Subject: God is not the author of evil. |
Bible Note: Parable - Not so long ago from somewhere in the outer reaches of cyber-space flew in a person who, landing on this forum, commenced to teach the comforting doctrine that God hates nearly everybody, all but the elect, the chosen few. When asked to show wherein Scripture taught this, he apparently suddenly remembered that he had promises to keep and miles to go before he lay down to sleep, and so he flew out as quickly as he had flown in, never responding to the request, and has never been heard from since, not on this forum at any rate. For all I know he may be infesting other forums with his odd brand of spiritual sunshine. ...... Today on the forum I came across this statement: "Nothing happens that He (meaning God) does not cause to happen." This comes from one who embraces a system of soteriology with which a number of Christians, including this one, have certain misgivings. But assuming that what this person says is correct, I now realize that when I, a few evenings ago, made a glutton of myself at the dinner table and subsequently sat up half the night suffering the consequences of this indiscretion, God was to blame, not I -- since nothing happens that He does not cause to happen. When I read in the newspaper that some young punk pumped himself full of dope and murdered his parents in cold blood, I now realize that it was all God's fault -- nothing happens that He does not cause to happen. When I look at the statistists and learn that some 40 million babies have been deliberately murdered in their mothers' wombs since Roe vs. Wade, or that millions of Jews were exterminated like rats in Nazi gas chambers, I now realize that God, not the abortion clinics or the Third Reich, caused it -- since nothing happens that He does not cause to happen. ..... Still and all, I get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach when I allow myself to think the unholy thought that the God I worship would cause all this sin, this evil, this suffering, this chaos. Somehow, Parable, I know in my heart that a god that would cause all this is not the God I worship. Not at all. The statement must be false or, if true, it must refer to a strange god of whom I -- and Scripture -- am ignorant. --Hank |