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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
We welcome you, to the Harvester podcast.
We are in season three and today we are looking forward to episode 14 where we will
address the problem of evil in our studies about Christian evidences.
I am one of the hosts, Brian Kenyon, and with me are...
Steven Ford.
George Beals.
and we're both with the south florida avenue church of christ are all three of us are and
we've been in a great season and we have extra episodes in this season or previous two
seasons were only twelve episodes and we're up to fourteen and looks like we'll have
sixteen total but this is a very important topic of lessons on christian evidences or
christian apologetics and i would consider george had to be a scholar in this field he's
got a lot of good information to share and so we're uh...
in in a
part of our study where we're looking at some serious objections that people have
presented over the ages about whether God really exists.
at the front of all that, we did discuss some alleged discrepancies and things in the
previous two episodes, but heading the list of all those is the problem of evil.
And so, George, how about setting this up for us as we begin this discussion?
Okay, Brian, so we'll call this part one of two.
There's quite a bit of material to look at and we'll examine part of it here and then God
willing the following episode we'll finish it up.
I'd to note however at the outset that much of the material in today's session as well as
next time draws from a more detailed study.
that is found in my dissertation pages 24 to 77.
a downloadable PDF of this is available on the internet if you were to search George F.
Beals, The Apologetic Method of Thomas B.
Warren.
I think you'll get a hit and you'll be able to download that.
And you may want to examine those details on your own.
But to begin with then, here in this session, I'd like to explain the atheistic argument
from evil.
And there are three statements that come up repeatedly in this discussion.
I call these the three basic propositions.
Number one, God is all-powerful, otherwise known as God's omnipotence.
And then two, God is all-loving, his omnibenevolence.
And then thirdly, evil exists.
And in this discussion by evil, the atheist is referring to uh suffering.
So...
The atheistic claim is that all three of these statements cannot be true at the same time.
And there are some well-known expressions of this atheistic claim.
One is from an ancient Greek philosopher called Epicurus, and another is uh articulated by
the relatively modern uh philosopher whose name is David Hume, and then thirdly in more
recent times that from J.
L.
Mackey.
to explicate this carefully and clearly, we can look at what Epicurus, had to say about
it.
He is dated from 341 to 270 BC and the source of this attribution is Lactantius who lived
from 240 to 325 AD.
So according to Lactantius, God, Epicurus says,
either wishes to take away evils and is unable, or he is able and unwilling, or he is
neither willing nor able, or he is both willing and able.
If he is willing and is unable, then he is feeble, which is not in accordance with the
character of God.
If he is able and unwilling, he is envious, which is equally at variance with God.
And if he is neither willing nor able, he is both envious and feeble, and therefore not
God.
If he is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are
evils, again meaning sufferings?
Or why does he not remove them?" End of quote.
The Scottish philosopher David Hume, dated 1711 to 1776 AD, expressed the problem of evil
like this, quote,
Is God willing to prevent evil but not able?
Then he is impotent.
Is he able but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
If he is both able, is he both able and willing?
Whence then is evil?" And the Australian philosopher J.
L.
Mackey, who is dated from 1917 to 1981, he affirmed the atheistic argument from evil in a
well-known 1955 article titled
evil and omnipotence.
He expresses it a bit differently.
He lists six propositions.
First of all, what I call the basic propositions.
God is all-powerful, God is all-loving, and evil exists, that is, suffering exists.
And then Mackey affirms that these three, the following three, prove that those first
three cannot be true at the same time.
And those additional three that he cites are, number one,
a good as opposed to evil in such a way that a good thing always eliminates evil as far as
it can, and then there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do, and then a good
omnipotent thing eliminates evil completely.
Now to make crystal clear what the atheist is arguing, it is helpful to express these
claims in a precisely worded argument, and there are several ways to formulate the
argument.
One way is this.
Premise 1, if there is suffering in this world, then the God described in the Bible does
not exist.
Premise number 2, there is suffering in this world, and 3, therefore, the God described in
the Bible does not exist.
In other words, since there is suffering, then there is no God.
Here, of course, the biblical defender affirms premise 2, that is, we acknowledge that
there is suffering in this world, but we deny premise 1.
Again, if there is suffering in this world, then the God described in the Bible does not
exist.
A second way of expressing the atheistic argument from evil is as follows, using J.L.
