Good and Evil

In a discussion with a friend the other day - a good Christian friend - I noted a lack of understanding for the word "sovereign" as we apply it descriptively to God as one of His attributes. (Sovereign is defined as having supreme rule. Note: a synonym is autonomous).

My friend in trying to come to grips with the concept of evil (the eternal problem in the mind's of men) he is confronted with the thought that God had either given Lucifer full and autonomous thought, and power, or God had created evil. My friend cannot wrap his mind around the idea of a loving God creating evil.

The problem of evil, as anathema to a righteous god, is a man-made categorical problem which has existed as long as men have existed. Evil is not a problem for God. It is part of His overall redemptive plan for his Universe and everything in it. We are the ones who have the problem as we struggle to understand with our limited capacity for thought.

Our human problem begins with this thought: God created an entity, Lucifer, who rebelled and became evil. Because he is imortal as an angel we think he was autonomous. He isn't and never was. Is 14:13, "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Clearly Lucifer's remarks are nothing more than wishful thinking because that didn't happen.  Omnipotent, autonomous, sovereign power has been reserved by the LORD God to Himself alone. (1 Ch 29:11)

I agree with Scripture and centuries of Church dogma, (Rev 19:6) God is sovereign/omnipotent therefore, Satan has only limited power and like us what he has is given him by God. He even had to ask permission to attack Job. (Job 1:11,12) Moreover, scripture tells us (Col 1:17) that it is God who keeps both Satan and his limited power in existence.

What that means at its most basic is that for reasons we may never know, God willed to create a universe in which evil would exist as part of His overall redemptive plan. Gen 3:9 tells us "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Bluntly, Scripture says God created evil. Jhn 1:3 explains it this way, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

This means God created a Universe in which His Holy plans will be carried to completion regardless of what we think about the category of evil. In the mind of God and in light of what He has revealed of His universal plan for redemption of His creation - the use to which God puts evil is good. Joseph told his brothers, "You meant it for evil but God meant it for good." (Gen 50:20)

Our problem as modern, sophisticated, "religious" people with limited abilities is that we loose sight of the universals; we can't see the forest because of all those trees. By that I mean rather than try to understand the categories -good and evil- the way Scripture tells us God uses them, we assign our own wishful thinking to them. Having done that for centuries we come up with nonsense statements such as "...a righteous loving God cannot create evil."

 

We have conscripted two attributes which belong to the universal that is God's redemptive plan and in our mind's we have separated them in such a way we view them as universals in themselves. They are not universals, they are just attributes of something else, just as bark and leaves are not the tree.

God's plan is good and for it too come to fruition it must have a tension or a counter-balance, that is how the universe is made. That tension is good vs. evil. Just as we cannot know light without its opposite dark, we cannot know good without evil. We loose sight of the fact that in the Garden of Eden just after God had pronounced everything "very good," evil was already present in the form of the Serpent. We like to think about the "very good" but never stop to ask how the Serpent came to be in the neighborhood.  

Do we understand why God made the universe to operate in this manner? Of course not, we are not God. We only have a limited knowledge about God's plan of good and evil because Eve disobeyed God in the Garden and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:9)

So as my friend wrestles with the idea that God has created what Christians abhor - evil, I can only suggest that we should carefully think about, examine, test, reason through, pray about, and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance as we tackle the really tough issues God has left us to deal with. Evil is one of those issues. God made it,, named it, and it exists. In God's mind and plan he has categorized it as good because it is used by Him for His good purposes. (Gen 50:20). We must learn to deal Scripturally with this tension and not with our cliches and slogans.

Jos 23:15 Therefore it shall come to pass, [that] as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Still the constant question is how could a Holy God allow evil to exist? Perhaps we will get to ask Him someday, but in the interim we must accept that He does what His will demands. Judges 9:23 is very explicit that if it is part of God's plan He uses evil - "Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:"

Christ has given us our hope. He died so that we might live. Thus we know that someday, regardless how much we distort the concepts in Scripture Christ will make us alive with Him as part of His Church or Bride. When that day arrives there will be no more evil. (Rev 21:4).

