Answering the Tough Questions (3 of 4)
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
Ken Boa
Review:
We've been doing a series on the tremendously difficult problem of evil, suffering, adversity, the problem of how, it seems, that bad things happen to people who don't seem to deserve it, the suffering of the innocent, undeserved suffering, and we're observing a number of things. We looked before at a definition of evil and it is a lack in some good thing or between good things. I was suggesting that evil is not so much a thing that got created, but some distortion in God's good creation. The universe is not as it once was. In Genesis 1, you seeing God saying again and again, it was good. It was good. It finally ends up on the sixth day and what does he say at the creation of humanity. He says, "It was very good." God created us in that way: In the image and the likeness of God, he created us, male and female. He created us. But the Genesis 3 account, talks about the blast of the fall: The titanic self assertion against God, the clenched fist of rebellion that says, not thy will but mine be done. Always, the rebellion of man against God turns out to be based on the notion that somehow, he's holding back from us. Somehow, we know better than God, what our best interests look like, and even to this day, we continue to be tempted that way. I suggest that, as a consequence of rebellion, this is where sin has come in. The source of evil, then, spiritual and then moral, and then physical evil, was a choice, free will. It was a choice that was made, by beings who, because they are agents who can shape their destiny by the choices that they make, also have that terrible freedom of making choices that will lead to disastrous consequences. The most disastrous consequence, of course, would be the choice to alienate oneself from all biological and spiritual life. This is the account in scripture.
God is a personal being. We saw before that there are three world views, three vie ...
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
Ken Boa
Review:
We've been doing a series on the tremendously difficult problem of evil, suffering, adversity, the problem of how, it seems, that bad things happen to people who don't seem to deserve it, the suffering of the innocent, undeserved suffering, and we're observing a number of things. We looked before at a definition of evil and it is a lack in some good thing or between good things. I was suggesting that evil is not so much a thing that got created, but some distortion in God's good creation. The universe is not as it once was. In Genesis 1, you seeing God saying again and again, it was good. It was good. It finally ends up on the sixth day and what does he say at the creation of humanity. He says, "It was very good." God created us in that way: In the image and the likeness of God, he created us, male and female. He created us. But the Genesis 3 account, talks about the blast of the fall: The titanic self assertion against God, the clenched fist of rebellion that says, not thy will but mine be done. Always, the rebellion of man against God turns out to be based on the notion that somehow, he's holding back from us. Somehow, we know better than God, what our best interests look like, and even to this day, we continue to be tempted that way. I suggest that, as a consequence of rebellion, this is where sin has come in. The source of evil, then, spiritual and then moral, and then physical evil, was a choice, free will. It was a choice that was made, by beings who, because they are agents who can shape their destiny by the choices that they make, also have that terrible freedom of making choices that will lead to disastrous consequences. The most disastrous consequence, of course, would be the choice to alienate oneself from all biological and spiritual life. This is the account in scripture.
God is a personal being. We saw before that there are three world views, three vie ...
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