A Defense of God’s Goodness
In the face of the existence of evil
By Greg Szymanski
Nov 29, 2010
One cannot love God, his fellow man or himself without freedom.
Freedom of choice is vital for love to exist.
But with freedom comes risk, the great risk we will choose not to love, following a path of sin, self-righteousness and selfishness.
Of course, there are many forms of love.
According to Gary Amirault of Tentmaker.org, “The words “I love you” for example can have many different meanings depending upon who said them, at what time and to whom, and for what purpose. True meaning goes far beyond the actual spoken or written word. This is about learning to go beyond the “It is written” Church mentality which has brought legalism, fundamentalism and many other isms which have prevented us, His people, from moving into the Spirit of His Holy Word.
“There are many forces in this world arrayed against God’s people to prevent us from entering into our inheritance. Bible translating and interpreting has been an area in which the devil has had a field day. In the coming years, this is going to change. Get ready for a mighty outpouring of revelation that will truly set His people free that we may go into the world and into creation itself to set it free from its bondage of corruption. We need to get free to love with His love first.”
The love we are addressing here and what Amirault is talking about is unconditional love or the type of love God asks of every human being. We are not talking about just mouthing “I Love You” or “I Love God” at a Sunday service or weekly Bible study in order to feel good. But we are talking about something much deeper, something beyond legalism and literal Bible translations.
“Be careful also in your quest for facts in your study of the Bible,” said John Gavazzoni in an article entitled The Bible. “Facts can be used of God to enlighten us, but facts can become an end in themselves and addict us to being right and knowing more, or more accurately, than the next guy.
“Wow, you have no idea how seductive biblical knowledge can be. Don’t equate facts with truth. Christ is the truth, and there are a lot of dear brethren whose factual knowledge is minimal, but who know Christ intimately.”
It is important to remember that God understood for his people to be able to experience true unconditional love and to know Him intimately, they first needed to have complete freedom of choice.
However, with complete freedom comes great risk — the risk his people and even his Angels would turn away, choosing evil instead of His gracious love.
God, of course, knew this full-well but he took the risk anyway, knowing love cannot exist when it is demanded through fear and force. For example, a man holding a knife to your throat may force you to do many things. But one thing for sure if he asks you to love him, that could never happen!
These important concepts brings us to the study of what is called Theodicy, the branch of theology that defends God’s goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil.
This study begins in the beginning with the Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-3.
P.G. Nelson in his article Theodicy and Genesis 1-3 points out:
“One way of understanding Genesis 1−3 is as an explanation of how there can be evil in a
world created by God. Genesis 1 affirms that there was no evil in the world when God created it − it was ‘very good’ (1:31). Genesis 2 and 3 express how evil came into it − through creatures(both heavenly and earthly) abusing the freedom God had given them.”
It can’t be emphasized enough how many times and how important the word “good” is in Genesis 1. Simply put, God created both a perfect world on earth and in the heaven without a speck of evil.
He created the Angels and His heavenly government with the same freedom of choice as he gave Adam and Eve.
What happened?
It is a huge misconception to think God created evil, hardship, suffering and death as introduced in Genesis 2-3. As recorded in scripture, the first spark of evil took place in God’s heavenly kingdom, not on earth.
Lucifer, one of God’s special Angels, used freedom of choice to rebel, trying to usurp God’s authority. Banished to earth with his band of followers, he first corrupted Adam and Eve but still remains here today, intermingling with man to spread evil in the form of untold suffering, destruction and death.
With unlimited power, why didn’t God kill Lucifer in the beginning? Why didn’t God create machines or robotic people without freewill to obey Him and live in a world free from suffering and sin? Why did He allow suffering, destruction and death to reign on earth for thousands of years?
First, if God killed Lucifer, it would have sent a terrible message to others in His heavenly kingdom? It would have sent a message of fear and forceful power. It would have said “If you dare challenge God, the result is death!
In fact, in the minds of those having free choice, it may have laid doubt and perhaps strengthened Lucifer’s case that God was not the all loving, all merciful and all forgiving God He professed to be.
Remember, in the beginning, everything was “good”, according to God. In the beginning, God understood true goodness and unconditional love, His plan for all of us, could not be obtained by force, but only by freedom.
So, when evil through Lucifer reared its ugly head, instead of wiping it out by force, He allowed it continue, grow and prosper, giving all of us, however, the freedom to choose otherwise and accept God’s unconditional love.
In fact, in the beginning chapters of Genesis God created a perfect world. Furthermore, in the last chapter of the Book of Revelations, God promises His perfect world will return and evil will reign no more.
And what is outlined in the Bible pages in between is nothing more than the long struggle between good and evil existing here on earth ever since God laid out his plan which included unconditional love, freedom of choice and the risk of evil.
In fact, it is obvious God chose to allow evil to mature and grow so large in the end that all would one day see how His love, a love not attained through obedience or force like the enemy, is really the only answer.
