Post by Mongo the Destroyer on Mar 29, 2019 22:34:05 GMT -5
Note: So this is from my Bible blog- which is generally aimed at Christians. But I tried to present a subject that's pretty universally wondered about. I think I got about as wordy as a Nihilists promo but hopefully it makes sense...
A major argument that non-believers and those who have left the church bring up usually follows the wording of “If God is all-loving, then why [insert something horrible here]?” Unlike a lot of origin questions, this isn’t meant as a trap but is a legitimate question coming from people who don’t know how to balance what Christians say against what is clearly evident in the world. And most Christians….fail to answer this question. Like stunningly fail. That’s not surprising though, because most probably don’t know the answer themselves and quietly wonder about it while they worship. After years of pondering some of the horrors of our world the Holy Spirit has opened up the Scriptures in a new way to me to help me get a better understanding of this issue. Hopefully I can do a proper job of explaining it to you.
We live under a curse. I’ve written about this several times in the past. The Bible is quite clear about that. After the original sin the Lord cursed the land, as we can read about in Genesis 3:17,
This is the curse of death that was promised at the beginning,
Due to Adam and Eve’s action, death, which had previously not been a part of creation, was entered into the equation. Paul agreed with this interpretation of events for he wrote,
What seems to be preached less is that the Lord always intended us to fight against death. Look at the next line of the curse:
Make no bones about it, you will die- everything does. But notice what God said; he told Adam that the ground would produce thorns and thistles- even how, though, Adam was expected to work the ground and eat of the earth. That means that even at its most base parts, the Lord intended us to fight against the curse and still thrive- and we have done that when it comes to agriculture, have we not? Have we not been able to continue to eat what grows upon the fields? Have we not learned to cultivate beyond the stony ground we were given? We have. But this extends to other fields as well. Disease is a very blatant tool of death. Through disease we are brought closer to- and eventually to our personal expiration dates. But that’s why we have doctors! Medical advancements have stomped down previously fatal illnesses and gotten close to eradicating entire plagues. This has been in line with what was always expected of us. The curse is like an ever-present challenge and by fighting against it we receive longer and better lives. Does prayer heal? Absolutely. The Bible tells us, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (James 5:15). God has given us spiritual tools to fight the curse- but he’s also given us physical ones. The first recorded son of Adam and Eve, Cain, was a man of the soil:
Already in the next generation being a farmer was a vocation; and why wouldn’t it be? Do you think the Lord just dropped Adam and Eve outside the gates of Eden and said “good luck”? We quote so frequently that God gave them clothes after they realized their nudity that I don’t think I need to do it here (it’s Genesis 3:21). If he was willing to help them cover their bits, don’t you think he continued to help them with other aspects of the curse afterwards (like teaching them how to farm)? And what of Luke? Anyone who says that going to the doctor is a sin is blowing smoke up your butt because Paul had a doctor on his staff. We can read from his greetings in Colossians 4:14, “Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.” Keep in mind that this is the very same Paul of who it is written,
Ok, so natural problems make sense. But what about unnatural ones? What about human trafficking, what about sexual abuse, what about poverty, what about murder and war and all the other awful things we do to each other? This is the question that has plagued me for years. How can a follower of Christ justify how the Lord allows such evil to persist? Recently this is what the Holy Spirit called my attention to. In the beginning the Lord made everything, and then he went a step further:
The tree that caused all this was literally called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” We can make some pretty logical assumptions from that. The first assumption is that if this tree existed (with that name); Adam and Eve had no prior knowledge of good and evil. If they didn’t know what good and evil were- and the world was perfect as it is implied- then we can assume they were incapable of committing evil (since they wouldn’t be able to understand it). This is why the serpent was so clever. He presented the tree as such: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). That’s not even a lie; the Lord absolutely knows what good and evil are and always chooses good. Jesus put this into action in his life; we read of him, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). This is where it gets interesting. Jesus was able to resist every temptation and not sin (because he’s God). James wrote of us though,
This is the process of sin as we know it, temptation to sin. It is also literally what Adam and Eve dealt with in the garden when the serpent showed up. He enticed Eve to eat the fruit- from that she gained the understanding of what sin is and that brought upon the promised curse of death. What I’m getting at is that sin and death, while connected; are not the same curse upon the land. Humans were made without an understanding of evil but we chose to have that knowledge (and indeed that presence) in our lives and have been made the worse for it.
The passage goes on to detail the tools we’re given: truth, righteousness, readiness in the gospel, faith, salvation, and the Word of God. These are spiritual tools to fight a spiritual war. Much like we’re given physical tools to fight against the curse we’ve been given spiritual tools to fight evil. Is it a losing battle? Probably, but we’re called to work against the darkness and bring people to the light of salvation. The Lord allows awful things to happen because we wanted to do them to each other- but that doesn’t need to be the end of the conversation. No, we’re given the option of fighting against this both physically (through like police and stuff) and spiritually (through the spread of the Gospel). Remember what the tree next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was? The tree of life. Paul wrote, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). The Lord gave us that salvation and we can open the eyes of others blinded by the overwhelming understanding of evil and free them from a life ruled by sin.