If we deny God's sovereignty over absolutely everything, we are in fact denying God Himself. There is no middle ground on this issue. God is either keeping me in existence, making my synapeses fire as I type, or He isn't. If He isn't there is no such thing as god.

So, although we are maudlin about the idea that a loving God can't use evil because somehow we have gotten the mistaken notion that He is like us and dislikes bad stuff it is emminently clear God created evil, told us about it via the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and uses it for His purposes when He wills it to be necessary.

In the interim some heavy-duty thinking using the brains that God gave us helps a lot. Wishful thinking and sentimental nonsense about who our God is helps no one. God is God and He is sovereign over all that He has made.

Redemption is the plan

When things fell apart in Eden, God did not trash plan A only to move to plan B. He immediately enacted his plan of redemption. This plan includes the redemption of man and the resurrection of his physical body. Paul tells us in Roman 8:19-20 that God is even going to redeem the present earth. If God is not moving to plan B with man and the earth, it is very possible that God will also redeem the animals.

I'm not linking the above quote. I'm using it to pursue a thought, not to point to a particular person for any reason. As a matter of fact, I got the quote from a blog I read frequently because of the truth and wisdom I find there. The thought I'm wrestling with is this: Is God sovereign or not, and if so what does that mean and what are the ramifications.

The writer above eludes to the idea that God does not have alternate plans for His work of redemption. I agree. What I find curious, however, is in our use of language we often trap ourselves by saying inexact things. I do it all the time: I mean to make a particular point, but when I write down the words the concepts I had in mind come out twisted and garbled. We all do this. It is part of the life we live in a fallen universe. I will probably do it in this post, but I hope not.

In the quote the writer says, "...He immediately enacted his plan of redemption." My understanding of Scripture is that God has revealed to us that creation itself, the universe, me, you, dogs, cats, - everything is encompassed in the concept "plan of redemption." I believe everything that exists was made to be redeemed, in my thinking I can't accept that things "fall apart," as though by accident. Things did come "apart" in the garden but not by accident. God designed everything in that story to happen just exactly as He tells us it happened.

Moreover, I believe redemption is the plan, it is not part of something else. Creation was made to fall which makes it the beginning of the "enact(ment) of redemption." If God subsequently enacted a plan of redemption,..." the implication is that it is subsidiary to something else, or a plan "B."

If Creation wasn't made to fall God got blind-sided by Satan and His - God's - original plan was thwarted. Even sin entering the world is part of the "plan of redemption." It did not happen by accident. If any part of creation or redemption is accidental then God is not sovereign and all this time I've spent worshipping Him has been a waste and lost cause. I refuse to accept that idea.

Sin, the fall, all the stuff we humans face in life, yes, even creation itself is the master plan of a sovereign God - and this plan is good. It is very good. (Gen 1:31) God is sovereign and the implications of this fact are seldom examined by we humans.

Thinking is hard work and we don't like to work. We would rather rely on our limited knowledge which can barely deal with the idea that God would have created us for one purpose and one purpose only - redemption. Yet, that is the fact. (Eph 2:1) We, the elect, were created to be redeemed and given to God's Son to live finally with Him as His chosen. (Jhn 15:16)

In the meantime just trying to understand the concept of sovereign is a challenge we should all come to grips with. The word means absolute rule over everything - not just some things. If we accept that definition we have a lot of thinking to clarify.

Some "Christians" just don't believe

The book of Revelation is the only book in the bible which tells the reader he is blessed if he reads it. Rev. 1:3 says: "Blessed [is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keeps those things which are written therein: for the time [is] at hand."

