The Problem Of Evil - Tumblr Posts
The Logical Problem of Evil
By Author Eli Kittim 🎓
The problem of evil is a philosophical conundrum that seems to contradict the existence of God. The question is as follows:
How can we reconcile the existence of
suffering and evil in the world with a
supposedly omnibenevolent, omniscient,
and omnipotent God?
At first glance, these two premises seem incompatible. The most well-known presentation of this dilemma is ascribed to the ancient Greek philosopher and sage Epicurus (341–270 bce). He framed the logical problem of evil as follows:
If God is willing to prevent evil, but is unable,
then he’s not all-powerful.
If he’s able to prevent evil, but unwilling,
then he’s not good.
But if he’s both willing and able,
how can evil exist?
And, if he’s neither able nor willing,
then why call him God? [or worship him?]
Epicurus is trying to point out the apparent incompatibility between the existence of evil and that of God. He’s trying to demonstrate that it’s logically impossible for both God and evil to exist. They are at loggerheads with each other. And since we know that evil and suffering exist, it must mean that God does not.
However, the premise that the existence of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God contradicts the presence of evil is unsound. A squared circle or a married bachelor is certainly a contradiction. But it’s not logically inconsistent to speak of the existence of suffering and an all-loving powerful God in the same breath. Epicurus’ implication is that if God was all-powerful and/or all-loving he would not have allowed suffering or evil to exist. So, his premise presupposes that either an all-powerful, all-loving God exists and suffering does not, or else suffering exists and God does not. But both cannot exist simultaneously.
However, this is a false assumption. Why? Because if God grants human beings free will, then the possibility of choosing good or evil does not explicitly contradict the existence of God. In fact, if the opposite were true and God were to create a world in which people didn’t have free will and always chose the good, there would be no suffering, but neither would there be any freedom. It would be a world of programmed robots, not free people.
And how would we even know what good really is if evil and suffering never existed? After all, in the Bible, God promises to eliminate evil & suffering at the end of the age! So, how can we possibly know if God has good reasons for permitting evil and suffering to exist for a time? The answer is, we do not know. Both biblically and philosophically, good and evil are not mutually exclusive but coexist temporally and ontologically. Thus, it is not illogical for both God and suffering to exist simultaneously. As philosopher William P. Alston conceded, “It is now acknowledged on (almost) all sides that the logical argument is bankrupt” (The Inductive Argument From Evil and the Human Cognitive Condition. Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 5, Philosophy of Religion [1991], pp. 29-67).
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A Response to Bill Mounce’s God's Gracious Gift of Suffering (Phil 1:29)
By Author Eli Kittim 🎓
Bill Mounce is a well-known scholar of New Testament Greek. He serves on the Committee for the NIV translation of the Bible, and has written a classic biblical Greek textbook, “Basics of Biblical Greek,” among other things. He blogs regularly on New Testament Greek at BillMounce.com.
Does God Give us the Grace to Suffer? Or the Grace to Endure Suffering?
Recently, I came across a piece of writing by Greek scholar Bill Mounce. In that paper, Mounce took issue with what “a popular preacher” was saying, namely, that “All suffering … is outside of God’s will.” Mounce shot back at the pastor for making an “absurdly non-biblical statement.” In calling him out, Mounce began to expound Phil 1.27–30. He writes:
Translations generally are not able to bring
out the nuances of this verse, nor the
awkward Greek. Paul begins, ‘for it has
been granted (ἐχαρίσθη) to you on behalf of
Christ.’ χαρίζομαι means ‘to give freely as a
favor, give graciously’ (BDAG). χαρίζομαι is
the cognate verb for the familiar noun,
χάρις, meaning ‘grace.’ The NLT translates,
‘you have been given ... the privilege.’ The
following are gracious gifts to Christians:
to believe in him (τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύειν),
and
to suffer for him (τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πάσχειν).
The theology of the “popular pastor” denies
God’s gracious gift of suffering.
In other words, Mounce believes that our suffering——regardless of what form it takes——is actually a gracious gift from God. Thus, one can reasonably argue that if a person has cancer, or if he has lost all his limbs, as well as his eyesight or hearing, then this is a wonderful, gracious gift from God, and, therefore, the person should thank him for it! Not only does this view attribute the cause of all evil to God (cf. 1 John 1.5), but it also calls evil good (cf. Isaiah 5.20). Paradoxically, it is a glorification of suffering and evil. Mounce writes:
I have heard sermons on God’s gracious gift
of faith to his children; I have yet to hear a
sermon on God’s gracious gift of suffering.
That’s unfortunate, to understate it in the
extreme.
But just because we may have faced similar struggles with our fellow Christians, or we may have suffered for righteousness’ sake, doesn’t mean that these evils were deliberately sent our way. And just because suffering can test us, through which we may be purified, doesn’t mean that God himself is behind these temptations, orchestrating them, one by one. It would be far more accurate to call it God's "permissive will” in allowing suffering and evil to exist.
