Theodicy Explored: Revisiting the Problem of Evil in Light of Divine Omnipotence and Benevolence

Why does a good and all-powerful God allow suffering and evil to exist? Join us as we grapple with this age-old dilemma, challenging the notion that the presence of pain negates divine benevolence and omnipotence. Examine with us the philosophical and theological intricacies as we revisit critical arguments and their counters that confront the nature of God in the face of worldly suffering. Discover the possibility of a deeper divine purpose behind human tribulations, and unpack our own misconceptions about the definitions of good and evil, exploring how our limited perspectives might influence our understanding of these profound concepts.

Venture beyond conventional theology with us as we scrutinize the growing popularity of open theism and process theology, movements that dare to reimagine God's classical attributes. These schools of thought propose a God who evolves in knowledge and doesn't entirely control the future—an idea that shakes the foundations of traditional doctrine. We scrutinize the scriptural fidelity of these perspectives, all while dissecting the concept of free will and its biblical context. This episode doesn't just paint the big picture; it invites you into a meticulous dissection of sin, salvation, and sovereignty, aiming to align contemporary Christian thought with the unchanging truths of Scripture.

If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe, follow, share the episode, like, or check us out in YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvAv52Ldvfjf4CgYhYTZig

As always, thank you for watching Gospel Grit, where we seek to apply the Word of God, to the people of God, to the glory of God.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hi, welcome to Gospel Grit. As always, I am your host, taylor Windham, on this channel, and certainly including today. Our goal is to apply the Word of God to the people of God for the glory of God. Now, in this one, you are going to hopefully be in for a treat. You are going to hopefully be in for a treat.

Speaker 1: 0:25

Last week I believe it was Saturday, so not long ago, not even a week ago we tackled the all-important and extremely difficult issue of the problem of pain and we really looked at the seven objections that people throw out and seven counter-arguments more specifically that I thought up and proposed to you guys, because this problem gets brought up constantly. People view it as a huge hang up for the Christian faith in particular, and so we address those seven. I can put the description or the link for that video in the description of this one or on a card above, so you guys can go and reference back to that. Not a lot of people have watched that up to this point, so you may want to go back and watch that first before you watch this one. So the argument basically goes like this, just as sort of a recap, without addressing the counterpoints. The argument goes like this If you've got two premises and they both are logically true, then you can form a syllogism that is basically just a fancy equation, meaning that they airtight lead to a certain conclusion and that is not true. That was my argument last week. But they go something like this. You've heard it before.

Speaker 1: 1:48

Premise one if God is all-powerful, he's omnipotent and he's all-loving, or what we call omnibenevolent, then he has the power and he would naturally have the desire to stop evil, pain and suffering. We would grant, of course, as Christians, that God is all-powerful and that he is all-loving. Premise two is supposedly something that follows right along after that. Evil and pain are not stopped and are very present and pervasive everywhere we look in our world. That's premise two. We would all agree that God is all powerful and he's all loving. I would disagree with the part about he has the desire to stop evil and pain. That was sort of one of my big points last week with the seven counterpoints is that he has a purpose and a reason for pain. These are issues that we had to address before we even get off the ground. So in this one, what we're looking at is if premise one is true, at least in part, and premise two is certainly true that evil and pain are not stopped and are very present and pervasive in our world then the logical conclusion the atheist would say, or the person who hates God, because there's no such thing as an atheist. Therefore, god must not be all-powerful or not all-loving, or he could be neither, or he could just not exist. And of course, the class that's the philosophical way we formulate it, but also the popular formation for the problem of evil is really just, basically, why do good things happen to bad people? And that was one of my counterpoints last week is that it's a faulty assumption that gets us into a lot of biblical and philosophical trouble.