Mackey's claims, Since, one, good is opposed to evil in such a way that a good thing
always eliminates evil as far as it can, and, two, there are no limits to what an
omnipotent thing can do, then it is not the case that
God is all-powerful and God is all-loving and suffering exists in this world.
So here the Bible could defender denies both premises, one and two.
Reply is to each of the two atheistic arguments just given.
The question that we are addressing is how do we, or more specifically how does the Bible
account for God is all-powerful and God is all-loving and there is suffering in this
world?
And we'll make a systematic study of this point by point in the few moments ahead.
First of all, replying to, since there is evil, then God does not exist.
Rather, since there is evil, then God exists.
This is true, this latter statement, because to claim that anything is evil implies that
there is an objective standard, an adequate standard of moral right and wrong that is
external to us.
Otherwise, one is left with the arrow of subjective ethics.
And we just refer you back here to the moral arguments for God given previously in this
series, namely classes 6, 7, and 8.
Next, replying to J.
Mackey's argument, remember all that needs to be done while in defense is to show that it
is at least possible for the three basic propositions to be true at the same time.
Recall the three basic propositions.
1.
God is all-powerful 2.
God is all-loving 3.
Evil, that is, suffering exists.
This is good spot right here to have some discussion.
Does the Bible affirm that each of these three is true?
Take these up one by one.
Does the Bible affirm that God is all-powerful?
Yes, absolutely.
And of course, a lot of terms are being thrown around here that we are going to define as
we go through it, you know, like what really is evil?
How do you define evil?
And is that consistent with what the Bible teaches evil is?
And uh all-powerfulness.
And of course, you know, the all-powerful is often misunderstood.
I remember, man, I was a brand new Christian, went off away from home into a congregation
and...
like a lot of congregations no one else to teach the teenage class so i asked me if i
would have said yeah i don't know a whole lot but i'll teach it and this one girl had a
her boyfriend came in and he asked me this question thought he'd stop me luckily was at
the end of class you know can god make a rock so big that he cannot move it and i didn't
know what had answer that but luckily i was saved by the bell so i studied and i did have
access to thomas b warren stuff way back then for some reason but anyway uh...
you know the conclusion i reached was that some things are against nature their
impossibilities like a squared circle cubicles fear and things of that nature and so it
the question is absurd you know and then of course you look in the bible there are some
things that god cannot do he cannot lie he cannot deny himself and some other things
The proposition, kind of as it set forth, it kind of has some issues.
God is of course all powerful, he's all loving.
But those two things don't necessarily mean that.
evil just cannot exist.
guess we'll get into this a little bit more.
But all three of those things are in fact pointed out very clearly in Bible that all those
things do exist.
God is all powerful.
The question is asked oh a few different times.
Is there anything too hard for God?
Of course, uh that is within the realm of reason and logic.
Like you said, it wouldn't be, you know, there are some things that just can't exist.
uh A merit bachelor or something of that nature.
So that would just be absurd.
But you do see that God is powerful.
just, scriptures are just soaked with the fact that God is in fact loving.
And equally, I mean I think that you see all three of these equally.
I mean all three of those things from the very early pages of the Bible to the very last
pages of the Bible, I think that you can find that all three of these run throughout the
scriptures.
That God is powerful, that he is in fact loving, and that evil in fact does exist.
So there's no question that the Bible affirms all three of these if we were to give some
passages that he is all-powerful.
One might want to look at Psalm 91 verses 1 to 2 that he is all-loving.
Well, God is love according to 1 John chapter 4 verse 8 and as to suffering, well, how
about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the Father sending him into this world with that
consequence.
So very clearly the Bible is affirming that God is powerful, God is all loving, and if
we're going to follow the scriptures we also would have to acknowledge the fact that there
is suffering in this world.
Mackey adds these additional propositions.
He says that good is opposed to evil in such a way that a good thing always eliminates
evil, by which he means suffering.
as far as it can.
then secondly, that there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do.
And he claims that these propositions prove that the three basic propositions, namely God
is all-powerful, God is all-loving, and suffering exists, cannot be true at the same time.
His point is then that you'll have to weaken or eliminate at least one of those
propositions in order to be consistent.
and when you do so you are there by denying biblical Christianity and the God that is
defined in the Bible.
maybe a little bit more on this we touched upon it just a moment ago.
uh Good as opposed to evil in such a way that a good thing always, always eliminates evil
as far as it can.