There’s an interesting passage in the book of Luke. People came to Jesus with the very question of “Why did God allow_____?” Let’s see what he had to say:
It’s very interesting that while answering the question of an evil performed by Pilate upon others the Lord Jesus also brings up what could be seen as a naturally-occurring disaster. Although both are separate in their causes, his message was the same: repent. We get so focused on the cause and why the Lord allows something but Jesus said we should be focusing on the answer, which is repentance. Will the Lord allow bad things? Absolutely. Will he allow bad things to happen to those he loves? Sure he will. Evil and death are a part of this world. But the Lord is above that, and through faith in him we’ll be able to escape this world upon the expiration of our mortal bodies. As an answer, what Jesus said probably wasn’t very satisfying. But if you understand the inevitability of evil and death, then you’ll understand the importance of not giving in to it but fighting against it. Fighting it physically as we stomp out disease and injustice and fighting it spiritually as we bring people to the light. God allows ______ because it’s what we chose, but God also allows us to fight it, make our cursed world a little less awful, and ultimately escape the cycle. That’s the answer, take it as you will, it’s your choice.
A major argument that non-believers and those who have left the church bring up usually follows the wording of “If God is all-loving, then why [insert something horrible here]?” Unlike a lot of origin questions, this isn’t meant as a trap but is a legitimate question coming from people who don’t know how to balance what Christians say against what is clearly evident in the world. And most Christians….fail to answer this question. Like stunningly fail. That’s not surprising though, because most probably don’t know the answer themselves and quietly wonder about it while they worship. After years of pondering some of the horrors of our world the Holy Spirit has opened up the Scriptures in a new way to me to help me get a better understanding of this issue. Hopefully I can do a proper job of explaining it to you.
We live under a curse. I’ve written about this several times in the past. The Bible is quite clear about that. After the original sin the Lord cursed the land, as we can read about in Genesis 3:17,
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
Cursed is the ground because of you;
Through painful toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.”
Through painful toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.”
This is the curse of death that was promised at the beginning,
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Due to Adam and Eve’s action, death, which had previously not been a part of creation, was entered into the equation. Paul agreed with this interpretation of events for he wrote,
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).
The curse brought on us after the original sin made death a player in this world and we can see its machinations daily. We see it in disastrous weather, we see it in disease, and we see it in the natural decay of our bodies as we get closer and closer to the end of everyone’s mortality- death. The saying is that there are only two things guaranteed in life, death and taxes. Death is absolutely waiting for you and is already effecting your body (those aches and pains and illnesses are death’s work). This is something I think most of us already know and understand.
What seems to be preached less is that the Lord always intended us to fight against death. Look at the next line of the curse:
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
And you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
You will eat your food
Until you return to the ground,
Since from it you were taken;
For dust you are
And to dust you will return (Genesis 3:18-19).
And you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
You will eat your food
Until you return to the ground,
Since from it you were taken;
For dust you are
And to dust you will return (Genesis 3:18-19).
Make no bones about it, you will die- everything does. But notice what God said; he told Adam that the ground would produce thorns and thistles- even how, though, Adam was expected to work the ground and eat of the earth. That means that even at its most base parts, the Lord intended us to fight against the curse and still thrive- and we have done that when it comes to agriculture, have we not? Have we not been able to continue to eat what grows upon the fields? Have we not learned to cultivate beyond the stony ground we were given? We have. But this extends to other fields as well. Disease is a very blatant tool of death. Through disease we are brought closer to- and eventually to our personal expiration dates. But that’s why we have doctors! Medical advancements have stomped down previously fatal illnesses and gotten close to eradicating entire plagues. This has been in line with what was always expected of us. The curse is like an ever-present challenge and by fighting against it we receive longer and better lives. Does prayer heal? Absolutely. The Bible tells us, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (James 5:15). God has given us spiritual tools to fight the curse- but he’s also given us physical ones. The first recorded son of Adam and Eve, Cain, was a man of the soil:
Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil (Genesis 4:1-2).
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil (Genesis 4:1-2).
Already in the next generation being a farmer was a vocation; and why wouldn’t it be? Do you think the Lord just dropped Adam and Eve outside the gates of Eden and said “good luck”? We quote so frequently that God gave them clothes after they realized their nudity that I don’t think I need to do it here (it’s Genesis 3:21). If he was willing to help them cover their bits, don’t you think he continued to help them with other aspects of the curse afterwards (like teaching them how to farm)? And what of Luke? Anyone who says that going to the doctor is a sin is blowing smoke up your butt because Paul had a doctor on his staff. We can read from his greetings in Colossians 4:14, “Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.” Keep in mind that this is the very same Paul of who it is written,
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them (Acts 19:11-12).
