God is , God is , let us for our .
Steps
Acknowledge that suffering and evil exist and that everyone is affected by them.
Commit to the process of thinking about this problem.
If God is both omnipotent and perfectly good, how can he permit evil? If he is willing but not able to check suffering, then he is not omnipotent. If he is able but not willing, he is not perfectly good.
Steps
Atheism
Pantheism
“a common belief in reincarnation and karma provides a long-term framework in which to view individual spiritual progression. Individuals will accomplish their moral and spiritual development as they live out the consequences of prior actions, from this life and previous ones, over a period of successive lifetimes in a physical body…” – J Gordon Melton
Sub-biblical worldview
- God is not omnipotent.
- God made humans TOTALLY free.
Steps
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
Foundational step 1: God created a
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31
Foundational step 2: Sin
“You will not surely die. 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 3:4
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6
“Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” Genesis 3:7
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” Romans 5:12
Foundational step 3: Whole earth under
How can God be good and there be so much evil?
Unsettling truth: If God is good, morally upright, if He hates sin and is just in His judgments, then He should wipe out all evil.
Steps
God has planned a personal and permanent solution that displays his goodness and deals with evil through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
God’s solution is
“Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept.” John 11:32-35
“So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?’” John 11:36-37
If He is loving and if He is powerful why didn’t He stop it?
Christ absorbed the – by suffering
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” Galatians 3:13
Christ bore our and purchased our – by suffering
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24
Christ provided a for us that becomes ours in Him – by suffering
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ defeated – by suffering death
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” – Hebrews 2:14-15
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He disarmed – by suffering
“by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Colossians 2:14-15
Christ purchased perfect for all His people – by suffering
“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17
Christ will bring us – by His suffering
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,” 1 Peter 3:18,
“The Bible is really all about the problem of evil. It shows how evil came into the world (Gen. 3), and it tells us how God sent his Son to deal with it, to ‘destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8). The death of Jesus atoned for the sins of his people, and sin is the root of all evil. So through him all the heavens and the earth will be renewed.” – John Frame