What Went Wrong? Natural & Moral Evil

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045942812840452090.post-43972551507626275322008-03-11T20:13:00.000-05:002008-03-11T20:16:52.701-05:00What Went Wrong? Natural & Moral EvilI. What Went Wrong: Natural evil & Moral evil Natural disasters Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, 225,000 died in eleven countries Katrina, more than 1,800 died in August 2005 in Mississippi and Louisiana Kashmir earthquake, October 2005; 75,000 died in Pakistan and India Moral disasters The Somme, WWI; one million casualties combined. Holocaust, WWII: six million Jews exterminated; many more “undesirables.” September 11, 2001: 3,000 civilians killed by terrorists in NYC and Washington. * Perhaps we might have quibbled about the definition of “evil” some time ago, in our post-modern way. In this century, the reality of evil is tangible, acknowledged by virtually everyone. * Some have used the presence of evil as an argument to support atheism. 1. If evil exists, then either God does not, or. 2. God is either not good (else, he would prevent evil), or he is not powerful (unable to prevent evil). 3. Thus, a god too weak to prevent evil or too evil to so desire, is not God at all. The Bible presents a very different explanation of the problem of evil. A. The World was made well and good. i. Gen. 1, 2: “and it was good.” ii. “and it was good.” B. The World remains essentially good. i. Jesus walked the earth without suit armor. ii. Jesus provided an ethic for dealing with the world as it is and as it will be. C. The World is now morally broken and in need of repair. i. Genesis 3:1-7 ii. Genesis 3:8- D. The World is being reconstructed by the Creator God who made it. i. Our moral problem was addressed directly by God in Genesis 3:9-15 ii. The shame of Adam and Eve was directly confronted by God’s seeking them out. iii. The question of cause is highlighted by 1. God’s direct questions, “Where are you…Who told you…? 2. Many other questions were left unanswered! a. Where did evil originate? b. Why was a serpent in the Garden? c. Why did the serpent choose to use its cunning in such a deceptive manner? iv. The problem of human rebellion was 1. confronted by God 2. addressed by expulsion from the Garden. a. The rebellion problem was treated with expulsion and curses. i. Avoid the Tree of Life. ii. Endure the curses for the serpent, the man, the woman, and their posterity. 1. Posterity includes us; the blessing of fruitfulness was not rescinded; yet… 2. A curse for the Posterity means that the brokenness runs through even the best of us, “and he died…” as we all do! b. The wickedness of Noah’s time was treated with a torrential Flood. c. The arrogance of Babel’s Tower was treated with confusion and dispersal. 3. What do we learn? a. Satan, who introduces evil into the world, is important, but not all-important; ‘the devil made me do it’ is not an accepted excuse. b. Human responsibility is highlighted, not diminished. c. Human evil-doing is mixed up with the brokenness of the creation. d. The eradication of evil in the world will not come as a mere spoken word; the process is much more complicated, because i. The world is still mostly good. ii. Humans will be the means of restoration. 1. Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel. 2. Abraham & Israel. 3. Jesus & the church. N.T. Wright: "Evil and the Justice of God" …the OT never tries to give us the sort of picture the philosophers want, that of a static world order with everything explained tidily. At no point does the picture collapse into the simplistic one which so many skeptics assume must be what religious people believe, in which God is the omnicompetent managing director of a very large machine and ought to be able to keep it in proper working order. What we are offered instead is stranger and more mysterious: a narrative of God’s project of justice within a world of injustice.Lane Fusilierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07197922953762852286noreply@blogger.com