Now if Mr. “My Kleenexes heal people” Paul had a doctor on staff, it certainly is a sign that he understood the importance of fighting the curse of death on all fronts. And God gives us clues and hints and tools to do that. I’ve read articles about a myriad of currently incurable diseases- with one or two people who’ve somehow been freed of them. That’s a sign from God to investigate and learn how to help everyone else. Thirty years ago any cancer was a death sentence. Now it’s still a painful and awful disease, but something people are able to overcome. That’s God’s work being done through medical researchers.
Why did your grandma die? Because she was old- but she was probably older than her grandmother because we’re constantly fighting against death and making headway. Will there always be more to fight? Absolutely, we’ve seen new diseases and disasters rise up, but that’s part of the curse. We’re fighting a losing battle but there’s no sin at all in fighting as hard as we can to improve conditions under the curse. God allows natural problems because it’s an effect of the curse upon creation. Death was brought in through our sin and it touches everything.
Ok, so natural problems make sense. But what about unnatural ones? What about human trafficking, what about sexual abuse, what about poverty, what about murder and war and all the other awful things we do to each other? This is the question that has plagued me for years. How can a follower of Christ justify how the Lord allows such evil to persist? Recently this is what the Holy Spirit called my attention to. In the beginning the Lord made everything, and then he went a step further:
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:8-9).
The tree that caused all this was literally called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” We can make some pretty logical assumptions from that. The first assumption is that if this tree existed (with that name); Adam and Eve had no prior knowledge of good and evil. If they didn’t know what good and evil were- and the world was perfect as it is implied- then we can assume they were incapable of committing evil (since they wouldn’t be able to understand it). This is why the serpent was so clever. He presented the tree as such: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). That’s not even a lie; the Lord absolutely knows what good and evil are and always chooses good. Jesus put this into action in his life; we read of him, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). This is where it gets interesting. Jesus was able to resist every temptation and not sin (because he’s God). James wrote of us though,
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:13-15).
This is the process of sin as we know it, temptation to sin. It is also literally what Adam and Eve dealt with in the garden when the serpent showed up. He enticed Eve to eat the fruit- from that she gained the understanding of what sin is and that brought upon the promised curse of death. What I’m getting at is that sin and death, while connected; are not the same curse upon the land. Humans were made without an understanding of evil but we chose to have that knowledge (and indeed that presence) in our lives and have been made the worse for it.
That is to say, evil was our own choice. And now every person has the option of doing evil, for we have knowledge of both good and evil. The original choice for the first couple was whether or not to eat from a random tree in the middle of an entire grove- that’s not even evil (because the concept of evil would have been lost on them). But through that sin (breaking of a rule) the evil that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing was made known.
God added death through the curse, but it was humanity who chose for evil to be a part of the equation. The Lord, therefore, allows it since it was our choice. Remember, salvation is a choice, were we not given the option of turning from the Lord then we would be automatons. But our God has given us the chance to turn from the evil we chose and to walk back into his light, gaining salvation (and a loophole around the whole death thing in the process). So when you see something horrible in the news remember: somebody chose that. We’ve chosen to hurt others, we’ve chosen to abuse, we’ve chosen to lie, cheat, and steal. That’s on us. And much like giving us tools to fight the curse, the Lord gives us tools to fight against the evil that is so prevalent. Scripture tells us,
Finally, be strong in the lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:10-13).
The passage goes on to detail the tools we’re given: truth, righteousness, readiness in the gospel, faith, salvation, and the Word of God. These are spiritual tools to fight a spiritual war. Much like we’re given physical tools to fight against the curse we’ve been given spiritual tools to fight evil. Is it a losing battle? Probably, but we’re called to work against the darkness and bring people to the light of salvation. The Lord allows awful things to happen because we wanted to do them to each other- but that doesn’t need to be the end of the conversation. No, we’re given the option of fighting against this both physically (through like police and stuff) and spiritually (through the spread of the Gospel). Remember what the tree next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was? The tree of life. Paul wrote, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). The Lord gave us that salvation and we can open the eyes of others blinded by the overwhelming understanding of evil and free them from a life ruled by sin.
There’s an interesting passage in the book of Luke. People came to Jesus with the very question of “Why did God allow_____?” Let’s see what he had to say:
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish (Luke 13:1-5).
It’s very interesting that while answering the question of an evil performed by Pilate upon others the Lord Jesus also brings up what could be seen as a naturally-occurring disaster. Although both are separate in their causes, his message was the same: repent. We get so focused on the cause and why the Lord allows something but Jesus said we should be focusing on the answer, which is repentance. Will the Lord allow bad things? Absolutely. Will he allow bad things to happen to those he loves? Sure he will. Evil and death are a part of this world. But the Lord is above that, and through faith in him we’ll be able to escape this world upon the expiration of our mortal bodies. As an answer, what Jesus said probably wasn’t very satisfying. But if you understand the inevitability of evil and death, then you’ll understand the importance of not giving in to it but fighting against it. Fighting it physically as we stomp out disease and injustice and fighting it spiritually as we bring people to the light. God allows ______ because it’s what we chose, but God also allows us to fight it, make our cursed world a little less awful, and ultimately escape the cycle. That’s the answer, take it as you will, it’s your choice.