God: Accused or Defended?

See if you can wrap your mind around all of the natural and moral evil that has occurred in just the last 25 years. Try to wrap your mind around all of the hurt and pain and misery and suffering and death and destruction. The cost in life and limb and fortune and peace and well-being.

Include the wars. The crime – including rapes and murders and molestations and robberies. Add in the addictions and the excesses. Include the perversions of every stripe. The floods and tornadoes. The hurricanes and tsunamis. Earthquakes and volcanoes and mudslides. Include every imaginable horror known to man and beast.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Now – for how much of that will you hold God responsible?

How much of that could He have prevented? Why didn’t He – if He could have? Why does He allow bad things to happen to good people – if He is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful?

You might be shocked by what God reveals about this subject in the Bible!

....Here is where a so-called unresolved paradox is intertwined with Theodicy....Are the ways of God really so mysterious and beyond knowing that He would not reveal to mankind, His crown of creation, why He does what He does? Are natural and moral evils really the tools God uses to avenge Himself against His opponents and to secure the good for His followers? Or, is He desperately fighting “hammer and tong” against a powerful spirit foe that seems to be all but winning the great moral struggle? Here is where God is either accused or defended.

....Solving the problem of the existence of evil in a world created by a God who is fully good (omni-benevolent), all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and everywhere at the same time (omnipresent) is the objective of a specific branch of theology and philosophy called theodicy. In 1710, a German philosopher named Gottfried Leibniz coined the term for an essay he wrote titled “An essay of theodicy about the benevolence of God, the free will of man, and the origin of evil.” Leibniz undertook to show two things: (a) the presence of many evils does not conflict with God’s omni-benevolence, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence; and (b) the world in which we live is the best of all possible worlds – regardless of the natural and moral evils we have to endure. Leibniz coined the term theodicy from two Greek words: Theos (pronounced like thee-ose – with a th sound as in throw) and dike (pronounced like dee-kay). Theos means “god” and dike means ‘justice.” Thus, the expression is rendered “the justice of God.” So...the question arises about the justice of God in allowing or causing evil to exist in His creation.

....That there has been little progress in solving the puzzle presented by theodicy is admitted, but it is equally admitted that some religions have solved it. However, several sources state that those who have supposedly solved the puzzle have done so by either reducing or abandoning one or more of the traditional concepts about God. In other words, they made the decision that God: (a) is not as loving as once believed, (b) is not as all-powerful as once believed, and/or (c) does not have the ability to know all things at all times as once believed. This flip-flop, of course, leads the Agnostic and Atheist to become further entrenched in their beliefs that either: (a) it is not possible to know what God is up to (Agnostic) or (b) that God does not exist in the first place (Atheist) – making the puzzle of theodicy a moot problem. Some theologians and philosophers have solved the puzzle by concluding that theodicy does not even exist because God always acts morally – never punishing people and never working ill toward people.

...What right do you have to think that your expectations of God are actually binding upon God as though He promised you exactly what you expect of Him? Clearly, we have seen in this study that there are numerous revelations that God has made about Himself that do not meet the religious and ethical expectations of many among mankind. When God’s primary indictment of mankind is that he has changed the truth of God into a lie, then God’s reaction to that is both predictable and justifiable. Because it points to the fact that mankind does not accept God’s revelation and sets about to create “God” in their own image. Who, after all is said and done, is in charge of God’s plan, will, and purpose?

The result has been myriads of religions of every stripe – including 32,000+ “Christian” denominations. What right does any one or any collection of those religions have to expect that their beliefs and practices are exactly the things that God has promised? It would appear that the only ones who could reasonably expect any such thing are those who accept and live by God’s revelation as opposed to their own ideas about what it should be. It is patently clear, from God’s point-of-view, that mankind has made a fine mess of it and either refuses to acknowledge His revelation or simply does not have the mental or spiritual capacity to understand it.