This idea is often misunderstood by other writers as well. For example, if the followers of Christ are said to experience the same sufferings that the Apostles in the New Testament experienced, then it means that they, too, have entered into the kingdom of God, renewed their minds, and shared in God’s consolation. In other words, the afflictions exist to frighten us from walking along the spiritual path (cf. Phil. 2.12). It doesn’t mean that these obstacles, temptations, and afflictions are ipso facto created by God. That’s what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 1.6-7:
If we are being afflicted, it is for your
consolation and salvation; if we are being
consoled, it is for your consolation, which
you experience when you patiently endure
the same sufferings that we are also
suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken; for
we know that as you share in our sufferings,
so also you share in our consolation.
Mounce then goes on to enumerate the various benefits that suffering brings to the followers of Christ. He says “Suffering binds us together,” “strengthens our faith,” purifies our faith, and so on. And he rightly says that “if we are not suffering, then we need to ask if we are living out our allegiance to Christ.” That is quite true. He correctly points out that suffering is “so essential that without it one’s salvation is in question.” But he confuses the *benefits* of suffering with the *causes* of suffering. He assumes that since suffering brings the Christian so many blessings, then it must be part of God’s plan. God must be behind all this. It must be part of his sovereign will. Mounce writes:
Not only is belief a gracious gift from God,
but so also is entering into suffering on his
behalf. To deny the reality and the gift of
suffering is to rip out half of God’s gracious
gifts to us that Paul is discussing.
Then he admits that he’s reformed in his theology. To show the importance and necessity of suffering, he quotes Paul who says that “we are children of God, … and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8.16-17 NRSV). I concur with Mounce that “Our glorification depends on our suffering,” and that our suffering depends upon our courage to follow Christ no matter what the cost may be. Mounce concludes:
Suffering for Christ as we live out our lives is
a gracious gift from God, confirming and
strengthening his gracious gift of faith to us.
As Fee writes (quoting Lightfoot), “suffering
should not surprise or overwhelm them; it is
rather evidence that ‘God looks upon you
with favor’” (171).
Anyone who teaches otherwise is teaching
false doctrine and is robbing God’s children
of the joyful benefits of suffering.
Conclusion
Bill Mounce is essentially saying that suffering itself “is a gracious gift from God.” It’s a sign of God’s love for you. He’s basically saying that God gives us the grace to suffer. But I think that Bill Mounce is wrong. By contrast, I hold that God gives us the grace to endure suffering. In other words, God doesn’t predestine suffering; he foreknows it, and therefore gives us the grace to overcome it. Otherwise, God would be accused of being the author of evil. Mounce interprets Philippians 1.28-29 as if it is saying that God *causes* us to suffer. However, I think it teaches that God gives us the grace to *endure* suffering.
Philippians 1.28-29 (Stephens 1550 Greek
text):
28 καὶ μὴ πτυρόμενοι ἐν μηδενὶ ὑπὸ τῶν
ἀντικειμένων ἥτις αὐτοῖς μέν ἐστὶν
ἔνδειξις ἀπωλείας, ὑμῖν δὲ σωτηρίας,
καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ θεοῦ,
29 ὅτι ὑμῖν ἐχαρίσθη τὸ ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ, οὐ
μόνον τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύειν ἀλλὰ καὶ
τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πάσχειν
My Translation (Philippians 1.28-29):
28 And don’t be terrified by anything with
regard to your adversaries, which to
them, on the one hand, is an indication
of perdition, but to you, on the other, of
salvation, and that of God.
29 Because unto you the grace has been
given concerning Christ, not only to
believe in him, but also to suffer for his
sake.
Biblical Greek Exegesis
The Greek text of Philippians chapter 1 verse 28 says σωτηρίας, καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ θεοῦ, meaning that salvation is by God alone. That is, it’s granted only by God; it’s a grace. Verse 29 says ὅτι ὑμῖν ἐχαρίσθη, meaning, “to you the grace has been granted.” But what type of grace has God given us? The grace to suffer or the grace to endure suffering? The former view implies that God himself gives us the suffering. The latter position implies that God allows suffering, but gives us the ability to endure it. Being of the reform tradition, Mounce implies that God creates evil and thus brings suffering into our lives. However, this is not necessarily the only possible exegesis from the Greek. Verse 29 could also mean that God’s grace has been given to us not only to believe in Christ, but also to *endure* suffering for his sake!
