Good
Defining good is not as easy as it first seems. We want to define good as anything that
happens to me that is pleasing and brings me joy or happiness. In that sense a cold soft drink on a hot day
could be defined as good. A warm puppy
snuggling down into your arms can be thought of as good. Now while these things are interesting and
may be pleasant but to ascribe the title of good to it might be a bit of a
stretch. When we look at the life of
Jesus, who as the Son of the Living God, the very incarnation of God Himself
when He was confronted with a young man who called him good he replied, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good
except God alone.” (Mark 10:18b NASB)
Even Jesus was hesitant to label Himself good (of course we know that He
was making a point and at the same time exhibiting humility). This points the fact that our definition of
good is skewed. We cannot help but
explain things in an anthropomorphic sense.
We have to constantly put our own thoughts, ideas, commentaries and
wants into the words and actions of God.
As Job found out when he went through his ordeal, God is God and He does
what He pleases to His creation.
As His creation we have no right to complain when the
creator chooses, for whatever reason, to cause a vessel He has created to die
or become broken. We cannot throw around
the idea of good and evil like we understand them. These titles have eternal and divine meaning
that we have yet to comprehend. Good is
not nice things that happen to me. Good
is God. Another theologian says, “God is
by definition beyond moral evaluation.”[1] We, like Job, have not the right to question
the fundamental nature of God.
Evil
A theologian had this to say;
“Christian
orthodoxy has always dealt with this problem by trying to explain evil and
suffering in a way that resolves the inconsistency without eliminating any of
the divine attributes. Some have argued
that evil is only apparent and not ultimately real. Things may appear evil to
us but that is to perceive things from our limited perspective; it is to view
things in light of what we like or do not like. If we could see things from
God's eternal perspective, we would see them very differently.”[2]
Another
theologian says, “God is by definition beyond moral evaluation.”[3]
These
two men seem to have the best combined answer to how we are to look at the
question. There are problems with both
of these approaches.
The
first one suggests that there is really no evil that all things will eventually
work out into some future hidden good.
The problem with this is that if we go down this road then it is likely
that we will become rather callus or immune to the evils that do happen in the
world. Evils like famine, plague,
murder, rape, war, and others. It seems
clear that these things are hated by God.
Jesus taught that we are to love and show love to all men regardless of
whether or not they are our enemies. We
are to give cold water in His name and to help the widows and orphans in their
distress. An Anglican Preacher by the
name of Eric Delve delivered a sermon in the International Baptist Church of
Jurbise, Belgium in the winter of 2010 and in that sermon he told of an
encounter that he had. He shared that
after he finished a service an older woman came up to him and told him that God
had sent her to him to have him pray over her dying son. The preacher was tired and did not really
feel like doing it but he reluctantly agreed to follow the woman home. When he got there he met the young man dying
of a rare form of cancer that had affected the bones of his back, neck and
legs. It was spreading into his brain
and the doctors only gave the boy days to live.
The moment that Eric Delve walked into the room he was overcome with an
intense and righteous fury that did not come from him. He claims that it came from God. The anger was at the cancer that had hurt
this poor boy so badly. He prayed long,
loud and hard for the boy and after he said good-bye and left. He did not see the boy or the mother again
for a long time, so long in-fact that he was certain that the boy was
dead. He received a call from the mother
a few years later thanking him for his prayers.
The child recovered and the doctors did not know why, the child was
alive and well. In the mind of Eric
Delve God hates evil and has commanded us to hate it as well.
Conclusion
Looking
at this story and the quotes from the two theologians from the beginning of
these sections this makes the argument that we can become immune to evil as a
very real possibility. I would have to
say that yes we have become immune to a degree to the evil that exists in the
world. While God may not be judged by
our moral standards we still will be by His.
How do we deal with the apparent evil that is rampant in our world? We hate it just as God does. We struggle against it, just as Jesus did
while He walked the earth. We seek to
have our heart break for the things that breaks God’s heart. We are His hands and feet, we are His
free-agents of change in this wicked, rebellious, and evil world. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that
believes in the revealed Sovereign God that He hates evil. The problem that we are confronted with every
day is what are we individually doing about the evil that we face? To take a step back away from evil that we
face is to tacitly allow it to go on. It
is easy to do nothing when we see bad things happen, and as God’s free-agents
we can choose to do nothing, but for whatever reason He has chosen us to fight
these battles. We are called to confront
evil to face the consequences of that conrontation.
All
that being said the answer to the problem of evil is that we need to adjust our
perspective and look at it from the perspective of a Holy all-powerful,
all-knowing God. The same God who looked
at the totality of creation from the garden through the cross to the end of
time and said it is very good. God as we
have described Him is not trapped in time with us. He is outside of time. It is though He is looking at a finished painting
that is our time line hanging in His gallery.
The macroscopic point of all creation is to glorify God the microscopic
point of creation is to create a bride that loves and chooses Him. He is
glorified in the bad that happens and the good.
Even though we may not see it now we can be assured that even in the
evil that is so pervasive in the world God is able to be glorified. There will come a day when we will look back
on this and see the truth to the verse, “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.” (Romans 8:28 NASB) Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 13:12
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part,
but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” (NASB)
It
is sure that this answer will not sit well with many theologians but the truth
is, “Where were you when I laid the
foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4 NASB)
“Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn
to know its place?” (Job 38:12 NASB) “The
ostriches’ wings flap joyously with the pinion and plumage of love, for she
abandons her eggs to the earth and warms them in the dust, and she forgets that
a foot may crush them, or that a wild beast may trample them. She treats her
young cruelly, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;
because God has made her forget wisdom, and has not given her a share of
understanding.” (Job 39:13-18
NASB) We are no better than the ostrich
in reality. We flap our wings to try to
make ourselves feel important and we walk through this world unaware of what
the creator God gives us. We are totally
without a clue. God is the definition of
Good and He is opposed to Evil. We are
to live like Him in that we are to attempt to be good and eschew evil. We are to live for him and him alone.
[1] Bruce
Ballard, The Problem of Evil: A Review
Essay (McMaster Journal of Theology & Ministry; 2007, Vol. 9) pg. 40
[2] James
Danaher, The Problem of Evil from a
Gospel Perspective (Evangelical Review of Theology, April 2012 Volume 36
Issue 2) p 137
[3]
Bruce Ballard, The Problem of Evil: A
Review Essay (McMaster Journal of Theology & Ministry; 2007, Vol. 9)
pg. 40
No comments:
Post a Comment