9. The Question Of Moral Evil Series

[IN GOD’S IMAGE 9 – THE QUESTION OF MORAL EVIL]

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

Last time we looked at the fall of mankind with the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

• We have talked about how both “love” and “faith” are qualities God will not compromise with in regard to developing a holy people in His image even if it means tolerating evil for a time.

• We finished last time with Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden so they couldn’t eat of the tree of life after they had sinned.

This again raises the subject of evil.

• Evil is a very difficult subject as it goes back to the question, “How can God, if He is holy and righteous, could He create something capable of evil when evil is precisely what God is not?”

• This question of evil presents theologians with a dilemma and they react in different ways to the question.

• Some are loathe to broach the subject clasping their hands over their mouths; liberal theologians want to speak about a figurative devil, while others simply start by accepting the reality of evil without any explanation, e.g. Satan in the Garden of Eden, but won’t speculate as to how he got there.

• Jesus, of course, had no doubts about the existence of the devil. We have his own personal account of His temptation at the hands of the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11); his accusations against the Pharisees being the children of the devil (John 8:44); and His rebuke of Satan when Peter suggested a way other than the cross (Matthew 16:23).

• According to Jesus, the evil that was unleashed at the beginning of history will be there until the end of history before it is finally removed.

• As much as each new generation hopes, history is not the story of gradual human progress where there is less evil and more good.

• Instead history is littered with and recorded in history books as the progression of the power of evil that threatens the destruction of human civilization.

• But when we take a realistic look at the world and see this endless procession of evil, the question has to be asked, “Why, if God is all-powerful, doesn’t He do something about it, and what is the source of this endless parade of wickedness?”

• As discussed earlier, we have addressed the first part of that question, as to why an all-powerful God does not do something about the evil in the world?

• For a holy and righteous God to allow evil to exist, there must be something more important to His purpose besides the elimination of evil.

• We saw that this something was God’s wish is to share His triune love and existence with humanity

• Love by its very nature involves choice. God will do all He can to persuade His creation to respond to His love, but He will not compel them.

• Compelling by force is not an attribute of love and therefore is not a godly characteristic.

• If the free agent willingly chooses to say “no” to God and His love, the path to God’s goal becomes more torturous for both the free agents and for God, but that doesn’t mean God abandons His plan.

With that background we now need to go back to the two trees in the Garden and again address the second question on evil, and that is, what is its source?

• The source of evil can be traced to three sources.

• So far we have only spoken about moral evil, an evil that is caused by intentional human will, the inhumane suffering we see imposed on our fellow humans every night on the evening news by other humans.

• In the last session, we were introduced to the corresponding opposing supernatural will operating temporarily in the Garden, Satan the Devil.