Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 8)

Transcript

JRS 18
08/21/2022
Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 8)
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

Let’s move right along into our eighth lesson in “Summer in the Systematics.” Just making sure everybody has a worksheet. We’re going to fill these out tonight. Might try to make more points on this worksheet every week we go, and it looks like this week, we have something like 19 or 20. So, we’re going to try to speed our way through that, as we take on a very, very major and weighty topic in this subject, “Theology Proper.”

I’ve been noticing, I’m sure you have as well, that the days are getting a little bit shorter. And that means with summer winding down, this study of “Theology Proper” will soon be coming to an end. In fact, after tonight, we’re only going to have two more lessons in this study, next Sunday and the following Sunday. And both of those studies will be on the doctrine of the Trinity. The trinity in two hours, will be my task for the next two Sunday nights. Pray for me, please!

And then, I’m going to be actually gearing up already for next summer’s study, you can see it on the screen behind you there, which will be “Bibliology,” the doctrine of the Bible. That will be the summer of 2023’s evening hour study, like we’ve been doing this summer. And in that study, we’re going to be covering important topics like the inspiration of scripture, the inerrancy of scripture, the canonicity of the 66 books of the bible, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, textual criticism, and how biblical archeology contributes to our understanding of the canon of scripture. So, much to be excited about. Much to be in prayer for.

Now, in terms of the study that we’ve been in this summer, we looked at a variety of topics in this broad field of Theology Proper. We’ve looked at the existence of God. We’ve looked at the knowledge of God. We’ve looked at the names of God. We’ve looked at the foreknowledge of God. We’ve looked at the sovereignty of God. And the topic that we’ll be covering this evening, one that I’ve sort of teased a couple of times in these evening messages, is in one sense very tight and very isolated in its focus. But in another sense, it presents one of those enormous questions that we’ve likely all wrestled with at some point, as believers and maybe even before we were believers. It’s a question that’s led people to develop an inaccurate view of God. It’s a question that’s led many people to have a warped perspective of who God actually is. It’s a question that has led people to question whether God even exists.

And the question is this: how can evil exist in a world that was created by, and upheld by, a good and all-powerful God? We’re going to come back to that question several times tonight. I have that slide woven in through the slides, so don’t worry if you can’t get that all down just now. I’m going to turn that question into a title for this evening. You see it on the heading of your worksheet there, “The Goodness of God (and the Problem of Evil).”

You’ve heard the question before, I’m sure. Maybe in your evangelism, maybe in your apologetic encounters with weaker in the faith believers. How could a good and powerful God allow the atrocities at Auschwitz to take place? How could a good and powerful God allow the tragic events of 9/11 to occur? How could a good and powerful God allow my wife to walk out on me? How could a good and powerful God allow my husband to lose his job? How could a good and powerful God allow my child to be afflicted with terminal cancer? How could a good and all-powerful God allow my parents to go to hell?

These are real questions. These are raw questions. And it’s important to note, that these are questions, the questions themselves, that have at least in some sense, been reflected in the pages of scripture. Consider David, the man after God’s own heart, as he cries out to the Lord with these questions. Psalm 13:1-2, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”

Or consider Asaph, who wrestled with the Lord using these words in Psalm 77: 7-9, “Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to and end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion?” Or how about the words of our Lord, in Matthew 27:46, “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? That is, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me’?” In each of these, some form of appeal is being made to God, in the form of a question, better stated in the form of a lament, as to why a good and all-powerful God is allowing evil events to take place. And why a good and all-powerful God is allowing evil men seemingly to prevail. In other words, there is biblical precedent for the question that we’re staring down here this evening. How can evil exist in a world that was created by, and is upheld by, a good and all-powerful God?

Now, we have limited time tonight to cover this truly massive question. So, the best approach I’ve come up with is this. To start by defining basic terms and concepts. That will be the first part of tonight’s outline there on your worksheet. Then we’ll engage with various views that have been offered throughout the years on this matter of how to reconcile God’s goodness and God’s omnipotence with the very obvious and real existence of evil in the world. That will be heading two on your worksheet on page one moving into page two. And then finally, we’ll land on and explain what I believe is a biblically-faithful set of principles on how to work through this important subject. That will be the third part of our lesson for this evening.

