Christopher Wright has written a few books of note; most recently The Mission of God, and Old Testament Ethics for the People of God. His newest work, The God I Don't Understand is an honest, personal wrestling with some of the tougher issues of the faith. He works through the issues of evil, the destruction of the Canaanites (which I've never seen written about at any length), the how, why, and what's of the cross, and the "cranks" that ruin the beauty of the new creation by speculating absurd theories and reading the book of Revelation how it was never meant to be read (i.e. dispensational premillenialism).
Wright was at the National Pastors Convention this past February and unfortunately they had him scheduled the last night of the conference. After Rob Bell, after Bill Hybels, after Will Willimon. Not a great spot to be when everyone is already tired from the rest of the week.
About 15 minutes into Wrights lecture (it wasn't really a sermon) an exodus of pastors began as they just didn't have the mental energy to put into it that was necessary. I felt horrible for Christopher Wright because it was good stuff, just difficult after a week of being mentally stimulated. His sparsely attended bible study early the next morning was one of the most beneficial times of the week as he talked about Job and the problem of evil for 45 minutes in a way that had never crossed my mind. In any case, I would recommend this one if you've got some time this fall. Here's a taste...
“God with his infinite perspective, and for reasons known only to himself, knows that we finite human beings cannot, indeed must not, “make sense” of evil. For the final truth is that evil does not make sense. “Sense” is part of our rationality that in itself is part of God’s good creation and God’s image in us. So evil can have no sense, since sense itself is a good thing.
Evil has no proper place within creation. It has no validity, no truth, no integrity. It does not intrinsically belong to creation as God originally made it nor will it belong to creation as God will ultimately redeem it. It cannot and must not be integrated into the universe as a rational, legitimated, justified part of reality. Evil is not there to be understood, but to be resisted and ultimately expelled. Evil was and remains an intruder, an alien presence that has made itself almost (but not finally) inextricable “at home”. Evil is beyond our understanding because it is not part of the ultimate reality that God in his perfect wisdom and utter truthfulness intends us to understand. So God has withheld its secrets from his own revelation and our research.”
Personally, I have come to accept this as a providentially good thing. Indeed, as I have wrestled with this thought about evil, it brings a certain degree of relief. And I think it carries the implication that whenever we are confronted with something utterly and dreadfully evil, appallingly wicked, or just plain tragic, we should resist the temptation that is wrapped up in the cry, “Where’s the sense in that?” It’s not that we get no answer. We get silence. And that silence is the answer to our question. There is no sense. And that is a good thing too.
Can I understand that?
No.
Do I want to understand that?
Probably not, if God has decided it is better that I don’t.
So I am willing to live with the understanding that the God I don’t understand has chosen not to explain the origin of evil, but rather wants to concentrate my attention on what he has done to defeat and destroy it.
Now this may seem a lame response to evil. Are we merely to gag our desperate questions, accept that it’s a mystery, and shut up? Surely we do far more than that?
Yes indeed.
We grieve.
We weep.
We lament.
We protest.
We scream in pain and anger.
We cry out, “How long must this kind of thing go on?”
And that brings us to our second major biblical response. For when we do such things, the Bible says to us, “That’s OK. Go right ahead. And here are some words that you may like to use when you feel that way.”
10 comments:
"Evil is beyond our understanding because it is not part of the ultimate reality that God in his perfect wisdom and utter truthfulness intends us to understand. "
In light of the fact that it exists and it's not part of this 'ultimate reality' how then shall we explain it? I don't think his answer is an answer at all, it sounds more like a cop out to me.
The question that I would start with is. Why did God create Satan in the first place? What purpose does that serve?
And then of course that always seems to lead to asking, "Who then is responsible for evil?"
We are responsible for evil. As to the question of why God created satan, it was for the same reason he created any of the angels. he didn't create Satan to be evil. As cd Lewis said mankind is responsible for four fifths of the evil that occurs on earth. I would go even further than that however because even natural evil (hurricanes, cancer, etc.) was due to the consequences of the fall which we have all contributed to.
Oops, I meant cs Lewis obviously. Love the autocorrect on the iPhone!
But in the context of him being all knowing of past, present and future events doesn't that still leave him on the hook? There has to be a reason that he allowed sin to happen right? And if so how does that fit into our understanding of the world being broken and not as God intended it? If he knows everything then in reality doesn't this have to be how he intended it?
I'm sure Dan would say otherwise but let's leave Open Theism off the table for now. :)
no, the fact that he knows it doesn't mean he caused it. we did. we're completely responsible. The fact that I know what is going to happen at the end of the movie Dumb and Dumber doesn't mean that I caused it to happen.
as far as getting God "off the hook", we don't have to do that. I think the cross, as Tim Keller says, shows that God put himself "on the hook" for our suffering and evil. If God didn't allow sin to happen, wouldn't we just be robots who were unable to do anything but choose God? What sense would that make?
To be more precise with the "Dumb and Dumber" illustration...imagine if you were the one who created film. Does that make you responsible for every movie that gets made? the creating of film opened up the possibility for many things to be created, even if it was not what the creator desired for the medium of film.
or maybe it would be more helpful to take a concrete thing like marriage.
What is God's "intention" for marriage?
it is for a man and a woman to leave their families of origin, to become one, to share a beautiful intimacy that is a reflection of His own relation between the Trinity, to love and to take care of each other, to be in a lifelong covenant relationship.
Now say that I get married and after three years I start cheating on my wife and it leads to a divorce. Clearly not how God intended marriage to be. Does that mean God is responsible? Is it His fault? Even if He foresaw what would happen?
"Is it His fault? Even if He foresaw what would happen?"
And that is what I'm digging at I guess. The problem with evil is that for a lot of people.
Your post caused me to wrestle with this throughout the day for about the milliointh time. Any insight you have into the questions that you asked I am open to.
For me where it ends up going is that it's very convenient for those that are Christian to make the arguments that you have because technically speaking God's plan does make things right and restores relationship for them.
What about the billions that perish apart from ever knowing Jesus? This is where it becomes extremely difficult for me.
very interested. thanks for the rec.
You never responded to my last comment and I was hoping that you would. :)
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