, 20:12-15, 21:27). The Bible also makes clear that God’s answer to the problem of evil was not an after-thought. (John 3:16) declares that God “gave His only begotten Son” (to die for our sins Matthew 1:21, John 1:29) but (Revelation 13:8) indicates that “from the foundation of the world” literally from the dawn of creation, “the Lamb” (God’s only begotten Son) was also “slain.”

It was the sinful choice of Adam and Eve which ushered death and decay (Genesis 3:17, 21, 4:8) into our world. Evil, suffering, physical death (Genesis 3:19) and a spiritual relational separation from our Creator (Genesis 3:22-24, Ephesians 4:18) all have their beginning in the moment of mans first rebellion. Creation itself even now groans under the weighty consequences of the fall (Romans 8:20-22) but God has done great things to overcome the problem of evil.

For one thing, God condemned the instigator of man’s rebellion. Consider (Ezekiel 28:11-19), this passage, addressed to the king of Tyre is clearly speaking to someone besides the king. In fact, with references to the recipient being the “anointed” and “covering cherub” (vs’s 14,16) and to the fact that he was both “in Eden” (v.13) and “perfect in all his ways from the day he was created” (v.15) the recipient is clearly none other than Satan aka Lucifer himself. Consider that Satan was cast down the Bible says in (Ezekiel 28:16-17) and condemned for his evil (Isaiah 14:12-15), and that one day, the deceiver who corrupted Adam and Eve and countless others over all time will be cast first into a pit for a thousand years (Revelation 20:3). After that, Satan will be released for a short time only to lead a final rebellion which God crushes swiftly finally, eternally casting Satan into the lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone forever (Revelation 20:10). Satan was condemned for His prideful rebellion and the evil he helped usher into the world will be condemned with him on that day.

Even more important than the condemnation of Satan is the atonement God made available to every man, woman and child through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in (Romans 5:8,10) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us….For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Jesus Christ has done more than He ought to have done, more than we deserved, to deal with the evil and sinfulness in our lives (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He dealt with the problem of evil (sin) from His cross, dying to free us from our bondage to evil (sin) and freeing us from guilt to live a life pleasing to God (Hebrews 9:14). He granted every believer an eternal future where evil will no longer exist. After His resurrection and ascension or return to His Father in Heaven, Jesus, through His Spirit continues to deal with the problem of sin and evil in our lives through His Holy Spirit – warning, convicting and giving us power to overcome sin and live a life which brings glory to God.

Honestly, the only answer I can offer – the only answer that the word of God gives to the problem of evil is this: the shed blood of the risen Savior (Revelation 12:11), faith in Jesus Christ (John 16:33) and the new life faith in Him produces (1 John 5:4-5) overcomes it . Not because faith in Jesus eradicated evil in the world around us but because faith in Jesus deals with the evil within us, and will continue to do so, as the Apostle Paul said in (Philippians 1:3-6) “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”

Apart from God there is no answer to the problem of evil, but by His grace one day every believer will be free of it forever!

July 8, 2020July 8, 2020

Grappling with the Hard Questions (Part 1) The Argument

How do we approach the question of the existence of God in light of all the evil in the world?

The question as asked by the atheist and the skeptic attacks three biblical attributes of God and stresses that if God is omniscient (that is all-knowing), omnipotent (that is all-powerful) and omnibenevolent (or all-good) and yet does nothing about the evil in the world – He does not exist. But the word of God makes it clear that He IS the all-knowing (omniscient) God. For example, (Psalm 147:5) says, “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite;” also (1 John 3:20) “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things;” and also (Isa 46:9-10) “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure… .’” The word of God also declares Him to be all-powerful (omnipotent); consider the following examples: (Isa. 43:13) “Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”” The Bible makes it clear that “nothing will be impossible for God” (Luke 1:37) because “with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Finally, the word of God declares Him to be an all-good or loving (omnibenevolent) God. (John 3:16) is one of the most commonly known supports for this truth: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Three times in (1 John 4 [vs’s 8, 16 and 17]) we hear John say – “God IS love.” Certainly, this is not an exhaustive list of proofs but the scriptures chosen all support the three qualities identified by atheists in their argument against God.