So, let’s start with definitions. There, I’m in section one on your worksheet, and I’m going to start by giving you a big theological term up front. This will be your first blank there on your sheet and it’s this word. “Theodicy.” Theodicy. I’m actually going to back into giving you a definition of this term by providing you some remarks about this concept on the front end. See, one of the most persistent arguments against the existence of the God of the Bible, put another way, one of the most regularly used arguments for God’s non-existence -- whether leveled by outright atheists or by those who claim to believe in God but actually lobby for a sub-biblical view of who God is -- is the existence of physical and moral evil in the world. The argument that is commonly made is the simple fact that evil exists in the world. And the fact that evil exists in the world disproves God’s existence entirely. Or at least disproves the Bible’s account of the true nature and character of God.

So, getting back to our definition, our first definition. When we are endeavoring to put together a theodicy, or putting forth a theodicy would be the way to say it, we are putting forth a biblically prescribed justification for embracing the twin realities of the existence of the good God revealed in Scripture and the existence of evil in the world.

See, theodicy is a compound Greek term and it literally means, here you go, the “justification of God.” The two terms, the two Greek words that make that word “theodicy” -- “theos,” God and “dike” justification -- when you mash them together you get theodicy, “justification of God.” What a biblical Christian theodicy is then is this, “a vindication of God’s justice against the charge that the presence of evil in the world shows that God is either unjust, impotent, or nonexistent.” I’ll say it again because that is an important definition and I want to give you time to jot it down if you’re taking notes. “A vindication of God’s justice against the charge that the presence of evil in the world shows that God is either unjust, impotent, or nonexistent.” And, what a biblical Christian theodicy ultimately leads to, as we’re going to see this evening, is the confident declaration that not only God exists but that He is all-powerful and all-good. Even though, from our limited and finite human perspective this might not seem to be the case in fact, in light of the fact that evil exists in the world.

So our challenge this evening in crafting a biblical theodicy is to show that the existence of evil in the world does not disprove the existence of the God of the Bible as He has revealed Himself in the Bible. So that’s our first definition. Theodicy. And that’s the description of our overall task in tonight’s lesson.

Let’s move into our second definition. A little more straightforward. Goodness. That’s 1b on your outline there. We’re not going to spend too much time on this one. We get the sense of what’s being communicated here because it’s a common term. But also we’ve already defined and worked through the Scripture, what Scripture teaches us, about the goodness of God a few weeks ago. There, you’ll recall in a previous lesson, we saw that the goodness of God refers to two aspects of His goodness. First, we saw that God’s “goodness” refers to what God is in and of Himself. He is intrinsically good in His essence and His character. We saw there that His intrinsic goodness refers to His supreme moral excellence. Psalm 34:8, “the Lord is good.” God is the very source of good, the very definition of good. What we know to be good we can only understand as such by referring to the very standard of goodness, which is God Himself.

We also saw that that God’s goodness refers to what God is toward His creatures. That would be His extrinsic goodness, how He outwardly or externally demonstrates His goodness to His creation at large. Matthew 5:45, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” And how… we also talked about how He demonstrates a unique form of goodness rooted in the love that He has and the love that He shows toward those specifically who belong to Him. Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Through Scripture then, we know that God is good.

But it’s also through our experience that we can confirm that He is good. I’m sure that if I were to ask each one of you to take the next 30 minutes… I give you a blank piece of paper and a pencil or a pen to write out the various ways that God has been good to you in your life, you could take 30 minutes and do that exercise faithfully. You could spend 30 minutes and probably many more expressing how God has been good to you. I mean, think about the patience and forbearance He has shown you when you absolutely didn’t deserve it. When what your sin instead deserved, and my sin deserved instead, was hell. Think about the people He has brought into your life. The ones who changed your diapers and fed you. The ones who taught and instructed and mentored you. The ones who shared the gospel with you. The ones who taught you God’s Word. Think about the experiences He has allowed you to have. Moms holding that newborn child for the first time. Dads seeing that toddler’s face light up when he comes home from work. Grandparents bouncing that grandchild on the knee or pushing them on a swing. God is not only indescribably good in His person and His essence. He has been indescribably good toward His creation and toward His people. He is good.

Let’s move into our third definition. This would be 1c on your worksheet. That would be the power of God. “Power” would be the blank there for 1c which is better known in theological circles as His omnipotence, which we’ve already covered. I won’t belabor this one too much. But omnipotence refers to the fact that God is all-powerful. He is able to accomplish anything He designs or desires, so long as it is not contrary to His nature. The all-powerful nature of God is reflected in His name. When we studied the names of God we saw that His is El Shaddai, meaning “Almighty God.”

The all-powerful nature of God is revealed in His Word. Psalm 115:3, “He does whatever He pleases.” Luke 1:37, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Ephesians 3:20, God “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” So the all-powerful, almighty nature of God is revealed in His word.

