Homeschool Helper - April 2009 - (Page 3)

FEATURE ARTICLE CONT. the things that do not work out so well for us—even horrifically—just as much as the things that do.1 That thought raises some very tough questions. The most obvious, of course, is “Why did God let this happen?” But that question is not really a request for reasons; it is really a cover for a series of much more direct questions: • Would a good God really “The Problem of Evil”: If God is both great and good, why is there evil? • Is God unwilling to stop it and thereby really not a good person?3 imaginary?4 • Is evil really just • Or is there no God at all?5 do something like this? this from happening? serve a God like this? • Shouldn’t He have stopped Executive Editor: Steven N. Skaggs, M.Ed. Assistant Editor: Bonnie Detwiler Homeschool Consultant: Emily Largent Creative Director: Elly Kalagayan Layout Artist: Craig Oesterling Ad Coordinator: JoEllen DeLuca Photos: © 2009 iStockphoto Inc. 1, 3 BJU Press © 2009 BJU Press, Greenville, SC 29614-0060 Homeschool Helper is published quarterly. All rights reserved. Send all correspondence to Homeschool Helper, BJU Press, Greenville, SC 29614-0060 or to hshelper@bjupress.com. So is the problem of evil unsolvable? How do we guide our children through this difficult minefield? What will we say after the next tornado or hurricane or earthquake? • Do I really want to The Basics This is The Big Question, the one that has troubled believers for centuries. It is the one that unbelievers most commonly present as the basis for their unbelief. It is usually called simply “The Problem of Evil”: If God is both great and good, why is there evil? • Is God really not great An attempt to deal with the problem of evil is called a “theodicy,” or an attempt to justify God’s ways to men, as Milton put it.6 We should start by observing that God does not need our help; He is an idol of conventional wisdom, not the absolute personality of Christianity.” Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1994), 154. 3 This is the view of Satanism. 4 This is the view of Christian Science as well as a number of Eastern religions and philosophies. 5 This is the view of the leaders of what I call “the atheist revival.” The most active recently are Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006); Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (London: Free Press, 2006), and Letter to a Christian Nation (New York: Random House, Inc., 2006); and Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (New York: Twelve, 2007). 6 Paradise Lost, 1:26 just—in fact, He is the very definition of just—and He is wise, powerful, and good and so can take care of Himself in the face of attacks by His greatest enemies. History is filled with examples of God’s using those very attacks to accomplish His own good purposes. The most obvious example of that, of course, is the crucifixion—a heinous crime perpetrated by evil men driven by evil supernatural forces (Luke 22:3, 22; Acts 2:23; 4:26−28)7 but one that resulted in the provision of salvation to all who wish to come.8 But most Christians have an inherent sense that we, as stewards of the grace of God, should be ready to defend His honor in the face of misunderstanding or even outright hostility. (The Bible confirms this sense in 1 Peter 3:15.) As evangelists we should be ready to use a bridge collapse or a flood as an opportunity to present God’s grace—and often that means supporting the assertion that God is good 7 It is intriguing to me that this point seems to be such a dominant one for the biblical author Luke. 8 Another oft-cited example is the actions of Joseph’s brothers (Genesis 50:20). enough to stop it?2 1 I think it is noteworthy that when Satan wanted to attack Job, either indirectly (Job 1) or directly (Job 2), he had to get God’s permission first. 2 This is the view proposed by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner in his popular work When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Avon, 1981). It is also popular among certain liberal theologians, especially adherents to process theology, or the doctrine of an evolving God, and its distant cousin open theism. Of this view, John Frame well writes, “A nonsovereign god is 2

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Homeschool Helper - April 2009

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