Is that true?
No, and I was thinking Mackie, don't know what kind of family he grew up in or whatever,
but I'm just going to assume he had a loving mother.
but because he had a loving mother doesn't mean he didn't fall in skin is near once in a
while you know and so that that wouldn't drive away and so uh...
but again i think is we're going to point out later in this in this episode that what we
call good and evil men mankind in general and you know we call love sometimes does not
really lined up with have a bible illustrates it defines it illustrates it and so forth
because sometimes the loving thing to do is to chastise
Sometimes we help people by resisting them.
yes and absolutely
The other, um I guess it would also need to define suffering in a more specific way
because some suffering, I think his proposition is saying that suffering doesn't have
value and some suffering does have value.
It has purpose, it has meaning, and it's helpful and essential, I would say.
You know, ah a few hours ago, I started to feel discomfort.
So that could be a level of suffering, I guess, depending on how you might define it, but
my body was indicating it's time to eat, you know, and so.
what if I didn't feel that?
And I'd kinda keel over.
It would have a negative effect.
those things, if you could call those suffering, and I guess you can, it's an unpleasant
experience, but it has value, it has purpose.
How about the surgeon who operates on an individual causes some pain but has a good effect
as a consequence of that?
Yeah, this uh this statement is just too broad.
It paints with too broad a brush.
And then what about there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do?
Well, we touched upon that just a moment ago.
the way we could boil it down and answer to that would be something along these lines God
can do everything that is consistent with his nature he cannot lie for example is the
biblical position Hebrews chapter 6 verse 18 for example and God can do what is doable 2nd
Corinthians 1 18 to 20 the the question of making a stone too heavy for him to lift that
That really is reflecting more on the questioner than on the concept of God.
ah Or how about a square circle, that kind of a thing.
These are not doable, they're not real.
And so then one is speaking nonsense when he claims that such a thing is doable.
So again, a uh good way to answer these questions that Mackie poses ah is God can do
everything that is consistent with his nature
and that is subject to accomplishment.
So Mackey's clarifying statements can be replaced by statements consistent with Bible
teachings and these latter statements show how the three basic propositions can be true at
the same time.
That is to say, instead of looking at Mackey's claim that he adds these premises that we
just indicated and that these show therefore that the three basic
propositions, God's omnipotence and God's omnibenevolence and the existence of suffering
in this world cannot be true at the same time.
Rather, it's quite interesting and insightful to recognize the fact that the Bible
presents premises that together show that the three basic propositions can be true at the
same time, that is, that they do constitute a consistent set.
And that leads us then into the question, well what
If we were to picture a, say two boxes, put the one box on top, call that the Bible's
premises, with an arrow pointing down to the three basic propositions, God is all
powerful, loving, and there is suffering in this world, what Bible teachings would we put
into this box that shows that the three basic propositions are true?
uh
And just to remind our listeners, the three basic propositions you're talking about here
are not Mackys, but they are God is all powerful, God is all loving, and suffering is in
the world.
Now he's, he, uh, attention to these three, but the point is that the Bible affirms that
all three are consistent and that, uh, there are reasons that the Bible gives to which
together show how these can be all true at the same time.
So just what are those propositions?
Well, the following 10 biblical doctrines do the job.
And I'll summarize these right now, and then we'll, we'll take up.
uh four of them in this episode in more detail.
the ten are these.
Soul-making, evil and sin the same, free will, regularity and mutual interferences, Jesus
Christ in the Bible, probationary period, stakes of eternity, epistemic distance, again
we'll explain these, the infinite God, and some mystery.
with all ten of these biblical doctrines put these together and I am persuaded that it is
the case that they show that therefore all three basic propositions can be true at the
same time.
So let's see.
Let's take these up and take a look at these.
We'll now begin to take up each of the ten explaining what they mean and showing that they
are biblical and again these aim to show that the suffering in this world is compatible.
with God's being omnipotent and omnibenevolent.
And in this lesson we'll take up the first four of the ten and the next we'll take up the
remaining six.
So to begin with, soul-making.
What does this mean?
Well, God knew before he created this world that humans would sin, and thus he created
this world with enough ingredients in it, enough challenges that allow for maximum godly
choices and character-building
and salvation ahead.
So that's soul-making, that is character building plus a little bit more attached to it,
that concept.
