Thanks for the great folks who commented on yesterday's post. I think that there's some important stuff for folks to grapple with in what Liz and St. Gregory the Melancholic (appropriate post for your first comment here on Piebald Life, thanks for jumping in!) said.
I think the root of our struggle with the problem of evil is this: even our better attempts at explaining how it and God function in the same reality don't deal with the root issue. Liz's argument of God limiting his own activity/intervention in human affairs I think is true. But that still doesn't answer the root question: if God is all good and if God created all that is (angels, people, etc.), then where did evil really come from? Who or what gave birth to evil?
In our own understanding it would seem like an obvious alternative to the good, but before anyone had ever experienced or known evil it would be as foreign as us thinking about breathing in liquid mercury rather than oxygen to survive. It just wouldn't even make sense.
Here's why I think our solutions to the problem of evil fall short: Scripture never tells us where evil comes from. There's the one best chance of us getting a direct answer in Job. And all God says to Job is "where were you?" Where were you when I formed the world, made the stars, etc. etc. Read those last couple of chapters of Job, and we get the invitation into mystery rather than a neat solution to the problem.
So we don't get a reason for evil. Scripture never tells us. And all our attempts at answering it are okay, we just need to at least confess that they are at best guesses--and to confess that some guesses are better and more faithful than others. I prefer to confess to be agnostic about the origin of evil--I just don't know.
But here's what we do know:
1. We know that evil barely exists. Evil exists solely as a parasite to the good. There is absolutely nothing that is purely evil and we must not give evil that much creative credit or power. All evil can do is take what was originally created as good and twist it into bad. We are not dualists. There is no equal and opposite person to God, no duality between good and evil. It is a complete mismatch. God wins. Hope wins. God is God over all things--Satan is God's Satan, he is on a leash. There is no eternal battle between good and evil that is being waged. God is God. All things were created good. All things have been corrupted (to varying degrees) by the parasite of evil. But there is no such thing as "raw evil." There is, however, such a thing as "raw good." One day, that will be all that there is. One day, the full reality of God's power and the reality that evil barely exists will be fully lived in, enjoyed.
2. We know that we get the solution to the problem of evil. We don't know where it comes from, but we do see how God has dealt with it. He deals with it by taking all of it on himself, at great cost to himself, to pass judgment on it once and for all. It is finished. All of evil has been conquered and will one day be no more. God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves.
4 comments:
I might take a little exception to some of this line of thinking. But I need to do some research first. There is a little Scripture that talks about the nature of the origin of evil. But I need to find this, too, since it's been a while since I have referenced it. I will check back shortly.
PS - and only Alex will get this. St. Gregory and Thoroughbred Stallions are one in the same! ;)
OK, I found the text I was looking for. It's Isaiah 14:12-14. I'm not going to create a theology for the creation of evil here nor for angels. But essentially Satan sinned when he rebelled against God. The heart of his sin lay in his "I will's". "I will ascend to heaven", "I will set my throne on high", "I will sit on the mount of assembly", "I will ascend above the heights of clouds", "I will make myself like the Most High". Conscious decisions with himself and his will as the focus. This mentality and willfulness he was able to spawn in Adam and Eve. That's about as far as I'll take that. Someone else can expound further if they like. Again, no theology here as I won't begin to explain (not that I could) how a seemingly sinless angel can sin. But this does give insight into the creation of sin.
The thing I might take exception to is the idea that evil barely existing. I know what you mean -that God is ultimately in control of everyhting. And ultimately evil is on its way out. But I don't feel comfortable with the idea that there is "no such thing as raw evil" (although, again, I know what you are getting at). Maybe I would not feel so uncomfortable with that phrase if we were not in the current postmodern environment where there is complete denial of evil in the world. The VT shooter was not evil, he simply had mental problems. Sadam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden are not evil - just misunderstood. They can be reasoned with! This mentality I do not agree with at all. I think there are people who are evil - and I would consider it raw evil. Remember, Paul himself speaks in Romans 2:28 of those whom God gave up to a base mind - those same people being filled with all manner of wickedness. That sounds like raw evil to me. And there is nice little laundry list here of their evil as well. But, again, I know what you mean!
Thoroughbread Stallions! I fled fantasy football land because of you..now you haunt me in the blogosphere...
great to hear from you, bro, thanks for these thoughts.
and i certainly don't mean to imply that evil is not a problem or that it doesn't exist at all! thanks for the (gentle) corrective here. I certainly see both sides of this issue with my students: some who feel totally weighed down with all the evil in the world (and this blog post is good tonic for that) and others who think evil doesn't exist at all (for whom this post would not be helpful).
thanks again for chiming in!
Make sure you come visit the Melancholic Pipe from time to time! ;)
http://themelancholicpipe.blogspot.com/
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