For further details on the theological implications of Bill Mounce’s exegesis, read my paper:
Does God Create Evil?: Answering the Calvinists
https://eli-kittim.tumblr.com/post/656643262452531200/does-god-create-evil-answering-the-calvinists
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Do We Suffer Because We Have “Free Will”?: Answering Bart Ehrman
By Bible researcher and author Eli Kittim 🎓
In his blog post (entitled “Do We Suffer Because We Have ‘Free Will’?”), Bart Ehrman asked the question whether the Christian response to evil and suffering is sufficient. He asked the question whether or not we suffer because we have so-called “free will.”? He then proceeded to show that in spite of the fact that people can choose to mistreat their fellow man, there are other things, like plagues and natural disasters, that go far beyond human free-will in causing suffering and death, such as droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, diseases, and so on and so forth. Bart Ehrman, therefore, concluded that there is no satisfactory answer. In response, I have created a systematic theology of evil to try to explain how all these phenomena are possible from a biblical perspective and that, unlike science, the Christian response is the only one which demonstrates that suffering has a meaning and a purpose. So let’s start at the beginning.
The presence of evil is not limited to the brain and to human thought and behavior (i.e. free will), but it permeates all of creation and the natural order. If you study diseases and viruses, you will quickly come to realize that they act as if they were highly intelligent and sophisticated computer programs that are intended to hack and infiltrate a host (e.g. they mimic, hide, and impersonate it) and then, at the right time, they duplicate themselves inside the nucleus (or the headquarters of the host, so to speak) in an attempt to overwhelm and destroy it. It’s as if diseases, say, like cancer, have a mind of their own. This represents evil at the biological, chemical, genetic, or physiological level.
We can also detect this battle of good and evil being played out in the physical world of matter and antimatter. When matter and antimatter come into close contact, they mutually annihilate each other. One could say that evil, death, and destruction exist just as much in the material world as they do in human consciousness. The presence of evil, death, and destruction in the physical world consists of antimatter, which comprises antiprotons, antineutrons, and so on. Therefore, life and death are played out on a cosmic scale between matter and antimatter, as well as between health and well-being, on the one hand, and illness and disease, on the other. In fact, Paul stresses that the whole of creation will one day be reversed from its present state of entropy in which the universe is gradually declining into chaos and disorder (Romans 8:21-22):
the creation itself also will be set free from
its slavery to corruption into the freedom of
the glory of the children of God. For we
know that the whole creation groans and
suffers the pains of childbirth together until
now.
So, when we speak about the problem of evil in our world, it isn’t as simple as reducing it to “free will” and saying that humans choose to act in accordance with either life or death. That’s because this destructive force also permeates the physical world (e.g. natural disasters, plagues, etc.), as well as the metaphysical world. In the Bible, Ephesians 2:2 attributes the origin of all this cosmic death and entropy to an autonomous metaphysical being who is said to be the "prince of the power of the air,” and whom John 12:31 describes as the "ruler of this world.” In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul attests to the enormous power that this entity possesses by calling him “the god of this world,” as if he has ontological status and somehow reigns over the entire world and its people. In other words, these computer-like viruses that we call “diseases,” as well as the antimatter that tries to destroy matter, are somehow guided by this malevolent metaphysical intelligence that is invisible to the naked eye. That’s precisely why Revelation 9:11 refers to this supernatural being as a king called “Abaddon”——whose name in Hebrew means “destruction”——who is said to be the chief angel of the abyss!
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, realized that both life and death exist side by side and reside within human beings. He called these principles eros (life) and thanatos (death). You may call them good and evil, or God and the devil, if you will. The point is, there’s a cosmic battle taking place on many levels of existence (biological, physical, natural, cognitive, and metaphysical) between life and death, between creation and destruction, between being and nonbeing, between matter and antimatter, between good and evil, and ultimately between God and the devil!
This cosmic war comes to a head during the consummation of the ages when the universal battle between the gods will take place. We are told in the Bible that life will ultimately triumph over death, and that light will prevail over darkness. This cosmic battle is summarized in Revelation 12:7-8. That’s why in 1 Corinthians 15:23-28, we are told that, in the end-times, Christ will abolish “all rule and all authority and power” and reign over them. “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” Thus all physical laws of the universe, including the entities that have been acting autonomously, will finally come under the control of Christ. At that time, “All things are put in subjection” to Christ. That’s precisely why there will be a new universe, namely, a new heavens and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). So, there is much more at stake here than one realizes. It’s true that humanity is at a precipice. But more than that, the future of the entire universe, and of “reality“ itself, is at stake.
Fortunately, Revelation 21:4 informs us that this cosmic battle, which has been causing so much pain and suffering for hundreds of thousands of years, will finally come to an end, and life will ultimately triumph over death. All the cosmic forces of death and destruction will be completely abolished and eliminated. This is, in fact, the ultimate purpose of the universe and of humanity itself. Thus, Revelation gives us something worth looking forward to:
He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and there will no longer be any death;
there will no longer be any mourning, or
crying, or pain; the first things have passed
away.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul reveals this future world as a fantastic vacation spot of utter bliss, contentment, fun, joy, peace, happiness, and satisfaction:
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have
entered into the heart of man The things
which God has prepared for those who love
Him.