A friend and coworker of mine came to me concerning a question that he was given concerning God. He wanted to have a discussion with someone who is a Christian, to understand their view. I was honored to be chosen as that person.
" If God exists and sees all of the suffering of mankind, yet chooses not to act, God is not good. If God sees the suffering, chooses to act, yet lacks the power, he is impotent. If God chooses to act, has the power, yet lacks the plan of action, he is not all-knowing.
Although my friend, who has the label of Millennial (the generation between 1980 and 1995), isn't a Christian, he considers himself a seeker, not quite ready to commit to one religious model over another. With the reply he gave, we can see the hope of this generation, and indeed society as a whole, in its ability to define its moral arguments without fear and without hesitation. When the truth of Christianity reaches such as these, the faithful will be that more stronger......
My 'seeker' millennial friend responds with this statement. "One of the major downfalls to the Problem of Evil and how it relates to mankind's perceived "powers" of God is that it relates his power to terms that we, as mortal beings, understand and can relate to. Terms such as suffering, evil, knowledge, and power are used in relation to the human capability of these words.
As humans, we KNOW that a person suffers from a sickness or injury, or that someone suffers through financial hardships. We consider brutal acts to be evil. Some are even so arrogant as to assume that they can know the extent of the powers of God. Such is the nature of a being which is "outgrowing" its use for a belief in a deity.
To overcome something, one must first understand the limits of the object (or in this case God) that are being overcome. The fault in this lies with the basic understanding of every follower of every major religion. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and omnipresent. All-knowing means that God possesses the intimate knowledge of everything that ever did happen, is happening, or will happen and the effects that will have on everything else. All-powerful means that God has the ability to do every conceivable action, up to and including create or destroy. Omnipresent means that God is everywhere at every given point in time and space.
When humans try to take these ideas and "dumb them down" to human levels of understanding, they become watered down.
Applying the previous statement to the Problem of Evil, it can be said that God IS acting on every bit of suffering with all of his power, and all of his knowledge, but the actions and effects are beyond our simple level of understanding.
Join me on the slippery slope momentarily; without sickness or injury (easily construable as "suffering"), there would be no use for doctors. However, with no conditions of unhealthy, the human population would have choked out the Earth's resources long ago due to overcrowding.
Along those roads, many of the perceived "sufferings" of mankind are brought on by our own doing. War, poverty, and hunger could all be solved at a much lower level than through the intervention of God.
Why would a mother continue to breast feed her child when the child is more than capable of feeding itself?
So among these ramblings, hopefully I've been able to point out my opinion on a few of the flaws with the Problem of Evil. We simply are incapable of understanding the bounds of something that has no limits."
Tuesday, November 13
Monday, November 12
You get what you give.....
Isaiah 66:3 (AMP)
[The acts of the hypocrite's worship are as abominable to God as if they were offered to idols.] He who kills an ox [then] will be as guilty as if he slew and sacrificed a man; he who sacrifices a lamb or a kid, as if he broke a dog's neck and sacrificed him; he who offers a cereal offering, as if he offered swine's blood; he who burns incense [to God], as if he blessed an idol. [Such people] have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations; 4So I also will choose their delusions and mockings, their calamities and afflictions, and I will bring their fears upon them--because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not listen or obey. But they did what was evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.
Pastors are using the Dianetics book by Ron L. Hubbard for inspiration and affirmation within the church walls. Scientology is being displayed as 'non-christian' inspiration for the Christian aspirations. And no one sees anything wrong with this.
In a recent poll, we find that a majority of the '83%' professed Christians in the American population really aren't anything close to the truth, and yet we are comfortable with 'seekers' and 'questioners' who are led by a watered-down, flower-child mentality of Love, Love, Love….without ever coming into the deeper waters of a relationship with the Lord and Savior. Polls have questions like, "Do you believe there are many paths to Heaven?" or "Jesus was a prophetic teacher, but not truly divine, Yes or No?"