Speaker 1: 3:40

So today, now that we've rehashed that, this episode, I actually don't have a lot of notes to go over, because we're just going to take premise one, the first part If God is all powerful, then he has the power to stop evil, pain and suffering. That's the premise that I want to attack, actually get into the meat of the argument and start engaging with the premises now that we have the seven misconceptions false assumptions is what I called them out of the way from last week. So let's look at part one. If God is all-powerful, then he has the power to stop evil, pain and suffering. So a couple of things that I want to lay before you and propose to you today so that you can think about this Again. It's not about being smart. It's not about making a good argument, although I believe 1 Peter 3.15 is very clear about being able to give an account of the hope that is within us. I think that's critically important but it is about being able to defend God's character and help those who are suffering and in pain.

Speaker 1: 4:50

So the first thing is God is all-powerful. We would affirm that we believe that 100%. By this we mean that God has the power and the ability to do whatsoever can be done by might, power or ability, so long as it does not violate the law of non-contradiction or the principles of reality that he has made. In other words, there are some things that God cannot do. God cannot be a liar. I've got some of these here in a second. He can't create a rock so big he can't lift it. He can't be holy and evil at the same time. He can't be evil at all, whatsoever. He can't make himself the one who is eternal and timeless and immortal and had no beginning and has no end, he can't then have a beginning. That's contradictory to his nature and to the reality that he Himself has made. Again, you can ask me the question here. You can certainly send it in the comment or an email or a text, but scrub the video back and listen to that again if you need to.

Speaker 1: 6:23

With this being the case, this means that God has the ability to stop evil. We would certainly grant that, that God has the ability to stop evil at once, with no qualifications. I am not equivocating on that. I don't believe the Bible makes any room for equivocating and him hauling around that God absolutely could stop all moral evil right now if he so chose to. He could round every sinner up, round every fallen angel up, throw us into the lake of fire and be done with it, and by all accounts he absolutely should have.

Speaker 1: 6:57

That was one of the false assumptions I addressed last week. It also means that we must now define evil. So if God is all-powerful and he has the power to stop evil, pain and suffering right now, immediately, then we must define what evil means. And again, I've used the Westminster Confession before, but it's because it's so helpful. The Westminster definition, I think, is great here. It defines evil as, quote any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. I'll say that again Any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.

Speaker 1: 7:38

That's how it defines evil, in other words, his decretive will, god's decretive will, the way he decrees all things that come to pass. What he has made known to us in His Word is the standard by which we judge evil. Or, to say it in maybe a little simpler way, the only way I know what evil is is as a privation of good and as a flat denial of the morality laid out in the Word of God. So I don't get to define evil as my suffering. I don't get to define evil as pain that I'm going through. The only way I can possibly define evil is by knowing what the Word of God says about morality, about the law of God specifically, and how it is defined what ought to be done and what ought not to be done in light of God's own character. That's the way we define evil. There is no such thing as defining evil apart from God. It's not possible. Don't even try to do it.

Speaker 1: 8:39

The argument breaks down right there if we're not careful. So yes, god has the power. Yes, god has the ability. Yes, god can logically stop evil. Yes, theologically he could stop evil. The Bible makes that very clear. The issue, though, is how do we even define what evil is? I have to have a reference point. God himself is that reference point.

Speaker 1: 9:06

So we cannot simply assert that God cannot stop evil. This is not true of the all-powerful God of the Bible. You cannot say that Christian. You don't have that out. You are now talking about a God who is not God. If you believe that God cannot stop evil, you are now talking about some impotent God who wants to do something he is not able to do. That is blasphemy, my friend. You might as well be on the other end with the atheists who are claiming and telling people constantly that God doesn't want to stop evil and that's why it's not stopped. Please hear me, you don't have that option. You have to accept the biblical case for God, and that includes that God is all powerful and he certainly could stop. Now we have to address if he has the ability and this is going to be next week too if he has the ability, then how in the world does evil continue to exist? Does it have something to do with his heart, does it have something to do with his intentions and his goals for his universe and His goals for His universe. So we can't assert at all that God can't stop evil. That option's not open. We have to believe God can.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So let's address two errors in theological heresies real quick. So there's something called open theism and then we'll talk about process theology. So open theism is the heretical belief that the future is open to God in the way very similar to the way that it's open to us, right, and that God has multiple possible timelines that could open up depending upon how things happen. Right, timelines that could open up depending upon how things happen. So God is waiting on small and big moments to coalesce and then he sees a way forward through the timeline, but it's ever-changing. It gives me the idea of the Loki TV series with guarding the sacred timeline and all of that, and you have branches off of it. This is absolute nonsense. It's not at all what the Bible teaches.

