A Reform-minded Seventh-day Adventist forum In our aim to exalt everything important, first and foremost, we seek to promote a clear understanding of Daniel, Revelation, the three angels' messages and the alpha and omega of apostasy.
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:58 pm Post subject: Answers to the Problem of Evil
The Great Controversy Theme
What is a righteous God supposed to do with the sinful progeny of beings who chose to sin? I say, try to save as many as possible. If the power of Satan is so great that many must be lost so that a few may be saved then let us accept what must be with humility and faith.
God could have easily sterilized Adam and Eve, to prevent their explosive contagion from becoming epidemic. But God had a bigger problem. How could He eradicate sin permanently and restore perfect peace to His universe?
Consider God’s predicament.
If God had annihilated Adam and Eve for the sin of eating forbidden fruit (i.e., a very small sin) then doubts about God’s goodness would have plagued the universe. There would be at least a few loyal angels that would tend to worship and serve God from fear and not love. But then again, if God pardoned Adam and Eve’s sin without an atonement, it would mean that the violation of His law was no evil, seeing that sin could easily be passed over. If sin could be forgiven easily, what would prevent sin from becoming immortalized and perpetuated with boldness, without restraint? If God provided an incremental atonement for the sins of His creatures, how could sin be perceived correctly in all its hideous deformity and be accurately viewed for what it is? Why would sin ever end? Consequently, any initial sin, however small, would require opening the floodgates of evil and accomplishing one colossal atonement.
God has been maligned. His testimony and character has been questioned, His sovereignty, challenged. Can you even fathom the subtle arguments that the most brilliant of all created beings introduced in the heavenly courts to undermine God’s trustworthiness and authority? God has allowed a heart-rending cascade of evil to flourish as a demonstration to the whole universe of the horrible consequences of sin. God has been vindicated. The penalty of disobedience is seen to be just and fair. The end of all things is surely near.
It’s easy to believe that God can see the glory of the coming restoration as eclipsing the tragedy of the fall. And it’s not as if God Himself didn’t suffer in human history. God revealed His unselfish love in the atonement. Jesus died for me.
I see a problem in that scenario: Why did God go ahead and create man when He knew for certain that man would definitely commit sin once He put him into the garden?
In every hypothetical, non-trivial universe where free will exists, it may be that difficult choices also exist. Consider the problem of creation itself. God had to decide between forever having an empty universe, or a universe teeming with extremely harmless forms of life. God could have created a universe containing smart, perfectly programmed robots incapable of free choice, or a universe dominated by extraordinarily glorious intelligent beings, each one capable by himself of rebellion against the Creator. Each choice has beneficial merits and negative consequences, advantages and disadvantages.
I trust in a God that can see the end from the beginning. Isaiah 53 is a wonderful prophecy of the sin-bearing Messiah.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
Christ's atonement will more than make up for all the temporary suffering caused by sin. I see the Son of God in the eleventh verse as assuring us of this in these wonderful words: "He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11 NKJV).
OK maybe I'm naive but I think the nature of God and His involvement in BOTH "good" and "evil" (as defined by our limited human understanding of each) is far more complicated than we give credit for. Anyone read Isaiah 45:7? What do you make of that? If God claims Himself as the author of BOTH good and evil, who are we to say otherwise?
OK, then how do you define "evil", if not harm or destruction? If harm or destruction can be called "good" is that not the same thing as arguing that the end justifies the means? And can we not, with that same logic, easily put good for evil and evil for good? Isn't this tantamount to saying "let us sin more abundantly that grace may abound"? (e.g. let us precipitate harm, destruction, calamity, disaster, in order to bring about good)???
If harm or destruction ("calamity") can qualify as "good", and if the end justifies the means, then by what measure are we to discern good from evil?
If it is all as arbitrary as "whatever God commands" then how is any given individual to appropriately discern between a command like "go slaughter all the people of this land and take it in My name" versus "thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal"? How is anyone to know whether the former is indeed commanded by God, in light of the latter being writ in stone, or whether in regard to the former that he is not deluding himself if he perceives God to truly be commanding such a thing?
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2003 2:16 pm Post subject: The heavenly universe was amazed at God’s patience and love
narscissa wrote:
OK, then how do you define "evil", if not harm or destruction?
Evil is a sinful act or a depraved mind. Sin is the transgression of God’s law. God’s law is the transcript of His character. Good is the opposite of evil.
The Apostle Paul makes it clear that God bringing wrath (harm or destruction) on the unrighteous, is just.
Quote:
But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Romans 3:5-6.
The righteous understand God’s justice in punishing evildoers (Proverbs 28:5-6). It’s God’s apparent slowness in punishing evildoers that is an astonishing, glorious mystery. Here’s a brief commentary on that.
Quote:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26.
“Paul speaks of the moral necessity for the sacrifice of the Son of God as based not only on God’s love but on His righteousness. When seeking to interpret the atoning work of Christ, Paul affirms the need for God to make a demonstration of justice because God, during the ages prior to the coming of Christ, had actually overlooked the sins of the past. He had never exacted the full penalty of the law. He had executed no judgment. He had manifested only long-suffering and forbearance with sinners. This left God open to the charge of injustice. It appeared that God had not dealt adequately with sin. He had simply tolerated sin.
“So Paul argues that God cannot remain under such a cloud. He must be shown to be righteous or just. This text declares that the sacrifice of Christ did just that. Before a watching universe, at last God judged sin in its ultimate end at the cross.” —Edward Heppenstall, Article 28, The Sanctuary and the Atonement, p. 687.
Ellen G. White wrote a great deal on the great controversy theme. Persons who respect her ministry should enjoy the following insight:
For centuries God looked with patience and forbearance upon the cruel treatment given to his ambassadors, at his holy law prostrate, despised, trampled underfoot. He swept away the inhabitants of the Noachian world with a flood. But when the earth was again peopled, men drew away from God, and renewed their hostility to him, manifesting bold defiance. Those whom God rescued from Egyptian bondage followed in the footsteps of those who had preceded them. Cause was followed by effect; the earth was being corrupted.
A crisis had arrived in the government of God. The earth was filled with transgression. The voices of those who had been sacrificed to human envy and hatred were crying beneath the altar for retribution. All heaven was prepared at the word of God to move to the help of his elect. One word from him, and the bolts of heaven would have fallen upon the earth, filling it with fire and flame. God had but to speak, and there would have been thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and destruction.
The heavenly intelligences were prepared for a fearful manifestation of Almighty power. Every move was watched with intense anxiety. The exercise of justice was expected. The angels looked for God to punish the inhabitants of the earth. But “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “I will send my beloved Son,” he said. “It may be they will reverence him.” Amazing grace! Christ came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” —Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, July 17, 1900.
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