We just completed a study of Revelation in our Wednesday night service at church. One member, an older member, vehemently objects to the parts in which God describes how He will cast many into the lake of everlasting fire at the end of time. She is very vocal about not getting a "blessing" from this passage. (Rev 20:15)

I'm sure she has never thought of the philosophical implications of her position, since most Christians do not think along these lines. However, by stating she is not blessed when she reads Revelation, she is in fact taking a position diametrically opposed to that of God. Her position is, essentially, "I don't like some portions of scripture, therefore I do not believe all of it in contradiction to my stated beliefs in the Holiness, Truthfulness, and Sovereignty of God." Psychologically she suffers from cognitive dissonance, a diagnosable mental illness. 

Her problem arises from the fact we are told "blessed" is he that reads the prophecy, hears the word, and keeps the commands in it.  Her autonomous pride asserts itself against God and His Sovereignty by her statement that she is "not blessed." 

She, like too many Christians today, has taken a position which is antipodal to what God has ordained and revealed to us. Scripture tells us our purpose for existence is to worship the Holy God, but this lady has twisted her belief into the opposite which is a total concern for man's feelings and not what God declares. She, unintentionally, I think, believes that the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture is not fair. (Is 55:8)

Fairness is a man-made concept which has nothing to do with God. God is God and does many things humans cannot understand so in our rebellion we say they are "unfair." Is it "fair" that you and I are sinners because we inherited that status from Adam and Eve. On the human level, of course it isn't fair. But, then, we aren't God are we? So what has fairness to do with anything? (Eze 18:25)

This lady is more concerned with her sentimental human belief concerning the agony of creatures held in an eternal torture chamber than she is in attempting to understand God's purposes for the chamber.  Scripture explains we can't know all of God's purposes, but it does demand that we Worship Him and accept everything He has done or is going to do simply because He is God. As his created beings we are to bow and conform our minds' to His for no other reason than He said so. 

We will never know His mind fully, therefore when we tell Him "I'm not blessed, even though You said I would be,"  we might as well tell him "buzz-off, you don't know what your talking about."

When God says to us, "blessed is he that readeth...," and we say "I am not blessed," does it take a rocket scientist to figure out this lady has serious issues with God's authority? Revelation is the book which explains that our time being stuck in bodies that are conflicted with sin and goodness - knowing good and evil - is just about over. That thought should make every human jump up and down, sing and dance, in praise to God. But, no, there are some who say "I'm not blessed" all because they never really believed in the first place.

Application of Scripture

"[T]he Bible is primarily about God, not you. The essential subject matter is the triune Redeemer Lord, culminating in Jesus Christ. When Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45), he showed how everything written—creation, promises, commands, history, sacrificial system, psalms, proverbs—reveals him. We are reading someone else’s biography. Yet that very story demonstrates how he includes us within his story. Jesus is the Word of God applied, all-wisdom embodied. As his disciples, we learn to similarly apply the Bible, growing up into his image. Application today experiences how the Spirit “rescripts” our lives by teaching us who God is and what he is doing."

I came across the above while reading the blog Creed or Chaos. A chord was struck with me as I read because of certain conversations and events in my life recently. Just this morning I responded to a letter from a friend in which I commented that I am slowly learning (Yes! I still am capable of learning.) to simply tell others what God has said and then just sit back and enjoy watching His Spirit do what He is going to do.

However, that's hard for me to do. My pride wants to have me stick my nose in whatever is going on and "make things happen." But, then I guess that's the American way isn't it? We plan, set agendas, think up programs, set goals, achieve, seek success in everything we do. Then what? As near as I can tell the only way to convince ourselves or anyone else that we have achieved any of this is by doing what Americans do: Consume. We buy new cars, second homes, boats, stuff and things. When we have purchased all our credit cards or cash will allow we begin telling ourselves and others how God has blessed us, that is until reality or bankruptcy sets in.