Speaker 1: 11:22

And besides open theism being heretical and a false teaching, that's damning, it's also important to note that it's an attempt to try to get God off of the hook, right. So open theism is an attempt to try to excuse God from His ability and His knowledge. So it would say God's all powerful and God's all loving, but instead it would call another of his attributes into question, and that is his omniscience, that he is all-knowing right. So open theism is the belief that the future is open to God and he is slowly trying to make things happen within the parameters of his universe. This means that God is not actually in control. I want to be very clear about that. Open theism denies, ultimately, that God is in control of his universe. It denies that God's absolute authority and power is unequivocal, that it has no qualifications, that God truly is in control and ordaining all things that come to pass. It's fair to say that this is not only heretical, but it creates more problems and solves none of them theologically. None of them theologically. So avoid open theism at all costs. It's very popular and it's rising only unfortunately, in popularity today.

Speaker 1: 12:50

Process theology is the heresy that says God is in process almost even more absurd than open theism. That God is in process and that he's learning as he goes and that, although he's a great learner, that although he's super intelligent and he's very smart and he picks up on stuff really quick, thank God, that he is slowly learning and he is in process, that he is a divine being who has a really fast learning curve, but it is still a learning curve nonetheless. So that is process theology, and it ultimately leads you to the same conclusion that God doesn't know all things and so he's trying to control all things. But how can he control all things if he doesn't know all things? So that's open theism and process theology in a nutshell. Again, they are very popular, they are very common.

Speaker 1: 13:39

Guard your mind and guard your heart. Guard your children and your family from these beliefs, because they are seen as a middle ground and a compromise that ultimately compromises the character and nature of God. We should also note that, in this category that we're talking about, that we have to address something that's going to make some of you feel uncomfortable, and that is what I call the pagan goddess of free will. It's got to be dealt with at this point when it talks about God's power, because one of the limiting factors that we constantly hear in our day that restricts God's power is man's freedom, man's choice, man's free will. So the concept that I am told constantly, nonstop, is that God's a gentleman. He doesn't want to violate our free will. God wants us to do what we want to do and because of that God is all powerful and he's all loving.

Speaker 1: 14:44

But humans are making these free choices and we're running amok and God can't force us to do anything, and that's absolute nonsense. That's not at all what the God of the Bible is about. Nowhere in the Bible is the term free will used or taught. Man has a will. We're getting to that next. Man has a will, certainly, and you are making real choices, but it is not free in the sense that we mean it.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Now to be clear we are making real choices. They're not animatronic, they're not robotic, they're not fatalistic. We're not at all saying and I'm not asserting although there are many people who will, wrongly that somehow man is making fake choices or that man is making choices that are not truly real and they're not really his that he's being coerced. I am not at all saying that If man is being coerced, he's being coerced by his own sin. The Bible makes that very clear. So anyone who sins, jesus said, is a slave to sin right. So the pagan goddess of free will ties up our theodicy. It ties up our ability to defend God in His character, because God values our quote-unquote freedom, although the Bible makes clear no one is free until the Son sets you free in that John 8 passage at all. So what most people mean when we talk about our real choices is they're talking about libertarian free will. Right, and that's non-existent.

Speaker 1: 16:26

The Bible does not teach that. We are too American and we are too ruggedly individualistic at this point in our theology. We cannot see clearly about what the Bible says in this regard that when it comes to salvific excuse me things, when it comes to obeying God and understanding his word, there is no such thing as freedom. Apart from Christ, we are slaves to sin. There is no way to please God except in faith. Whatever is not done from faith Romans 14, is sin.

Speaker 1: 17:00

James 5 makes that clear. Whatever, if a man knows what he ought to do and does not do it, this is sin for him. We know we ought to stop sinning, but we keep on. One because we can't help it and two because we won't help it. One is a question of ability, the other is a question of desire. So it's very important that we remember we don't get to restrict God in our theodicy with just how much he loves us and all of His desire for our free will.

