Life on a Broken Planet

1. Life on a Broken Planet The Christian Worldview and the Problem of Evil

2. 3. if God is good, why…? Life on a Broken Planet: The Problem of Evil

3. the genesis of evil • “The question of evil is a mystery because the problem encroaches upon itself by entangling the questioner in the question.” (Gabriel Marcel) • What’s wrong with the world? Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton

4. love God has a morally justifiable reason - consistent with His goodness and sovereignty and character - for having created a world in which evil can (and does) occur…

5. Genesis 1: God’s “risk” 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...27 So God created mankind in his own image*, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. *Imago dei [Latin] – image of God God is an immortal, free, moral being… God specifically created humans to be immortal, free moral agents, responsible for their own actions…

6. Moral Agency • Moral agency: The ability to make moral choices; within God’s sovereign will, our choices have consequences for ourselves, for others, and for the cosmos itself • Why are we free? • We were created to be the image of God and God is love; therefore we were created to love and to be in loving relationship with God – that is our whole purpose. But love cannot be forced, it must be free to choose. [P. Kreeft]

7. “without this doctrine - SIN - that so offends us, we are incomprehensible to ourselves…” Blaise Pascal Bad news: The fall [Gen. 3]

8. Genesis 3:1-6 • The will of God - freedom for his creation • Freedom: the ability to do right … with rights and freedoms come responsibility [for to do wrong will only harm and enslave humans] • The warning of death • The lie: “…and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” • the root of evil: selfishness – the desire to replace God • sin as rebellion • sin as theft • The image of God [a created good] is diminished …by the creation….from what the Maker intended

9. the damaged image • Sin nature • Job 5:6,7 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. • Mark. 7:21,22 [Jesus said] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. • The origin of evil is not the Creator but the creature's choosing rebellion • Adams actions have consequences for ourselves, for others, and for the cosmos itself… just as our sins do…

10. The Consequence for Creation Genesis 3 Roman 8 v. 19-22 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope thatthe creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. • 17To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you…”

11. The Consequence for Humanity Genesis 3 Romans 5 v. 12, 18,19 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. • v 21,22 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

12. Life on a Broken Planet What about the devil?

13. But what about evil in the cosmos?What about Satan? • “Many grumble that Scripture does not in numerous passages set forth systematically and clearly the fall of the devils…” • John Calvin • But he went on to say that the Bible reveals all we need to know about the fall of angels, and that "we should be content with this concise information."

14. What about Satan? • Isaiah 14:12-15ESV “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” • Ezekiel 28:15ESV “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. • Jude 1:6ESV “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day…” • 1 Timothy 3:6 indicates that pride caused Satan’s downfall. “ He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.”

15. Was Satan required for humans to sin? • Satan tempted Eve… • … but it was she who desired it and sinned. It was Adam who failed to resist further temptation. • We are tempted by evil, not always by Satan

16. why do good people have bad things happen? • First, who's to say we are good people? The question should be not "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but "Why do good things happen to bad people?" • If the fairy godmother tells Cinderella that she can wear her magic gown until midnight, the question should be not "Why not after midnight?" but "Why did I get to wear it at all?” • Sinners think they are saints, but saints know they are sinners.

17. specific suffering • 1. Demonic attack [external] • 2. Consequences of our sin or stupidity • 3. Consequences of other’s sin • 4. Punishment by God • 5. Testing allowed by God for our strengthening • drives us back to god • 6. Opportunity to glorify God • Dying out loud… But ultimately it’s because we live on a… • Broken Planet…

18. Can’t God make us free and good? • This demand is based on a false argument that God can do anything—that God can make something with mutually exclusive qualities—good and evil—at the same time.   • The skeptic wants God to create man with the appearance of free will, but without the ability to choose.  He wants the love of God without that God giving humans a choice to love back. In demanding this, he insists on what he would reject in other arguments. (R. Zacharias)

19. Ok, we’re responsible… but how could God create us knowing we would bring evil into the cosmos? Can God’s love and justice coexist? GOD’s response