GOODNESS OF GOD / PROBLEM OF EVIL

Introduction

1.     How could a good God create a world with suffering and evil?

2.     Where did evil come from?

Notice these points:

1.     Two premises

a.     Man’s knowledge is limited – Proverbs 14:12

b.     Man’s idea of good may be mistaken

                                                    i.     Pleasure – Pain view = Fairy Tales

                                                   ii.     What is our primary purpose in life?

2.     Underlying Principles

a.     Regularity of law – Genesis 8:22

                                                    i.     Storms

                                                   ii.     Gravity

                                                 iii.     Sunshine

                                                 iv.     Rain

b.     Freedom of man’s will – free moral agent

c.     Imperfect conditions – things break, wear out

d.     Man’s interdependence

                                                    i.     With each other

                                                   ii.     With things

3.     5 Questions – from Tom Warren

a.     What is intrinsically good? – Become a son of God, live as such

b.     What is intrinsically evil? – fail to become a son of God

c.     What is instrumentally good? – a means to a good end

d.     What is instrumentally evil? – a means to an evil end

e.     What is to be valued? – what is intrinsically or instrumentally good

4.     When is evil good?

a.     Pain = warns of infection or disease

b.     Christians fed to lions

                                                    i.     Lions act by nature

                                                   ii.     Christian is right to maintain their faith

                                                 iii.     Decision to kill them was wrong

c.     Evil exists, but that is not evil

d.     Evil is good when it provides man with an ideal environment

                                                    i.     Wind, sun, rain

                                                   ii.     Animal pain – hunger, thirst, injury

                                                 iii.     Man needs food and clothing > animals must die