And of course, the all-powerful, almighty nature of God is reflected in His works. His power is revealed in His creation of the world. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Psalm 8:3-4, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” His power is revealed in His creation.

His power is also revealed in His upholding of creation. Hebrews 1:3, He “upholds all things by the word of His power.”

And His power, last, is revealed in His revealing of His plans of redemption and salvation. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power for God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Or 1 Peter 1:5, we “are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” God is undeniably powerful. God is unrivaled in His omnipotence.

Which brings us to our fourth definition. This would be “d,” 1d on your worksheet there. “Evil.” Our next concept would be evil. Now the concept of evil really falls into two categories. And you’ll see it on the slide here. Traditionally, the first category has been referred to by theologians and philosophers as “natural evil.” This would include destructive forces in nature of various types, earthquakes, fires, floods, hail, tornados, pestilence, tidal waves, cancer. Natural evil. The second category has been referred to as “moral evil.” This would include actions which have their source in the decisions and actions of human beings. This would include criminal acts, acts of cruelty, acts of war, and slavery of the American, forced-servitude type. It’s an over-used phrase but it’s over-used because it’s true. If you want to be convinced of the existence of evil in the world just turn on the evening news. Or, for to use a more modern illustration, just scroll through Facebook or scroll through Twitter, or scroll through Instagram, or just download the Fox News app or the MSNBC app on your phone and see all the evil that’s happening in the world. Or watch The Daily Wire or read the Babylon Bee or tune in to any of the major social commentators of our day and they will demonstrate for you in plentitude that evil does exist in this world. We live in a world that is under the curse of sin. We live in a world that is overrun by spiritually dead and morally-bankrupt, spiritual rebels. And we live in a world whose god, in the lower-case “g” sense. 2 Corinthians 4:4 teaches us is Satan, who Jesus told us in John 8:44 was a “murderer from the beginning.”

So there we have it. We have, you could say, the horns of the dilemma. On one horn is the undeniable goodness of God and the power of God. But on the other horn is the undeniable existence of evil in the world. And this is not mere academic stuff because this is the kind of stuff that hits you square in the jaw when you’re talking to your neighbor in your driveway because now that neighbor, that unbelieving neighbor, or maybe that skeptical UNL student at Big Red Week that everybody is talking to tonight, or that doubting child, or that roommate who claims to be a Christian, or that friend who goes to the liberal church, or that dear brother or sister in the faith who is walking through a grievous trial. They are asking you a question. The question that we’ve already seen a few times on these slides. How can evil exist in a world that was created by, and is upheld by, a good and all-powerful God? What are you going to say? What is your approach going to be? What truths from Scripture come to mind? How are you going to present those truths? And in what order? How are you going to build your theodicy? What wisdom will you be sharing with them? And where is that wisdom going to be coming from?

That brings us now to the second part of our lesson tonight. We’ve worked through some basic definitions. Now, we’re going to engage with various different views that have been offered on how to reconcile God’s goodness and the existence of evil in the world. So what I’m going to do in this section of the message tonight is lay out various faulty answers that have been given to this question of the existence of evil in a world created by a good God. Put another way, these are not the answers that you would want to supply to the person who is asking you about how you think about the intersection between these two realities. But you should be aware of these answers nonetheless because there are many out there who would offer these answers as legitimate answers to the question we are seeking to answer tonight.

So, the matter of theodicy, as I’ve tried to articulate, is really built around a dilemma which theologians of different stripes over the centuries have attempted to articulate throughout the years. I think John Frame has summarized though this dilemma best. He lays out this dilemma with three basic premises, and in doing so, he lays in these two different conclusions. You’re going to see what I mean in just a second. As I lay these out, by the way, I want to make sure you understand that this is not what Frame believes. Rather, this is John Frame’s framing, as it were, of the issues in this question about the intersection between God’s goodness and the existence of evil in the world. So this is Frame’s theodicy, you could say.

Here's “Premise 1: If God were all-powerful He would be able to prevent evil,” premise one. “Premise 2: If God were all-good, he would desire to prevent evil.” Here’s the inter-laid “Conclusion: So, if God were both all-powerful and all-good, there would be no evil. Premise 3, but there is evil. Conclusion: Therefore, there is no all-powerful, all-good God.” This will be what you face out there in the philosophy classrooms and some of the theology classrooms across the globe. So this is what we’re up against. This is the rational, the worldly wisdom, that will be supplied in response to this question about the existence of a good God and the reality, the real reality, of evil in the world. Frame is just highlighting the issue.

