“But many are also questioning what role faith and God
play at a time like this, and are looking toward pastors and religious leaders
for answers. Warren says that God's will is in heaven, but it is rarely done on
Earth because humans are free to make their own choices.” [Christian Post]
These words appeared in the Christian Post recently in an
article discussing Rick Warren’s reaction to the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy.
Warren is quoted as saying that “free will” is man’s greatest blessing and
man’s greatest curse. While much of what Warren said in the article was true,
his basic apologetic on this issue falls far short of biblical revelation on
the idea of God’s sovereignty in the Newtown, Conn. tragedy.
I understand what Warren is getting at. I really do. I had
another friend of mine refer to a similar conversation he had with another
pastor friend on the very same subject. In theology, we call it “theodicy.” It
is the age-old problem of reconciling the existence of an all good, all
knowing, all powerful God with the present reality of evil.
As this argument goes, if God were all good, he should
destroy evil. If He were all knowing, He would certainly know how to
destroy evil. Finally, if God were all powerful, he could destroy evil.
God knows how to destroy evil, and He is powerful enough to destroy evil, and
since He is good, he should destroy evil, but here we are. Evil certainly
exists as the Newtown tragedy clearly demonstrates.
Warren’s argument is an attempt to remove God from the
dilemma of existing alongside evil. So, the argument goes that God, in order to
create the greater good of “free will” must also tolerate the present existence
of evil. There is no other way. In other words, God could destroy evil right
now, but if He did, He would also destroy the best possible world of “free will
.” In other words, while it may feel like the Newtown tragedy points to a
lessor world, it actually points to a superior one. “The problem of evil is a
serious challenge to the defense of Christianity. Actually there are many
problems relating to evil, for example, the problems about its origin, nature,
purpose, and avoidability.”[1]
The problem of the existence of evil is a serious problem for
the Christian worldview. Serious problems demand serious answers. It would be a
mistake to treat the issue with a casual attitude. It follows then that
whatever answer we provide to the inquirer, it must be a careful and considered
one. The answer must be true. That is to say, it must be grounded, not in human
reason, but in the revelation of Scripture. The doctrine of God and of man as
revealed in Scripture provide a clear path through this problem. In addition, the
Christian view on the reality of evil and its purpose serve the believer very
well in being able to deal with this question.
According to Rick Warren’s statement at the outset of this
blog, the Newtown tragedy was an incident that occurred outside of God’s will.
In other words, this incident happened beyond God’s control. If God willed that
the Newtown incident would not happen, then how did it happen? It is one thing
to claim that God hates the evil reflected in the Newtown incident and quite
another to claim that it lay outside His sovereign will. We go back to the objection
of God’s existence with evil. Christians contend that a good, powerful, and
wise God exists along with evil. The mystery involves God’s infinite intellect
and the existence of evil. Warren, and those like him claim that you cannot
have free will without the possibility of evil. However, that argument does not
hold true. It does not follow that free will demands the freedom to some form
of evil. All that is necessary for freedom of choice to exist is that there be
more than one choice. Freewill does not require that one be able to choose the
contrary. It only requires choice. For example, if I have the choice to marry
one of five women, I am free to marry any one of those five women. There is no
evil choice involved. Freedom does not require freedom to do wickedly. If that
is true, then God Himself is not free. God cannot sin! But who among us would
say that God does not exercise free choice, free will?
“In treating of
Evil in relation to Theodicy it is quite impossible to leave out of
consideration metaphysics and epistemology. The views of sin will vary as the
conceptions of God and man vary. If we view God as infinite, eternal, and
immutable in His being, intelligence, and will, and man his organic creation,
if we accept the supernatural, grant the need of special revelation, accept the
fact of special revelation and the fall of man, we must needs also come to the
Biblical view of sin with redemption and restoration. If on the other hand we
deny these premises, we must begin with man and experience as we find them, and
construct our own views as to the nature of God and man and therefore also of
sin, and we come to a fundamentally different theory of Theodicy.”[2]
Van Til gets to the
heart of the matter. The problem of evil is really about our presuppositions regarding
God, man, sin, and revelation. It is about where begin our answer to this
question more than anything else. We either begin with God and what Scripture
teaches about God or we begin with man, with experience and construct an answer
on that basis. I will spend the rest of this blog proving from Scripture that
the kind of God that the Christian worldview teaches, the kind that Scripture
reveals, is the God Who is sovereign over all creation. “That the sovereignty
of God is universal. It extends over all his creatures from the highest to the
lowest. (2.) That it is absolute. There is no limit to be placed to his
authority. He doeth his pleasure in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. (3.) It is immutable. It can neither be ignored nor
rejected. It binds all creatures, as inexorably as physical laws bind the
material universe.”[3]
Psalm 115:3 “But our
God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” This psalm is really quite
clear. God does what God really wants to do. It is important that we
distinguish between good desires and actual willing. God does what God wills to
do. In other words, nothing happens that God does not first will it.
Daniel 4:35 “All the
inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His
will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no
one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” Yet here we are
daring to question God on the Newtown matter or matters that personally affect
us more directly. It is never a small matter to hint that maybe God is not in
sovereign control of things, that perhaps He has wound up a clock in deistic fashion
and is simply letting her run her course. Such a view severely impugns God’s
immanence, his involvement with His creation. This is not the God of
Christianity. It is a god we come up with when we begin with experience, with
our own bias as to how things ought to be.
Psalm 24:1 “The
earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.”
God is in complete control over all things. There is nothing that He does not
control.
Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold,
all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine.
The soul who sins will die.” God is holy. He is perfectly righteous. Human
beings are fallen, rebellious sinners undeserving of the mercy and grace God
pours out upon us. God could take all our children in the same manner as the
Newtown tragedy and we could not open our mouth for a second in criticism of
His action. Why? We have all sinned against God in numerous ways. We have lied,
cheated, stolen, committed adultery, blasphemed, etc. We do not deserve the
joys that our children bring us. Those joys are an act of grace and
loving-kindness by a God who is far more gracious than we could ever imagine.
Yet, we have these conversations without facing what feels like this harsh
truth. Any other view of the joys that our children bring us either reduces the
gift that they are or it belittles the human condition of depravity. Both
choices are unacceptable.
Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to the
one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of
earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you
are making say, ‘He has no hands’?” Paul quotes this verse to debunk the
human argument that would claim that free will must exist in order for God’s
punishment to be just. While the argument is slightly different from this one,
it does rest on the same foundation of autonomous human reason and it begins,
not with God, but with human experience. God, as the potter, can do and
actually does whatever He pleases with His own vessels.
Ephesians 1:11 “also
we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His
purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” God is working,
does work, always works all things according to the counsel of His own will. He
does not work some things, like salvation, according to the counsel of His own
will. He works all things according to the counsel of His own will.
Romans 11:36 “For
from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory
forever. Amen.” From God comes all things. To God, for His glory all things exist.
Everything is through Him. In other words, nothing exists or happens apart from
God.
It would seem then
that Rick Warren’s characterization that God’s will is not always carried out
on earth is a teaching that runs contrary to the revelation of Scripture and
hence to the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith on the subject. In my
next blog, I will actually answer the challenge of evil and discuss how we can
minister and serve those who are facing tragedies like the one in Newtown.
[1]
Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of
Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Books, 1999), 219.
[2]
Cornelius Van Til and Eric H. Sigward, Unpublished
Manuscripts of Cornelius Van Til, Electronic ed. (Labels Army Company: New
York, 1997).
[3]
Charles Hodge, vol. 1, Systematic
Theology (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 440.
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