I believe that at this point I may possibly have satisfied in my mind, at least in a temporary sense, the problem of evil as it relates to free will. Essentially, why would God create humans who could commit evil?
Unfortunately, I believe, I have come to rest on a point I adamantly rejected at the beginning: you can't have good without evil. I will also add - that sort of evil is really not so bad.
Let us think from the perspective of God. Though we can in no way grasp his thoughts, it may benefit us.
Why does God have to make people with free will?
God wants a people whom he can love and they can respond. More importantly, he wants people to glorify him. "Each of the four living creatures...day and night never stop saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty' who was, and is, and is to come." (Rev 4:8) To say 'God is holy' with meaning, one must be capable of saying 'God isn't holy'. He cannot simply make mechanical people. A rock 'responds' to you in a sense when you throw it. An evil genius can make a machine that assesses his capabilities and says "Your'e awesome!" But only a true God worthy of praise can get a human with free will to respond with joy to his love.
Let me come from the other side. Is it possible to get rid of evil while keeping free will?
Let us say that God, who has control over every aspect of the universe, were to stop your tongue every time you tried to lie. No sooner had you formed your mouth to the first syllable, you'd find yourself saying "God is holy." Well, that would get rid of lying wouldn't it? God could do this to every sin and we'd have a perfect world. But if God must stop outward sin, he must also stop inward sin. (See Matt 5:21-30 for the seriousness of inward sin.) He should have to control the very thought of lying, the false words as they ran through your head. Would free will survive? Perhaps. But even then, he should control even the intention to sin. To control sin, by the true meaning of sin, he should encroach so far on free will, in my estimation it should be completely destroyed.
Clarification - to be tempted, to have the thought of sinning, is not sin. Even to misinterpret the bible I would not think is sin. Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin. Sin is the intention to do something wrong or disobey God (roughly - that definition may need a lot of editing).
A minor point in this regard comes purely from C.S. Lewis (This post was sparked by a portion of Mere Christianity found in A Year with C.S. Lewis, titled "Voluntarily United" from Feb 21.) By creating man with an existence, it is unavoidable that he should have the choice to idolize himself. Even in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had to make the small choice to surrender themselves to God, even though they had no concept of evil.
Now, though this solution may be correct - in order to accomplish his purposes God had to create man with free will, and free will provides the opportunity for evil - we may still be bothered. I mean, evil is pretty nasty. Is getting a few more praises from us silly humans worth a whole broken universe that constantly defames his name? The point we miss here is that it's just us silly humans defaming him. A criminal cursing the policeman who arrests him does very little against the officers name. A broken chair in your house set in the corner and marked for repair or destruction is not so embarrassing as a broken chair which you knowingly leave at the table because you don't care if your house degrades or have not the money to repair it. Or we have only been treating the sinner until now. The pain or anger or suffering evil causes is even less a problem. A bullet in the head of a man sentenced to execution is rather a good thing than even a neutral one. In Romans 9 we learn that God is withholding justice for a time, abstaining from destroying the earth in order to have mercy on his people. What should he care if we start the process for him a little early? Even further, suffering sometimes brings good. Does not God bring us trials for the building up of our faith?
So all in all, I should say I am at least temporally satisfied with the problem of free will and evil. (Free will and Gods sovereignty is still a little sticky.) We may suggest better ways of doing it, but Gods method seems satisfactory to me (not that we should ever really question the plans of him who invented knowledge and reasoning, just try to understand).
Until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment