Thursday Theological Thinking

I generally avoid trying to discuss the Problem of Evil. I just don't know that a productive conversation can come out of it, because I honestly believe that it's one of the things we will never understand this side of heaven. We live in a fallen world, and while yes, the eternal consequences of sin have been taken care of for those who accept Christ, we still must deal with the earthly consequences of sin - and this means that rain will continue to fall on the just and the unjust; the innocent will suffer and the good will die. And many will use this to justify to themselves their choice to deny the existence of God - or at least to deny His nature as a loving God. The Problem of Evil is one of those things where Faith must move up from the backseat. Not to ride shotgun, but to take the wheel. Without Faith, the Problem of Evil is an unsolveable conundrum filled with questions and doubt.

Last week, one of the comments struck me as...well, honestly, wrong. And I started to write a little response in the comment section but quickly discarded it as I realized how many thoughts I had on the subject, so I decided to address it here - even though it, in some ways, opens up the whole Problem of Evil can of worms. Someone said, "I do not believe that God would give you adopted children if you were not to have them, however. He'll allow us to screw up our own lives, but I don't think he'd allow us to screw up others' in that large a way."

I disagree with this. Part of giving us free will means that we can do as we choose, and bear the consequences thereof, even if those consequences have far reaching effect. Without much effort, I can think of several people who I know personally who would stand as examples of this very thing. But I think the first, and perhaps best, example can be found in Genesis. In Genesis 15, God promises Abram (Abraham) that his descendents will be like the stars in the sky, and Abram believes this and his faith is credited as righteousness. In chapter 16, however, Sarai (Sarah) decides that, since she is barren, that God's promise needs a little push, and sends Hagar in to Abram who, also seeming to doubt God's promise but still trusting that God would keep His word - even if it was through actions of their own - conceives a child with her. In doing so, the lives of Hagar and Ishmael are "screwed up" considerably in addition to the lives of Abram and Sarai. Hagar's pregnancy was not God's will for Abram and Sarai to have children, but they acted in the manner they saw best to bring about God's plan.

Because of our free will we must deal with the problem of evil - because we are not given a clear roadmap for every decision that we have to make during the course of a day, week, month, year or lifetime. We must step out in faith and take actions - and while we should certainly be in a constant state of listening and willing to change our plans and steps at God's directions, sometimes we are going to go our own way and do something that was not what God had for us and we are potentially going to cause damage to the lives of many when we do so. Because our free will has consequences and sometimes those consequences spill over and cause the innocent to suffer. In the midst of this though we have a promise that God will use things to His glory, though it may not ever be evident to us. We have to have faith. Faith that God is loving and that He keeps His promises.