Well this is consistent with Bible teaching.
God knows the future according to Isaiah 46, 9 to 10, I am God and there is no other, I am
God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.
The Bible teaches that sufferings in this world figure.
in this world's being preparatory for eternal life.
For example, Paul says in Romans 5 verses 3 to 5, we also glory in tribulations knowing
that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope.
Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
End of quote.
So, soul-making affirmed by the Bible.
Couple that with another teaching of the Bible that's related to this topic, and that is
that evil and sin are the same.
That is to say, the only intrinsic, the only real evil is sin, which is that which
contradicts man's sonship to God and his brotherhood to man.
Note the
picture of a cross there, the vertical and the horizontal.
That is, the only actual evil is the violation of God's will, and so then suffering is not
intrinsically evil.
That is not evil in and of itself.
This is consistent with Bible teaching.
For example, the combination of the teaching that God is sinless plus his involvement in
the flood during Noah's time imply
The flood act was not inherently evil according to the Bible.
For example, Habakkuk 1 verse 13a reads, are of pure eyes than to behold evil and cannot
look on wickedness.
Unquote.
Yet Genesis 723 reads, quote, So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of
the ground, both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air.
They were destroyed from the earth.
only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive." Second, the principles
that Jesus gives in Matthew 22 verses 37 to 40 show that the reference to sonship to God
and brotherhood to man is consistent with biblical teaching.
That passage reads, quote, Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart.
with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and great commandment and the
second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments hang
all the prophets the law and the prophets unquote so again this uh idea that evil and
reference to suffering the Bible affirmation is that the only intrinsic evil the only evil
that is in and of itself wrong
is the violation of God's Word.
And it's not that suffering itself is inherently evil.
Yeah, in fact, as you were looking at quoting those scriptures there, thought the thought
occurred to me that I heard a long time ago, and I forget where, kind of a casual,
practical, working definition of good versus evil, that anything that draws me closer to
God is good, and anything that draws me away from God is evil.
And I have been discussing with the brother in Christ not too long ago about cancer.
know, like a lot of people are having cancer.
And is cancer evil or is it good?
Well, he said he thought the cancer was good because it allowed him to draw closer to
other people through that disease.
And, um you know, and I suppose some people that would drive them away.
And so the cancer itself is just our reaction to it.
But I mean, you know, what are your thoughts on that?
It is one of the challenges of life and furthermore the there are some additional
Doctrinal teachings that we have in the scriptures that we're going to get into that I
think will help there one of them is uh the the principle taught in the Bible that That
the sufferings in this life are not worthy to be compared with the life uh that's coming
and that uh that when all things are considered
the stakes of eternity are of such magnitude that they render the sufferings, even
horrendous suffering in this life, of no ultimate uh consequence.
So, and that's something that will be mentioned later on.
Putting all of this together is the point, and that when you look at these ten in their
totality, they show that the consistency of these three basic propositions.
I would just, I like that premise that you were talking about, you know, if it drives me
to or from God.
Those I would just think that those things that you have to have to be in a category of
being morally neutral and it's just only our response and the only reason I say that is
because It's only going to be how we respond to which I think you were kind of seen at the
end Because you even see God's Word having a dual effect in various chapters in the book
of Acts You know for some it pricked them in their heart and they were convicted to do the
right thing for others when they were confronted with the truth about themselves You know,
they were cut to their heart and they you
know, gnashed on Stephen and had an adverse reaction they weren't designed to have, or
they should not have had anyway, I guess I'll say that.
But, um yeah, those things are just how we respond to them.
the gospel is always good.
The reaction to it was evil.
When they went on Stephen.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I was thinking about that when you just said that about you know, the
various elements and those things they just
It's just how we respond.
I know you know people and I've known people.
ah know, something happens, grandma dies.
And some people say, you know what, I need to get serious about life.
I'm gonna give my life to the Lord.
I'm gonna live for the Lord my whole life and those sorts of things.
And then person B says, you know what, I can't believe it, grandma died.
I'm never going back to worship again.
And so it's like, well, which is it?
Is it good or is it bad?
You know, it's just how we're gonna respond to it.
So there should be a qualifier to what I say.
But of course I did say it was a casual, working definition.
No, no, no, no.
this is, I wasn't necessarily trying to refute what you're at all.