Another one who highlighted the issue was E.J. Carnell, a renowned apologist from Fuller Seminary, before it went hard left, way back in the 1940s. Carnell says this, “Either God wants to prevent evil, and He cannot do it; or He can do it and does not want to; or He neither wishes to nor can do it; or He wishes to and can do it. If He has the desire without the power, He is impotent; if He can, but has not the desire, He has a malice which we cannot attribute to Him; if He has neither the power nor the desire, He is both impotent and evil, and consequently not God; if He has the desire and the power, whence then comes evil, or why does He not prevent it? Is it logical to believe that God is sovereign both in goodness and in might, when the universe is of such a character that the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper?”

Again, he’s framing it up. And my purpose for you this evening in bringing these quotes before you is this. To highlight for you that if you’ve wrestled with the question, these questions of the existence of a good God and the existence of evil in this world, you are not alone. Before you, there have been countless scholars and theologians, and pastors and professors, and elders and deacons, and housewives and children, who have wrestled with these very questions. But as we’re about to see, not all of the solutions that have been offered have been good ones. And by good ones I mean biblically faithful ones.

Let’s work through a few of the solutions that have been proposed as we attempt to resolve this tension, in one hour, between the character of God and the existence of evil in the world.
Here’s our first proposed solution, not our proposed solution, but a solution that has been offered out there in the world that we’re going to work through. Evil is an illusion. That would be “2a” on your worksheet. This is the the first solution that we’re going to work through, “illusionism.” According to this view, all material reality is an illusion. The carpet’s an illusion. My fingertips are an illusion. This sanctuary is an illusion. It’s all an illusion. All that we see, or we think we see in front of us, doesn’t represent reality. And according to this view, evil like anything else is an illusion. Nothing is evil, it just appears to be evil. This would have been the view that was offered by Parmenides, the Greek philosopher, back in the sixth century B.C. This view continues on in segments of Hinduism as well as in segments of the Christian Science movement.

Responses. Well, denying the existence of evil does not eliminate it. Right? Just because you say evil doesn’t exist doesn’t mean evil doesn’t actually impact you or harm you or hurt you.

Further we could reply to someone who holds this view about evil being an illusion that they themselves are subject to the illusion with their thoughts that they think evil is an illusion. Their whole thought process is an illusion.

In addition, those who hold to this view, without fail, never hold to it consistently. Though they may deny that evil is real, when evil impacts them, they act accordingly. I’m reminded of an old theological panel a long time ago that the late R.C. Sproul was on, and someone asked him the question, “My brother does not believe in sin or evil. How do I convince him?” And Sproul like that (speaker snaps his fingers) said, “Steal his wallet.” This shuts them down.

You know, this view, that evil is an illusion, if we’re honest with ourselves, does not comport with reality and most importantly it does not line up with Scripture. Scripture testifies to a real world, created by a real God, in six real days. It testifies to a real curse that was brought on by real people. It testifies to there being consequences for the sin of those real people. It testifies to a real substitute who was offered in our place in the person of Jesus Christ. It highlights a real gospel that we are called to proclaim. It highlights the fact that a real Christ is building a real church in the midst of a real, darkening world. Illusionism, in other words has no basis in Scripture and it has no basis in fact.

Let’s look at another view. This would be the view that God is not all-powerful. That would be “2b” on your worksheet, God is not all-powerful. According to this view, which was held by philosophers like John Stuart Mill and William James, the solution to this matter of the existence of evil in the world is to say that God is not all-powerful, to say that He is finite. He is either finite in His power or He is finite in His goodness or He is finite in His love, but He is limited. And because He has these limitations, on His person and His being, He is unable to destroy, prevent, or withhold or withstand evil.

Responses. Well, if God is finite in His power or goodness or love then He cannot be eternal and self-existent. He must have been caused because only an infinite cause, the “Unmoved Mover,” remember, we talked about that a while back, would explain the existence of finite things. So if God is a finite being then He cannot be God. There must be a god or an infinite being that created Him.

Moreover, this view, as we know, is contradicted by the testimony of Scripture. The testimony of Scripture, as we’ve worked through in this series, very clearly and very consistently is that God is eternal, and God is infinite. For instance, we know that God existed before creation, Genesis 1:1; John 1:1. We know that God is God “from everlasting to everlasting,” Psalm 90:2. We know that with God “the number of His years is unsearchable,” Job 36:26. We know that God will endure forever, Psalm 102:27. We know that He is called El Olam, the “Everlasting God,” Isaiah 40:28. And we know, from Romans 16:26, that He is “the eternal God.” Putting all those scriptural pieces together then, we can conclude that God is eternal in His essence. He has no beginning. He has no ending. He is infinite and thus, all-powerful. That’s “the God is not all-powerful” view, or the “God is finite” view, would be another way of phrasing it.

