When bad things happen, has God lost control?
rminian reasoning: "If God is sovereign, doesn't that make him the author of evil? Why would an all-powerful, all-knowing, beneficent God permit evil in the first place?
The only honest way for an Arminian to avoid the difficulty those questions pose would be to answer the same way process theology and open theology deal with the dilemma: "God doesn't actually know the future; he is taking calculated risks."
That opens up greater problems than ever. It nullifies divine omniscience; it erases the doctrine of divine immutability (the truth that God is unchanging; that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever). It is a full-scale attack on classic theism.
Calvinists are often targeted with the charge that they make God the author or the instrumental cause of evil, but the truth is no one has thought more carefully about this issue or written more clarifying material on it than the great Calvinist theologians across reformation history.
Jonathan Edwards, for example, covers it in detail in his book The Freedom of the Will. He has a whole chapter titled "Concerning that objection against the doctrine which has been maintained, that it makes God the Author of Sin." (In modern editions, that title is shortened to the question: "Is God the Author of Sin?")
Edwards says this:
[Those] who object, that [the doctrine of divine sovereignty] makes God the Author of Sin, ought distinctly to explain what they mean by that phrase, "The Author of Sin." I know the phrase, as it is commonly used, signifies something very ill. If by the Author of Sin, be meant [that God is] the Sinner, the Agent, [the] Actor of Sin, or the Doer of a wicked thing; so it would be a reproach and blasphemy, to suppose God to be the Author of Sin. In [that] sense, I utterly deny God to be the Author of Sin . . . such an imputation on the Most High . . ..is infinitely to be abhorred . . ..But if, by the Author of Sin, is meant the permitter, or not a hinderer of Sin; and, at the same time, [He has a holy purpose in all that He does, and he uses even the evil that is done by evil agents for His own] wise, holy, and most excellent ends and purposes, that Sin, if it be permitted or not hindered, will most certainly and infallibly follow: [and as we know, God deplores evil, and will defeat it and glorify himself in doing so] This is not to be the Actor of Sin, but, on the contrary, of holiness. What God doth herein, is holy; and a glorious exercise of the infinite excellency of his nature.
God is never the instrumental cause of evil. He does not does not advocate sin, sanction it, instigate it, condone it, approve it, or otherwise countenance it.
But the appearance of evil in God's creation did not take Him by surprise or catch Him off guard. It was part of His plan from the beginning. He doesn't delight in it. It is abhorrent to Him. He remains utterly untainted by its existence. And even in His absolute sovereignty, God is never the efficient cause or the agent of evil. James 1:13: "God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one." He "is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). God is absolutely holy, and high above sin and evil, totally untouched by it.
Nevertheless, don't ever imagine that evil is something foreign to God's plan. The sudden appearance of evil at the dawn of the universe and in the early chapters of Genesis does not mean something went haywire in God's strategy. He planned for evil to enter His universe—indeed, He decreed that it would occur—so that He might use it to bring about an even greater good.
Not only that, but He also remains fully sovereign over every act of evil that is ever committed. The Old Testament book of Job gives us a little window into the workings of the Spirit world. It reveals that even Satan himself cannot act apart from God's permission. And God never allows evil agents to act unless His purpose is to overrule their evil intentions for His own wise and holy purposes.
He will glorify Himself in the defeat of evil, and He will make even the fruits of evil all work together for good, in accord with His good pleasure. He's doing it even now, for those who have spiritual eyes to see.
PS: See also "Does Calvinism Make God the Author of Evil?"
2 comments:
I had to check twice when I saw a new Team Pyro post on my feed reader. Very edifying thoughts, and good to see life here.
The question is often asked without qualification. In one vein we recognize it as the problem of evil, but the word "sin" is also often used. So let me back up into an understanding that should help us out here. Evil, by definition, is the antithesis of the nature of God. I didn't say "attributes" for a reason. Not all of God's attributes are particularly applicable here, though all are in play because of the doctrine of divine simplicity. What I mean is that evil is naturally the moral opposite of God. If we take the decalogue, we can infer God's nature. I won't do so for space, but I've taught this before on the mission field.
Sin is the outworking of evil in a person's life. There are four categories of sin: behavioral, intentional, natural, and positional. Once again, I won't go into detail here, but each has their own characteristics and interplays.
Probably more helpful would be the observation that if there were no creation there would only be God. This can be defined by the law of identity: A=A. When God created, he made something that is not himself. This set up what we understand as bivalent logic by establishing A≠~A, the law of non-contradiction. By doing so, he created the need for contrast for creatures of intelligence to understand God's nature. Essentially, he created evil by his own nature for the good of self-revelation: it was for his glory. He is a God of wrath and a God of grace. He is a God of justice and a God of mercy. We couldn't know this without the outworking of evil in sin.
To God be all praise.
Now, that doesn't mean that we can
Sin
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