It's just kind of a thought as I'm just kind of adding on to what you're saying as I'm
processing it, you know, uh which I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but I know
somebody will say, well, well, what about, know, well, that same thing drove me away.
Events can be good, because I've observed that as well, that something tragic happens and
for some people can be stepping stone to greater faith, but other people it's, you know,
stumbling blocks to apostasy.
so...
uh
Well, I we all have to make our choices and that does overlap with some of the other
teachings that we'll get into next time and that is the uh very purpose of this life.
We're faced with challenges and those challenges can uh have purpose.
ah And furthermore, what about the possible ripple effect that it has on somebody else
living 27 years down the road?
So it's not as simple as the atheist is claiming here.
A third biblical doctrine that's relevant, uh is part of the ten that we'll look at, is
what we can call free will.
This is another factor that explains the existence of suffering in this world.
uh God made human beings with free will, and in this world a human being can choose to do
what is morally right or what is morally wrong, and that has consequences.
that necessarily has consequences.
Given free will, some people sometimes do the wrong thing and that can cause suffering.
But that gets into the question, what shall we do then?
Have uh God create robots and then with the absence of free will, the question here is, uh
why did God uh bring about human beings as human beings?
And the point is again that being human involves free will and that has consequences.
That also is a biblical teaching that's consistent with biblical teaching.
For example, Genesis chapter 2 verses 16 to 17, we see an example where the Bible teaches
or affirms that we have free will, repetitively teaches this.
The first human being, this reads, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every
tree of the garden you may freely eat.
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not be far in the day that you
eat you choose to eat you shall surely die you here refers to the human being another
passage that shows that the bible affirms free will later in joshua spoke to the
israelites as they're having free will joshua twenty four fifteen reads and if it seems
evil to you to serve the lord choose for yourselves this day
whom you will serve.
Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land
you dwell.
But as for me in my house, we will serve Jehovah." Unquote.
So notice, choose for yourselves.
This is directed to human beings.
Again showing that uh the Bible affirms that the human being has free will.
And we in this passage refers to human beings.
At the end of the book of Revelation, another example are these words, Revelation 22 verse
17, whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely, unquote.
This is directed to human beings.
So these example passages suffice to show that the Bible does affirm that human beings
have free will.
Of course, you can recognize this just from natural revelation as well.
And again, this accounts for at least some suffering in this world.
And then as a fourth doctrine, and this will be the last one that we'll look at this time
around, we can call this, and others have, regularity and mutual interferences.
We're borrowing terms that others who have studied these matters have employed.
And this is referring to the fact that the nature of this physical world is such.
that its systems operate according to the regularity of natural laws and its systems
interact with each other.
This is what is referred to by some as mutual interferences.
This proposition then is twofold, regularity and mutual interferences.
It refers to regularity and thus the predictability according to which objects in this
physical world behave.
That is, it refers to natural physical laws that are
operative.
And it also refers to the fact that the many systems that make up this physical world
interact with each other and the necessary result of the latter includes adverse effects.
For example, when one eats an apple system, his stomach system destroys it while changing
it into something else for the good of the body system.
When one takes a shower, it makes you feel good, but in the process it maims and kills
what we're told are hundreds of organisms on your body.
Or how about if you walk out in the lawn and uh take your steps, you hear you're killing
maybe a grasshopper or two.
Or when cutting down trees to make a house, one is happy that gravity keeps the trees on
the ground so that you can retrieve them and work with them.
But that same gravity can result in injury if the tree falls on you.
Gravity thus has this double effect, this mutual interference, and you don't have one
without the other.
All, I should say, a fire, in the fireplace system burns wood for warmth, but in the
process destroys the wood.
Such a fire also boils water and cooks meat for nourishment, but again destroys the wood
system in the process.
Putting one's feet system near the fire results in comfort, but putting it too close will
destroy the foot system, as the wood system itself is being destroyed.
So such interactions result from the nature of this physical world, positives and
negatives, not just positives, due to the regularity and mutual interferences.
And this results in some suffering.
and this is consistent with Bible teaching, regularity.
With the exception of miracles, the regularity of natural physical laws prevailed.
For example, in daily life, then as now, gravity and other forces made it necessary to
build a house on a shore foundation.
Matthew 7, 24-27 reads, A wise man who built his house on the rock versus a foolish man
who built his house on the sand.
Another example of such interaction of systems is documented in Acts chapter 27.