Next up is the “sadism” view, the sadism view. According to this view God is all-powerful and God is eternal, but He is not all-good, and He is not all-loving and the result of that is He actively delights in, or at minimum, is not concerned by the existence of evil in His creation. According to this view, by way of His power and might, God made an evil world so that He could somehow derive enjoyment from it as He watches it suffer as it experiences evil. It’s a real view out there, actually articulated.

Responses. First, it is not logically allowable to say that God is not good unless we are measuring Him by some ultimate moral standard of goodness. In other words, simply by bringing the concept of goodness into the equation means we are necessarily conceding that there is some sort of ultimate standard of goodness out there in the world. And what is that standard and where does it come from? Better yet, who does it come from? God! You remember what Jesus said in Mark 10:18, “No one is good except God alone.”

Second response to this sadism view, that the presence of evil in the world does not logically necessitate that the One who arguably permitted it enjoys witnessing it any more than a parent who has an unruly child enjoys witnessing their unruliness. Any more than a wife who has an adulterous husband enjoys witnessing her husband’s acts of adultery. Any more than an adult child whose parents are drunkards enjoys witnessing his or her parents’ drunkenness.

Also, it is logically contradictory to say that God would create and sustain the universe as an act of His love, while at the same time torturing the universe through acts of evil for purposes of His own sadistic pleasure. It sounds so simple and silly to say this, but God could not and would not love and torture His creation at the same time. And moreover, while the testimony of Scripture is clear, that He loves and cares for His creation. Matthew 5:45, “He causes His sun,” we’ve seen this already, “to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” So we see that He loves His creation. But we see no Scriptural evidence for God, in any way, delighting in bringing calamity upon the planet or its people. Instead, Scripture says the opposite. Ezekiel 18:31, “‘For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Therefore, repent and live.’ ” Or Ezekiel 33:11, “‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.’ ” God does not delight in wickedness. God does not take pleasure in evil. 1 John 1:5, “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” But God does allow wickedness to occur, and He does permit evil to exist in this world to accomplish His good and perfect ends, and ultimately for His own glory.

You might remember this quote from last week’s Sunday evening message, from Charles Ryrie which says, “God has a plan, which is all inclusive, which He controls, which includes but does not involve Him in evil, and which ultimately is for the praise of His glory.” Such a crucial distinction there. “God has a plan… which He controls, which includes but does not involve Him in evil.” Those are all the responses to this sadism view.

Next, number four on your worksheet there. This would be “2d,” would be the the “impossibility” view. According to this view God is all-powerful and He’s all-loving and He’s all-good but it is impossible for God to foresee future events including future evil events. Because, according to this view, God has not predetermined each of those events and man has libertarian free will. According to this impossibility view, you could say, God is “off the hook” for evil acts committed by mankind because God Himself could not have foreseen that those events would occur. This view, the impossibility view, worships the god of open theism. And, according to open theism, as we saw in weeks past, the future is open in the mind of God. God, according to open theists, is adapting or changing in response to events as they occur in time.

Well, for our immediate purposes, let’s lay out some of the key responses to this impossibility view. A first response to this view would be that it portrays a God who is not actually omniscient. It portrays a God who did not know us before He formed us in the womb, as Jeremiah 1:5 says. It portrays a God who does not know our needs before we ask Him like Jesus said in Matthew 6:8. It portrays a God who has not numbered each of the hairs on our head as Jesus said in Matthew 10:30. It portrays a God who does not know when we sit down and when we rise up as it says in Psalm 139:2.

Further, this view presents a God who is not actually omnipotent. So, it’s not only that He is not omniscient but that He’s not omnipotent. He is not a God who can do “whatever He pleases” like Psalm 115:3 says. There are some things that are “too difficult for the Lord,” contrary to Genesis 18:14. He is not “able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think,” like Paul says in Ephesians 3:20. And there are purposes of His, unlike what it says in Job 42:2, that “can be thwarted.”

But what is the clear testimony of Scripture? It is laced into every one of those scriptures I’ve just laid out. The clear testimony of scripture is the clear testimony and statement of the angel Gabriel regarding the conception of Jesus Christ, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” So this impossibility view presents a god who is ignorant and weak and flawed which, I hope I’m showing here, is clearly at odds with the biblical representation of who God actually is.

