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A Fragment on the Nature of Evil

[I've been remiss in my posting over the last two weeks because my schedule kind of got unraveled. I'm hoping to catch up this week, but I thought I would start posting some of my shorter, more concise thoughts as a way to get myself posting and and hopefully get some feed back.]


When something bad happens, people often comfort each other by saying that the event in question was part of a "higher purpose." They explain evil things as necessary parts of God's plan to bring about the "greater good." This answer is not only unhelpful, but it is also unbiblical and it takes away from the glory of God. The fact that God uses evil to accomplish good is not an explanation of the presence of evil; rather, it is a miracle that itself defies explanation.

Comments

  1. jim-gNovember 1, 2011 at 5:17 PM

    So, you say that because you lack the reason of why evil exists makes an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Then isn't all action by God a miracle!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt HolmesNovember 1, 2011 at 8:57 PM

    Hmm... well, no, I don't think that all action by God is a miracle. In fact, I think that 99% of what God does is not miraculous--it is an act of God's power that the Sun continues to burn, that the Earth continues to spin, that the atoms in my hand continue to hold together.

    What I mean here is that we shouldn't attribute evil events to necessary acts of God's plan, as if God committed a little evil to achieve the greater good. God doesn't commit evil, and evil doesn't happen because God wants it to. Evil happens because we have brought evil into the world and must all live with the consequences; in spite of this, God can use these evil events to accomplish great things. The fact that God works all things together for the good of those who serve him should not be a natural occurrence to us, as if it can explain the existence of evil; rather, it should be a miracle and a mystery to us, something that we recognize as outside our understanding but believe in through faith nonetheless.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jim-gNovember 5, 2011 at 9:23 AM

    It is a bit a stretch for me that you consider God's ability to intervene a miracle since HE has ultimate control e.g. sun, moon and stars. Wouldn't it be a bit less of a stretch to wonder why God allows it to play out in this fashion?

    ReplyDelete

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