A tempestuous headwind catching a ship has its effects, making it difficult also to secure
a skiff.
Anchors dropped, not rose.
Throwing cargo into the sea lightened the ship, not added weight to it.
Hoisting the mainsail to the wind can allow control of direction.
Forces from waves can be so violent on the other hand that they can break a stern all of
this and more in Acts 27 13 to 44 involves mutual interactions of systems in accord with
natural laws that operate in this physical world and the Bible thus affirms the regularity
and mutual Regulations are mutual interference proposition now the atheist would have to
know
be certain that God could have made creatures in a physical world, one whose free will
occupants would never choose evil, and two that has regularity of laws with no mutual
interferences, no negatives with the positives.
And he would have to know that either humans would not need this preparatory testing
ground world with its challenges to choose God, or at least there could be such a better
world for soul-making.
that is better than this world.
I deny that the atheist can know, be certain about all of this.
And so then these four biblical teachings together, and we're on our way to the ten, which
taken together do show that God is all-knowledgeable, I should say He's all-powerful, that
He is uh all-loving, and that there is evil.
in this world, that is to say there is suffering in this world and the three constitute a
consistent set.
Yes, and as you were going over those last points, those three points right there, whose
free will I commence would never choose evil, etc., it just reminded me of just how
awesome this world is created, because all those forces of nature work together for the
purpose of why He created this earth for us to inhabit.
The regularity and mutual interferences of nature just, again, show the wisdom of God.
They pose challenges to us in this life which can be character building, which all can
figure in the wisdom of God in uh maximizing the number of individuals who though
challenged like this will choose Him or reject Him.
Yeah, that's why I think that the atheist that poses these sorts of propositions has a uh
huge, huge hurdle that he just cannot overcome because he's saying that he is aware, or he
knows that evil, as he would call it, I'll just use the term suffering, uh has zero value.
And it only detracts and takes away, it has no positive value, which, know, one, I don't
think it's true, but two, I think it's anabiblical.
It's anti-biblical.
The Bible demonstrates over and again in the old and in the new that suffering absolutely
has value.
ah It has value in that it causes us to be reflective and contemplative.
has value as you were reading through the book of Romans earlier in chapter 5.
It increases the spiritual development of the one who is suffering.
And so it has a lot of values for the person to say, know, uh evil and suffering, or
suffering rather, has no value or that it is incongruent with the nature of God as he
believes it's revealed in scriptures.
It just isn't so.
just a cursory look, I think, through the scriptures, I think that that can be refuted.
Yeah, I sometimes use the analogy of a paper tiger, and I think I've referenced this
earlier earlier episodes, and that is some of these objections to biblical Christianity,
might appear to be ferocious and ungetoverable, but further examination shows that in
essence they are uh paper tigers, that is,
They don't have a substance.
uh The Bible addresses these matters and uh that itself shows the wisdom and the depth oh
that the Bible has as the Word of God.
Yeah, that is a great point.
I think it demonstrates greatly the unsearchable wisdom of God because if we have finite
minds, and we do, we will struggle with trying to understand this.
And I think that that's a thing that most people, if not all people, go through, trying to
understand why and the how and the problems with the suffering that's in the world.
You know, when you see a little baby suffering, you know, that does cause people to be
upset.
It does cause us to question things.
But when we presume to know more than God or now to say that God uh
cannot exist because of these things, then we put ourselves in a different position.
And moreover, I think that many times, not all, can't speak for every person, that would
be too broad, but many times it's because as Peter said, they're individuals, according to
2 Peter chapter 3, who may be just willfully ignorant and are looking to live immoral
lives.
And the only way that they can justify that without any kind of recourse or judgment, it's
to deny the existence of God.
That's just my two cents.
Sure.
and this overlaps, some of these comments overlap with what's coming in the next session
where we'll identify six more doctrines that are relevant to this problem and will show
the wisdom of God and how the Bible itself, we appeal to the Bible as the Word of God that
meets this challenge and that uh it'll become enlightening I think as we look at
various biblical passages.
the next class then will address the problem of evil and we'll call that part two of two.
And we appreciate your being with us as we have discussed these things of great importance
and the problem of evil is really a difficult situation.
And so if you have any questions or comments on this podcast, please let us know.
And we look forward to you being here next time as we complete part two of this problem of
evil situation.