They argue however that because evil exists, a God with such qualities cannot exist. Their argument might best be summed up by the words of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

What is evil? Is evil a thing or a person? No. Evil is a corruption or a perversion of something good. God declares in (Genesis 1:31) that everything He made was very good; that goodness however, was corrupted through the confusion Satan brought to the minds of the first human beings, Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3:1-6) concerning what God had said about their eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Based on the account of original sin, what then is evil but a choice against the expressed will of God! Evil was not created by God because evil is not a thing, it is a choice to pervert something good.

Couldn’t God, being both all-knowing and all-powerful just have caused Adam and Eve to do right – to make a God honoring decision? Yes, He could have, but we also need to consider why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was left in the garden to begin with. Adam was given authority over all that God had created (Genesis 1:28, 2:19) but the tree and the command remained to remind Adam, his wife and his children that they were NOT the ultimate authority. God left them a command and a consequence for rebelling. Satan, casted doubt about God’s goodness into the hearts of the pair and added the temptation to disobey God; and God in His role as Heavenly Father, allowed them the free-will or freedom to choose.

Did God give the command? Yes. Did He make the decision that they should sin? No. He tested them as He is prone to do with us all (see James 1:2-3); He is no more responsible for the choices men make than men are for the choices of their adult sons and daughters. So evil, exists not because God made it but because He allows people to make choices both good and bad. In His permissive will, God allows us to make choices that are even contrary to His Preceptive Will or what He desires for and from us. He wants us to live holy lives (1 Peter 1:16) , to be transformed by His word rather than conformed to this world (Romans 12:2) – He wants us to live lives led by the desires of His Spirit rather than by the desires of our own carnal hearts (Galatians 5:16). But sometimes we act in an unholy manner, sometimes we DO conform to the world around us and sometimes we do walk after the flesh – He allows these things as a part of His permissive will but He does NOT condone them, there are consequences for bad as well as good choices. Just as the parents of children who make bad choices nevertheless exist, neither God’s existence nor His goodness is nullified when those He created choose evil.

What has God done about evil? We will address that question briefly in the final segment of this short study next time….

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020

Grappling With the Hard Questions

God does not reject those who possess honest doubt about Himself and His Son. Need proof? If you are a Christian today, take a look in the mirror, once upon a time, before they believed, every current believer was doubtful about God. One needs to go no further than what the Bible says of the man some have called “doubting Thomas” to see that the Lord will entertain (or kindly address) the honest doubts of men:

“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”” (John 20:24–29)

Thomas wasn’t alone in his doubt; only a few days earlier, as Mary and the women who had been with her also declared that she had seen the Lord, the disciples doubted as well; (Luke 24:11) records that they considered the account of the women as “idle tales (literally nonsense) , and they did not believe them.” Only after they saw the empty tomb and later that day, the risen Lord, did the disciples believe the report; until then they too, doubted. No one, since the day of the Lord’s return (ascension) to His Father (Acts 1:9-11) has ever seen Jesus in the flesh, yet many have believed in Him and many more will, based on the testimony of the Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit and the evidence of change in the lives of those who have already believed.

Like Thomas, we all have doubts about various things concerning God sometimes. Some of our doubts take the form of innocent questions, like the one asked by many children – “Who made God?” Of course the short answer is that God has always existed and that He has, as the Bible says, no beginning and no end: (Psalm 90:2) states that “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” But then there are the more argumentative questions and dishonest doubts, questions which arise from certain beliefs and which call into question some attribute of God if not His very existence. Questions like, “If God exists (or if God is good), why is there so much evil in the world? Or “If God is a loving God, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?” And “How could a loving God send anyone to hell?”

Addressing these questions comes in two forms: An apologetic, which is the term given to defending religious doctrine largely through debate; and the other form called a Theodicy, which is simply to vindicate God, or His divine goodness and providence (by what can be known of Him through His word) in view of the existence of evil. At first blush, I would say that because God is sovereign, He is not obliged, which is to say that He is neither morally or legally obligated to explain, vindicate or justify Himself to anyone. But, because God is good, He exists, and He wants us to know Him, He entertains even the doubts of the skeptic, agnostic and atheist, teaching anyone who really wants to know how to recognize His character, His attributes and tendencies through His word.

To begin with I’d like to address the argument put forth by the majority of atheists who insist that God does not exist; the question of “If God exists, why is there so much evil in the world?” What I intend to attempt will not be an exhaustive exposition on the subject, and while the best debater will focus on logic alone to win, I am not debating but rather presenting a defense from God’s word alone. My hope is that the reader will carefully read and consider this Biblical response…

Join me next time as together we unpack what the Bible says on this important question.