The
problem of evil in light of the sovereignty of God is one that has plagued the
mind of sinful man for thousands of years.
Theologians have been debating this very question for a long time. It is very likely that Adam had the very same
thoughts as he and Eve were leaving the Garden of Eden. If a question could be asked of God it would
be; “Was He setting Adam up for failure?”
The idea that preachers of old have been teaching that when God said “it
is very good” in reference to creation on the sixth day that meant that there
was no sin and everything was great. This
raises the natural question; if God is sovereign and is omniscient and all
powerful then why did He allow Satan in the garden knowing what he was going to
do? Did He not know that Satan was going
to fall? Did He hope that Adam would
choose differently? These questions
speak to the heart of the human experience.
We need answer that makes sense, not pleasant platitudes that whitewash
the problem but real answers.
James Danaher has this to say, “What theologians refer to
as 'the problem of evil results from the fact that if God is all-good,
all-knowing, all-powerful, and the sole creator of the universe, how should we
explain the existence of evil? This creates what logicians call inconsistency.
We can resolve the inconsistency by removing any one of the above-mentioned
attributes of God. If God were not
all-good there would obviously be evil in the world because of the evil in the
creator. Likewise, if God were not all-knowing he could have created a world,
which he thought would be free of evil without knowing that evil would result
from his creation. Equally, we could understand God to be less than
all-powerful.”[1]
Ron Highfield has this to say, “In theology old problems
never die, and, unlike old soldiers, they rarely fade away for long. Instead,
they return in fresh formulations accompanied by ingenious solutions written by
a new-sprung generation of young theologians. The perennial problem of
evil—between wars, episodes of genocide, plagues, battles with cancer, and that
periodic migraine headache—recedes into the back of our consciousness. But when
trouble crashes through the gates, we ask, "Why?" "Why me?"
"Why anyone?" Suddenly, the old problem has become my problem,
present, vivid, urgent, and anything but faded.”[2]
The
voluminous amounts of answers that people have tried to give still have never
really dealt with the problem of the existence of evil in the world today. There are two issues with this problem of
evil that needs to be defined. The first
one is the understanding of the term “Sovereignty of God.” The second is the definition of good and evil. To attempt to get a hold of this problem we
need to break down the parts and look at it the right way. When the word sovereignty is used in this blog
it is will always be in the context and understanding of an all-powerful,
all-knowing, all-loving creator that not only created all things but also
sustains all things.
In
relation the understanding of the definition of evil, there needs to be a clear
line drawn. Evil is the things that God
hates. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an
abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a
false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.
(Proverbs 6:16-19 NASB) What this
passage is saying is that what God hates is the very definition of evil. From the beginning of evil in mankind it was
a selfish rebellion from the law of God and a desire to be a god
ourselves. This character flaw has
remained with mankind to this day. John
puts it this way, “For all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful
pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16
NASB) He is intimating that all sin has
a root in one or more of these things. We,
mankind, have for too long looked at the problem of evil from a man centered creaturely
perspective and not from a divine perspective, when you shift the focus from
man to God then you can see it the right way.
In the need to really define what evil is we can look at what it is not. Evil is not bad things that happen to
me. Evil is not people that do things
that we think is not right. Evil can
only be defined from the perspective of the divine. Evil is the opposite of good and good is
defined as a characteristic of God, “Give
thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” (Psalm
137:1 NASB)
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