Well, another response to and refutation of this impossibility view is that it presents a god who is unable to give anyone any sense, any sure sense of hope that evil will eventually be overcome. You know… see, to take this view to its logical conclusion would require affirming that evil may somehow triumph in the end. If you were to take this view to its logical conclusion it would require rendering Jesus’ final words on the cross, “tetelestai,” something like “it may be finished,” “perhaps it’s finished,” “I wonder if it’s finished,” “I hope it’s finished.” As opposed to what the Lord actually cried out on the cross, “It is finished.” Death doesn’t win. Evil doesn’t win. Satan doesn’t win. Christ has already won based on the words that left the lips of our Lord’s on that piece of wood two thousand years ago. No, God is not the “God of the possible” like the open theists say. He is the God that is. He is the God of all that is. And He is the God of all that will ever be.

Here’s our next view, our next faulty view, and I think this will take us to the other side of your page. The free will /Arminian view. Free will/Arminianism. According to this view evil originates exclusively in the free choice of creatures and those choices are not caused by, but not only that, those choices are not controlled or foreordained by God so that God cannot be held accountable for evil. This would be the classic, the view of classic Arminianism that God is not controlling or in any way involved with our own evil choices. But there are actually some in the world of Reformed theology, including a man, Alvin Plantinga, who in his book, “God, Freedom, and Evil” adopted a version of this view.

The response to the free will/Arminian view would first and foremost be to say that the Arminian concept of freedom, as we talked about a couple weeks ago, is wrong. While it is true that before the Fall man had the ability to choose either good or evil, after the Fall man can choose only evil. Genesis 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Now, when a sinner like you or I is regenerated, that means when we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, the freedom of choice between good and evil that we lost in the Fall is restored. So, we now have the ability, by the power of the Spirit living in us, to make good choices. That is, choices that honor God.

But as it relates to what happens in the world, including the decisions and choices that people make in the world, the testimony of Scripture is clear. Man’s choices are determined and foreordained by God. Acts 2:23, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” And the testimony of Scripture, when evil is addressed, is not to adopt some libertarian view of man’s so-called free will “to write God out of the equation,” so to speak. Rather, the Scriptures repeatedly testify to God’s being included in, though not involved with (to borrow Ryrie’s phrase again) evil.

We went through all these last week. I’m going to go through them very, very quickly and read very fast. But these are those verses where we see that the combination of God’s sovereign will over things that we perceive to be good, bad, good, evil. “See now,” Deuteronomy 32:39, “that I,” this is God speaking, “I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.” 1 Samuel 2:6-7, “The Lord kills and makes alive; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts.” Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, “Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent? In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider—God has made the one as well as the other.” Lamentations 3:37-38, “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?” Isaiah 45 [verses 6-7], “I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.” Last one. Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

Further we know, the emphasis in Scripture is consistently on the divine sovereignty of God in evil in working all things out according to His perfect purposes. Genesis 50:20, the words of Joseph, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Paul in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Here's our next one. Second to last on our second section there, would be the
“God is not good” view. And according to this view, this will be a short one, this conclusion naturally must be reached based on the existence of evil in the world. The fact that evil exists in the world, according to this view, the God is not good view, is that God is not good. Evil exists. God is not good. That’s their argument. There’s not much to say in response to this argument because we’ve already established in this lesson tonight and in previous lessons that through the study of Scripture the testimony is clear, and also by experience, that God is good. God’s testimony in Scripture to His own goodness overrides any flawed notions that man may have about His goodness or lack thereof.

That brings us our final flawed way of thinking, the “God does not exist” view. And as it suggests, according to this view the existence of evil proves that the God of the Bible does not exist. This is better known as atheism. Well, as I said in a previous lesson, there’s no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as an atheist. I don’t believe in atheists, and neither should you. What we know from Scripture is that the law of God has been impressed on the hearts of all men. That’s Romans 2:14-16, “For when the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” The law of God is inscribed upon the hearts of all men. What does that suggest? That there is a divine Lawgiver who is impressing and impressing into the consciences and the hearts of all men. We see that picked up in places like Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has “set eternity in their heart.” Or Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” What these passages teach is that everyone at some deep-down level, and this is why I say this sort of smart-alecky statement that there’s no such thing as an atheist. The reality from Scripture is that everyone at some deep-down level believes in the existence of God. The problem is, as we know from Romans 1:18, is that in our natural, unregenerate state we all suppress the truth that we know about God “in unrighteousness” so that we can justify living however it is we want to live. Embracing and loving our sin, and disregarding what we know to be true about the God we are shaking our fist in opposition to or denying His existence. All that to say, the atheism solution, the atheist’s solution, the God does not exist solution for solving the problem of the existence of evil in this world is a non-starter. God does exist. God is good. God is omnipotent. But as we’ve seen, evil exists as well.