Wouldn’t you like to be there someday in God’s perfect world, a world that shares and spreads unconditional love? Here are some words of advice again from Gary Amirault, which may help you get to one day share in God’s never ending love:
“Having been in hundreds of churches in dozens of different denominations, I am convinced that millions of Christians today are in exactly the same condition Martin Luther was in before he got his revelation. Through Sunday School and Bible study material written at denominational headquarters, through training church leaders at seminaries, Bible colleges and text books, every denominational headquarters injects “traditions of men” and “doctrines of demons,” and definitions, creeds, articles of faith, catechisms, etc. which render the word of God of no effect. I have had many scales placed over my eyes through various Christian institutions – but far less than the average Christian who was raised in church because I was an atheist for much of my life. These Christian “traditions of the elders” do the same thing to modern Christians that they did to the Jews 2,000 years ago. The common people couldn’t recognize the Messiah because the leaders taught the Messiah would be a political/military man. When the Messiah showed up, they wanted to kill Him. The “Christ” many Christians have been taught to expect at any moment will be to many modern Christians as different as Jesus was to the image of the Messiah the Jews were expecting.
“The very best Bible translation, which may be a perfect transference of the original languages to our own language, may become an instrument of death unless the Holy Spirit opens its truth through the Spirit of Truth which Jesus promised to send to his disciples. Dear friend, please spend some considerable time in prayer and contemplation over what I am stating. It is possible to have an accurate translation of the original and still have a false understanding of the text. Not only is it possible, I submit that this is the norm of the typical Christian in a typical mainline church. The state of Martin Luther’s mind prior to his seeing the light is the state of the average Christian in this part of the twenty-first century. Of course few of us actually believe this because we are quite comfy in our dark little corner. Our pastor is nice, went to Bible college or seminary, the church is well-established in the community – surely we are on safe ground. And as long as we refuse to step outside the boundaries of our church or denomination, we will feel quite secure in our beliefs. In America, there is security in numbers. But remember in the Bible, the “majority” was usually against the Spirit of God.
“I have spent a great deal of time in prayer and study learning about the “traditions of men” which have been injected into the minds of the modern Christian which render the “word of God of no effect.” There are countless thousands of them. (The books Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and The Way Church Ought To Be by Robert A. Lund are excellent sources for information about how far the church has strayed from the teachings of Christ and His apostles.) I have been forced to step out of my comfort zones many times. While in the short run it has been very discomforting, in the long run having to be forced to compare teachings and traditions among many different denominations has been extremely beneficial to my spiritual growth. I only gave one example in Martin Luther’s life to illustrate the power “traditions of men” have over our minds and hearts. This one revelation on the “righteousness of God” made Martin Luther one of the most influential men on the face of the planet. This single revelation was a major source of light that began to dispel the Dark Ages. A single person being freed from religious darkness can literally revolutionize the world. Who knows, perhaps you are the next one.
“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.” (Luke 11:34-36)
“After over two decades as a Christian, I have found that a person can and will find whatever they want to in the Bible to justify themselves or condemn or judge others. If a person is a racist, he/she can find a verse or two to justify their racism. Ku Klux Klan literature is full of King James Bible quotes. If a person is a sexist, he can find scores of verses to support his bias. If greedy people want to justify selling or buying slaves, they can find support in the Bible. Jews, Christians and Muslims have throughout the last 2,000 years used the Bible to support countless abominations which they have done in the name of the Lord. But those verses were read with “dark light,” not with the light of the Holy Spirit. An evil person will project their own evil upon those they hate. They will also project their hate onto the pages of the Bible. If we are filled with things like nationalism, racism, prejudice, jealousies, greed, unrighteous anger, blame-shifting, self-righteousness, biases, denominationalism, cultural biases, resentment, unforgiveness, etc. — these things are “dark light” which will cause us to project onto the pages of the Bible and on other people our own darkness of soul. We will end up forming God into our own image through what psychologists call “projection.” We also project our own short-comings onto perceived enemies through this same technique.
“I have also come across Christians who believe that white Christians are the only true representatives of God, that darker skinned human beings are “beasts of the field,” not really human beings. And they use certain verses and certain interpretations of those verses to prove to themselves they are correct. Neither Jews nor Christians who teach these abominations are correct!
“A perfect translation of the Bible will not bring the truth into our soul if we are filled with traditions of men which make the word of God of no effect or if we have corruption in our hearts. Some of the most evil men I have encountered in my Christian walk have practically memorized the Bible.
“When Jesus was tested of the Devil after the forty day fast in the wilderness, Satan used Scriptures to try to tempt Jesus. I have heard in more than one sermon how Jesus defeated Satan by quoting Scriptures. In two of the three temptations, Satan quoted Scriptures. Jesus replied all three times quoting Scripture. But what was the last Scripture Jesus quoted which ended that spiritual battle?:
“It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matt. 4:4, NIV)
Editor’s Note: Hopefully this article will help people come closer to God and accept His love. The false doctrines of Hell, eternal punishment and the idea that God created evil have kept millions of people in fear, unable to get close to a really all loving and all forgiving God.
Source: http://www.arcticbeacon.com/greg/?p=1990&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InvestigativeJournal+%28Investigative+Journal%29
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