Episode 223 Show Notes
If God Created the World Good, How Is There Still Evil?
From the Show
If God cerated the world good, how is there still evil?
There really is no philosophically satisfying answer to the problem of evil in my view. Just read the book of Job. What I love about the Bible is the frankness. Again, it's a trial, back and forth, it's a dialogue. It's not a treatise on the problem of evil, it's a dialogue and Job's friends basically say, “Well, Job, you get back what you dish out, so find that secret sin in your life, confess it, and then you'll get your health, wealth and happiness back.” Well, it's not always true. Sometimes you're the victim of living in a fallen world. But even if you haven't done anything in particular to deserve a particular woe, none of us is righteous, no not one. And that's what Joe comes to through all that: “My friends are wrong in saying that I'm suffering because of a particular sin in my life, but also I was wrong in thinking I don't deserve this. All of us deserve this. None of us deserves blue skies.” And so Job's only answer is historical, in Job 19, right after he cries out to the Lord, listing all the miseries in vivid detail, it's as if he suddenly catches a vision of a far off figure in the future: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” See, that Redeemer he's talking about of course is Jesus Christ. At exactly the moment when it seemed that evil had triumphed, God was reconciling the world to Himself in him. If we ever needed proof that God works all things together, even evil, for His glory and our good, we have that proof in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. — Michael Horton
Questions in this Episode
1. Why do the Prophets in the Old Testament talk so much about judgment instead of focusing on the love of God like Paul and Jesus?
2. I am working for a Christian retreat center that schedules events on Sunday, which requires myself and other employees to miss attending church. What should I do?
3. In 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, Paul uses the language of optical, visible, sight when he writes about Jesus' appearance. Is this correct?
4. In 1 Corinthians 12:21–26 where it talks about the diversity of gifts, Paul says that the weaker parts of the body are indispensable. Is being a weaker part of the body tied to your spiritual gift or is it more about spiritual maturity?
5. If God created the world good, how is there evil at all?
6. How do you think that we can keep love the focus when studying the Bible so that we don’t get too caught up in pointless debates?
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