When we stray from the biblical truths and muddy the waters with non-biblical sources that are touted as not totally truthful, but useful, we fall into a situation of accepting everything as "useful" so long as we flavor it with biblical wording. By being seeker friendly, we have become user-friendly in a way that is biblically dangerous.
By touting God's love and desire to have none perish, we forget that there will be those who will…..God has enabled us to live our lives in choice, not as some machine that has nothing to do but repeat their Creator's words. God has given us the ability to reach beyond man's attempts throughout the generations to be God and to understand that we are God's children, vested with His love and His grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
By touting God's love and desire to have none perish, we have 'newbie' and 'seasoned' Christians falling into sin and turning their backs upon their Savior because they are hit with the evilness and sinfulness of the world. They cannot understand how this partial picture they have been given of God can allow the death of a loved one who claimed faith, the sorrow over not being able to provide simple food for their families, or the loss of their ability to walk.
And the "name it and claim it" crowd, while partially truthful in their Scriptural references, tend to leave off the fact that it is God's ability to deliver and not ours to affect. Great for motivational and inspirational settings, how many Christians have turned from the faith because they haven't 'claimed what they named?' How many Christians fall because they think their faith is not enough?
As God tells us in these two verses from Isaiah, such hypocritical views are an abomination to Him. And will be dealt with according to His righteousness, by getting what they asked for…….delusions and mockery…….
Jim
[The acts of the hypocrite's worship are as abominable to God as if they were offered to idols.] He who kills an ox [then] will be as guilty as if he slew and sacrificed a man; he who sacrifices a lamb or a kid, as if he broke a dog's neck and sacrificed him; he who offers a cereal offering, as if he offered swine's blood; he who burns incense [to God], as if he blessed an idol. [Such people] have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations; 4So I also will choose their delusions and mockings, their calamities and afflictions, and I will bring their fears upon them--because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not listen or obey. But they did what was evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.
Pastors are using the Dianetics book by Ron L. Hubbard for inspiration and affirmation within the church walls. Scientology is being displayed as 'non-christian' inspiration for the Christian aspirations. And no one sees anything wrong with this.
In a recent poll, we find that a majority of the '83%' professed Christians in the American population really aren't anything close to the truth, and yet we are comfortable with 'seekers' and 'questioners' who are led by a watered-down, flower-child mentality of Love, Love, Love….without ever coming into the deeper waters of a relationship with the Lord and Savior. Polls have questions like, "Do you believe there are many paths to Heaven?" or "Jesus was a prophetic teacher, but not truly divine, Yes or No?"
When we stray from the biblical truths and muddy the waters with non-biblical sources that are touted as not totally truthful, but useful, we fall into a situation of accepting everything as "useful" so long as we flavor it with biblical wording. By being seeker friendly, we have become user-friendly in a way that is biblically dangerous.
By touting God's love and desire to have none perish, we forget that there will be those who will…..God has enabled us to live our lives in choice, not as some machine that has nothing to do but repeat their Creator's words. God has given us the ability to reach beyond man's attempts throughout the generations to be God and to understand that we are God's children, vested with His love and His grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
By touting God's love and desire to have none perish, we have 'newbie' and 'seasoned' Christians falling into sin and turning their backs upon their Savior because they are hit with the evilness and sinfulness of the world. They cannot understand how this partial picture they have been given of God can allow the death of a loved one who claimed faith, the sorrow over not being able to provide simple food for their families, or the loss of their ability to walk.
And the "name it and claim it" crowd, while partially truthful in their Scriptural references, tend to leave off the fact that it is God's ability to deliver and not ours to affect. Great for motivational and inspirational settings, how many Christians have turned from the faith because they haven't 'claimed what they named?' How many Christians fall because they think their faith is not enough?
As God tells us in these two verses from Isaiah, such hypocritical views are an abomination to Him. And will be dealt with according to His righteousness, by getting what they asked for…….delusions and mockery…….
Jim
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