So, with all these faulty and flawed systems for thinking about God and the existence of evil that are out there and are now out of the way… and by the way, I need to recognize that so much more could be said about each one of these views and there are many more views that are thrown out there to tackle this question. It’s time to finally lay before you, with about ten minutes to go and ten points to make, a biblical theodicy.

Now, I want to make very clear here. And I want to sympathize here. I know that there has to be in this auditorium tonight, a wide spectrum of suffering represented here this evening. Some of you are suffering greatly now. Some of you are suffering or have been suffering greatly recently. Maybe some of you are tuning in who can’t be here tonight are suffering greatly now or in recent days. For some of you, suffering is all you’ve known as a follower of Christ. And this means that for some of you, you are actively wrestling with or have wrestled with the topic that we’re working through right now. The existence of very real evil and very real pain and very real suffering in a world that you have been told, and the Bible affirms, has been created by a good God. So I want you to know that my aim here is in building out this theodicy, is to teach this topic Scripturally but sensitively. And I pray it will help you form your own thoughts on this subject as you encounter various forms of evil in the world and in your life, as you navigate various dark nights of the soul.

So, to begin with, as we build out this theodicy we are going to be, in fact, we need to be unapologetically biblical in our treatment of this subject. Unlike all the other philosophical treatments that we’ve seen up to now, if we’re going to validly justify the existence and goodness of the God of the Bible against those who shake their fist toward Him because of the reality of and the presence of evil in the world, if we’re saying, “You’re not being biblical,” we better, well, be biblical as we build our case for His existence and His goodness in the face of evil and wickedness.

So, I’m going to run through these real quick. There’s ten of them. Here’s the first one. Point 1, God predetermines all events. Predetermines all events. We’ve seen this in our last couple of sessions. I’m going to run through these fairly quickly so if you don’t get this down all the way I apologize in advance. Borrow from your neighbors worksheet. God predetermines all events. Ephesians 1:11, God “works all things after the counsel of His will.” We have spent significant time these past two weeks looking at this verse as we’ve considered the eternal decree of God and the exhaustive scope of the sovereignty of God. That He has decreed all that has happened, is happening, or will happen in this world. It’s all been foreordained by an infinitely wise and all-powerful God. The God of the Bible. So point 1, He predetermines all events.

Here's point 2. The Fall resulted in physical difficulties and catastrophes. The Fall resulted in physical difficulties and catastrophes. We know that sin entered into the world through Adam’s sin. Romans 5:12, “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to men, because all sinned.” There’s that verse, Romans 5:12. Woman was cursed in childbearing. Man was cursed, laboring by the sweat of his brow. The serpent was cursed to slither on his belly. And the creation was cursed. Romans 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it.” Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Because of the entrance of sin into the world, death, disease, and calamity now exist on this planet. Sharks bite. Hornets sting. Cancer spreads. Lives are cut short. All because of sin.

Point 3, “c” I guess, on your worksheet there. God predetermines sin but makes man accountable for his sin. God predetermines sin but makes man accountable for his sin. As we’ve seen through the Ryrie quote that I’ve mentioned a few times now, God’s plan includes Him with or includes Him in but does not involve Him with evil. And we see this no more starkly than the events leading up to the crucifixion of our Lord. Again, Acts 2:23, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” Did God predetermine the events at Calvary? Yes. Were Jesus’ executioners responsible for the events that took place at Calvary? Yes. You see what’s being said in this verse is that both God and the godless men are being described as being included in what transpired at Calvary.

Point 4, God hardens sinners in sin. God hardens sinners in sin. That’s Romans 9:18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” He did so with Pharaoh. We see that in Exodus 9. He does so with the reprobate which we saw a couple weeks ago. Note that the sin is already there. God doesn’t implant sin in the heart. God’s not placing sin or wickedness or evil in an otherwise good heart. Sin is already there. God is not the cause of wickedness or evil. The sin, the wickedness, the evil is resident. It’s innate in the human heart. And God hardens them in it as it says here in Romans 9:18, as He carries out His perfect decree and will.