Speaker 1: 17:30

The Bible doesn't teach that at all. Most of the time it's just an attempt to make man a little bit higher than he ought to be and bring God a little bit lower than he ought to be. The gospel is more of a suggestion rather than a desperate plea to a desperate dead carcass of a human being. So the libertarian idea is that when given evil option A and a righteous option B, that men have the free choice to do either that they're not inclined towards one or the other. That's libertarian free will in a summation, and that's not at all what the Bible teaches. Okay, it's not at all what the Bible teaches. There is no one righteous, no, not one. There is no one who seeks God. There is no one who does good.

Speaker 1: 18:19

Romans three makes that very clear in many, many others right. Jeremiah 17, nine the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful, above all things, who can know it? Uh, 6, 5,. Right before the flood, god says that he saw the intentions of man's heart, that they were evil only continually, that it was continual, nonstop flooding of wickedness in man's heart. Okay, so that's very, very important for us to understand too. So anyone who sins is a slave to sin Romans 6, 17. Anyone who sins is a slave to sin, but if the son sets you free, you're free. Indeed. That's John 8. But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves, this is Romans 6, 17, that, though you used to be slaves, you have come to obey from the heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance Men are slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Those are our only choices. We don't have libertarian free will, as nice as that would be. And even if we did have libertarian free will and we had the choice to choose whatever we ultimately wanted, we would eventually choose evil. Adam and Eve had truly libertarian free will to choose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or not, and they very quickly chose the wrong choice and died in sin.

Speaker 1: 19:53

The idea of free will causes chaos in our theology, especially in our defense of God and His involvement in the problem of pain, suffering and evil in our world. It causes rampant chaos because it allows us human beings to think that we get to do what we want, and the Bible makes very clear that's not actually true. So how does this affect God's all-powerful nature Simple While God has the ability to do anything he so chooses, he does not violate or offer harm Westminster language again to the will of the creature. So God is not violating human wills. He is not, for example, forcing Pharaoh, although he hardened his heart, according to Exodus and according to Romans 9. He's not hardening his heart against his will. Pharaoh's hardening his heart. God's hardening Pharaoh's heart. On and on and on it goes. He's not offering harm. He's not violating people's will, so to say, it's not free. But he's not making them love things that they hate. He's just constantly affirming them in the things that they already love, which is evil, and affirming them in the things they already hate, which is Him.

Speaker 1: 21:01

So we must also be quick to remember that God does not shy away from taking credit for calamity. God does not shy away from taking credit for calamity. Isaiah 45, 7, right, if there's a calamity in the city, have not I, the Lord, done it right? That's only part of the verse. But if he ordains whatsoever comes to pass, then he must also not only be in charge of all things, but also in ordaining all of those things that come to pass as well, every bit of it, the good, the bad and the ugly, and that's ultimately good news. Ladies and gentlemen, okay, so that's been premise number one. It's a 20-minute video. We'll stop here and we'll pick up next week on, now that we have addressed the first part of claim one, premise one that God is all-powerful and because he is all-powerful, he has the ability to stop evil, pain and suffering. But evil, pain and suffering are not stopped and therefore, now that we have dealt with the whole idea of why God is all-powerful and what that means, his relationship to evil, pain and suffering is now next week we'll look at his heart and his omnibenevolence and that part of claim one that he would want to stop it, and what are some of the issues with that that lead us down faulty and unbiblical roads.

Speaker 1: 22:20

So I hope you've enjoyed this. As much as you can enjoy a subject like this. I encourage you to listen to it multiple times, go back, share it with somebody, like comment, subscribe, please. I would love to hear from you guys. As always, I thoroughly enjoy making these videos for you guys and I'm so thankful that, however, many of you guys watch them. So God bless you guys. Thanks for joining me on Gospel Grit where, as always. Our goal is to apply the Word of God to the people of God for the glory of God. I will see you guys next week on episode 21. Love you, see you.