God's biography, which as stated in the quote above does include you and I personally, but in a much different way than Americanized Christianity has taught so many of us. Little by little I'm learning to accept the Holy Spirits' rescripting of my life. I ain't easy, and often it ain't fun. But, I've never been more at ease or at home in my Christianity than I am when I simply accept the fact that He is the Potter and I am the clay.

Who Chooses Whom?

Who Chooses Whom in Salvation (from Mike Ratliff)

God wills                      John 1:12,13; Eph 1:5, Eph 1:11  

God draws                   John 6:44          

God grants                  John 6:55             

God calls                      1Thes 2:12; 2Thes 2:14; 2Tim 1:9; 1Pet 2:9 

God appoints               Acts 13:48; 1Thes 5:9            

God predestines           Rom 8:29; Eph 1:5, 11           

God prepares               Rom 9:23                          

God causes                  1Cor 1:30                             

God chooses                1Thes 1:4; 2Thes 2:13; Eph 1:4    

God purposes               Eph 1:11                          

God delivers and 
transfers                      Col 1:13               

God saves                    2Tim 1:9: Titus 3:5                            

God makes us alive        Eph 2:5                  

God pours out 
His Spirit                       Titus 3:6                  

God brings us forth        James 1:18


God justifies                  Rom 8:30; Titus 3:7                       

God sanctifies                1Thes 5:23                        

God glorifies                  Rom 8:3                        

The passages above summarize what Sacred Scripture teaches about God’s role in salvation. If you have taken an honest look at these passages then you have seen that God is the ‘first cause’ or initiator of a believer’s salvation. 

Agreeing to disagree?

I read this excerpt on Dr. James Galyon's site 2 Worlds Collide:

Johnny Hunt notes in the foreword to the book Whosoever Will: A Biblical Theological Critique of Calvinism,  “As Baptists, we all know that we have Calvinists and non-Calvinists within our ranks. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is highly exalted when we can acknowledge our differences but join hands around a gospel-centered message to proclaim its truth to the nations.”  He adds, “What I have come to love most about theology is the capacity to agree to disagree but to do it in the spirit of Christ.”

Pasted from <http://drjamesgalyon.wordpress.com/>

Divine Transcendence

Reading A.W. Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy, I came across this:

"Once in conversation with his friend Eckermann, the poet Goethe turned to thoughts of religion and spoke of the abuse of the divine name. ”People treat it,” he said, ”as if that incomprehensible and most high Being, who is even beyond the reach of thought, were only their equal. Otherwise they would not say ‘the Lord God, the dear God, the good God.’ This expression becomes to them, especially to the clergy, who have it daily in their mouths, a mere phrase, a barren name, to which no thought whatever is attached. If they were impressed by His greatness they would be dumb, and through veneration unwilling to name Him."

I couldn't help but think of some the conversations and sermons I've heard in which God was made to sound like a "buddy" not the Entity whom I can't begin to understand or comprehend. He is not my "pal" He is my God. I'm afraid to think less of Him than his Being calls for.

In conversation the other day, a friend mentioned "assurance of salvation." I told him I was like Paul working out my salvation in "fear and trembling." The more I try to understand God the more afraid (awe struck is probably better phrasology) I become. Anyway I told my friend, I will be fully assured of my salvation when I am in Heaven. Until then I trust Christ, attempt to worship the Father and hope I am one of His elect.

We invent a God in whom we wish to believe.

Dr. Mohler is President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. To my mind he is also one of the greatest teachers alive today. His ability to bring clarity to tough subjects is unequaled. His sermon, "How can a God of love send anyone to hell?", I believe, is one of the best, if not the best, I have ever heard on this question.

In it he explains who and why people go to hell. Furthermore, he comments on our American penchant for idolatry, which most of us are unaware is taking place. He says it is:

 "The idolatry wherein we invent a God in whom we wish to believe."

The messsage is 43 minutes long, but Mohler makes is seem as though it is way too short. It is well worth the investment in time to watch. I highly recommend it.