Point 5, God never tempts people to sin. God tries people. God tests people. God purifies people. God refines people. But God never tempts people to sin. Satan is the tempter. God tempts no one. Those aren’t my words, by the way. Those are the words of Scripture. Specifically in James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God;’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”

Point 6, God is never blamed for sin or portrayed as enjoying the sin He permits. Sin is an offense against God. Psalm 51:4, “Against You,” David says, “You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” Sin can never be laid at God’s feet. He cannot be blamed for sin. No, sin is resident in the innate wickedness of the human heart. And while God does permit sin to occur to accomplish His perfect will, as we’ve seen already, He takes no pleasure or delight in the sin He permits.

Point 7, God never coerces man to sin, but allows man to sin freely and thus be culpable. God never coerces man to sin, but allows man to sin freely and thus be culpable, guilty. James 1:14-15, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” Did you catch the language there? You see where the root and responsibility for sin lie? “Each one is tempted.” That’s man. “He is carried away.” That’s man. By “his own lust.” That’s man. God is not culpable. Man is culpable.

Point 8, God controls people’s sin in a mysterious and unrevealed way. For this one I think David’s census of Israel is a real interesting study as to how this appears to work, albeit, in mystery. I’m going to wait for you guys to catch up. I see some of you are still writing. I’m delaying intentionally. I’m not just trying to keep you here late. Look at this, 2 Samuel 24:1. It says, “The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’ ” Here the focus is on the anger of the Lord burning against Israel inciting David, it says. But then 2 Samuel 24:10 says “Now David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people,” attributing the census to David. But then look at 1 Chronicles 21:1. “Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.” You know, of course, the critics would say this is evidence that the Scriptures are not true. That there are contradictions in them. No, this is actually highlighting this working of God behind the scenes in He is working behind the scenes of all the different players involved in the evil that’s occurring but ultimately is not responsible. He’s not the ultimate actor. What we have in these three passages is the apparent involvement of Satan under God’s divine allowance in moving David to sinfully number the Israelites. How does it all work? I don’t know. I don’t know that I need to know, though. It’s what Scripture says. So I am, and you are, called to embrace it.

Point 9, God is glorified in causing calamities and in judging sin. And I’m just going to bring out one reference for this one. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Famous doxology of Paul in Romans 11 [verse 36}. “From Him” comes everything, including calamities. So “to Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Pretty simple and straightforward.

Point 10, and this one gets often overlooked, frankly and sadly, when building out a biblical theodicy. God has graciously provided salvation from sin. This one is so essential and so central, but in human wisdom is often overlooked. God has graciously provided salvation from sin. Romans 3 [verse 23-26], “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” If we have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation that means we have been washed in His blood. We have been forgiven at the cross. We have been given a new heart, a new outlook, a new faith and that’s a significant part of our theodicy. A part of our theodicy that cannot be overlooked. As John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue say, “The change of values given with the new heart lifts one’s eyes past the evils of this life to the God who will finally end evil and is even now using it for His purpose.” It is this new perspective then, with new eyes of faith, that is at the foundation of the Christian’s theodicy. And it is the Bible, God’s very Word, that is the basis, the source, of the Christian theodicy. It is Scripture ultimately which vindicates not only God’s existence, but highlights each of His attributes, including His goodness. and His power, and His love in the face of the reality of evil in the dark world in which we live.

So, those are ten components of a biblical theodicy with Scriptures hanging out there to support each one of them. I pray it encourages you. I pray it, I’m sure, in some ways it’s going to cause you to scratch your head and worship and wonder how God works all things together to accomplish His perfect will. But that really is the purpose of our study tonight, to say that God, we trust You. We know You. We know You through the blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We know that You revealed Yourself in Your word. And we know that You are good, supremely good, even in the midst of calamity and evil and difficulty in this world. Amen? Alright.

Well, that concludes our time for tonight. Next week the Trinity, in two weeks. Let’s pray. God, we again say thank You for this evening and this time of study in Your word. And as we come to a subject like this it seems an impossible task to try to condense into an hour a topic that is so multi-layered. A topic that weaves together so many different topics. And a topic in our human limitations we really cannot fully grasp. But I pray that tonight Your word has been honored. That Your name has been upheld. And that You have encouraged the dear saints here, saints in Christ, to look to the right Scriptures and find the right solutions, when they come across evil or wickedness or tragedy in this world, which surely at some point they’ll encounter or will befall them. We ask that You would guide us this coming week. That You would give us strength for whatever You might bring into our path. And that in all things we might bring You great glory and praise. In Christ’s name, amen.