God - my creator - & the origin of evil

I want to say from the get-go that this is a very heavy topic to write a simple blog post about. I don't pretend to have any special insights or wisdom which have prompted me to share. I only want to respond to some serious questions asked of me, by a friend, about the origin of evil.


Epicurus asked some good questions about this(I am paraphrasing here):

Is God willing to stop evil, but unable? - then he is not omnipotent.
Is he unwilling and able? - then he is malevolent.
Is he willing and able? - then where does evil come from? (Or some might ask - why does evil still exist?)
Is he unwilling and unable? - then why call him God?

These are very good questions. They are smart questions. I believe that there are many Christians who do not know how to answer these.
So, how do I answer? How do I answer - when I believe that God IS willing and IS able to end evil? According to Epicurus (and many others), I must admit that God is malevolent. A God who is love would not allow evil, pain, suffering, destruction, etc. Period. End of discussion. My options seem to be - admit that God cannot truly be love, or that my faith makes no sense - it is not logical - and I must therefore be a fool. Perhaps I am only a blind, unquestioning follower of Sunday-school rhetoric passed down to me by people who are also unable to answer this.

If you believe this way, then everything I will say from this point on may be considered foolish.

BUT - I believe in something which this set of Epicurean questions does not account for. They do not account for this because of the very nature of the questions themselves. Epicurus seemed to believe that logic is the end-all, be-all. The problem I have with this line of thinking is that it assumes to impose my (or any human) limits on God.


Origin of Evil
See, I believe in God the creator of everything. The reason I am here today is because God has granted me life. The "Origin of Evil" question must go immediately from this point to begin asking about a good God - creator of everything - and how this must mean He created evil, and is therefore not truly good.
Instead of going immediately from "I believe God created everything" to "the origin of evil" - I'd like to think a little longer about what else is true of "God creating everything."

If God created everything - which I believe He did - then my mind was created. My ability to think, reason, deduce, assume, whatever else are all a part of the creation of my mind. My abilities to use logic, to follow evidence, to come to a conclusion, were given to me by the creator of my mind. My mind, however, was created with limits. I understand THAT my mind has limits, but I cannot even truly understand exactly WHAT the limits are. Using math as an example: I understand that I cannot truly comprehend infinity. Conceptually, maybe, I get it. But I am unable to go beyond that, because infinity itself is a limit which my mind cannot comprehend. This is true because I have a beginning and an end.
Now - I know this to be true. So, when considering infinity I must underscore EVERYTHING I think about it with the fact that I cannot truly know it.

If this is true of mathematical infinity - then how much truer is it of the creator? If I understand that my mind has limits - I understand that there are concepts and ideas which are beyond the limits of my understanding - then I must understand that those limits were established by the creator of my mind. I must also understand then that the creator of MY limits is not bound by them.

Back to the mathematical example: I understand that Pi goes on forever - infinity - even though I don't understand infinity. Pi does not end simply because I don't have the capacity to understand infinity.
Another example a little closer to the issue is creation itself. Obviously this is not agreed upon by everyone. But I believe in a God who created everything from nothing. I don't understand it. That is beyond the limits of my mind. I cannot really comprehend "everything coming from nothing."

Logic - logical thought - is a part of my mind. I use logic to process information and understand the way things really are. I understand, however, that logic itself falls within the limits of my mind. The creator of my limits, though, cannot be bound by those limits. That's it! That is - as I see it - where Epicurean followers and I must part philosophical and theological ways.
Epicurus would have the creator bound by the limits of his own creation. Epicurus says that
IF God created everything and IF God is able and willing to end evil BUT He hasn't then the ONLY LOGICAL EXPLANATIONS are that He is either not truly a loving God, or He is not really God at all.

Choosing not to place God - the creator of my own mental limits - inside them, I believe that God IS Love, AND that He is willing and able - and will one day end all evil. It is not an "either/or" thing for me. God is not bound by His creations' processes of logic and their outcomes.

So where does that leave us?
As I've already said - it leaves me to be considered a fool.

The next issue might be that I also believe in the Bible. "Believe in the bile" is too simple a statement though. What I meant is that I believe the Bible to be God's Word. Every single part of it, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelations. This means that everything revealed about God in the Bible is true. And what is revealed in the Bible about God is A LOT! The bible does not shy away from the difficult things and the things that - again - I don't understand. The bible reveals plenty of paradox. The bible says that God IS Love (1 John 4:8). The bible says that God's will is that nobody should perish (2 Peter 3:9). The bible also makes it clear that there WILL be those who perish and suffer the wrath of God (Matthew 25:46). The bible doesn't attempt to explain HOW God wills that none perish AND that some will perish. (At this point LOGIC would say that God must not truly be omnipotent then - "God wills something that won't happen!")
The bible also says that God's thoughts and ways are not my thoughts and ways - but that they are, in fact higher than mine! (Isaiah 55:8-9), and they are right(Hosea 14:9). And, as it relates to the problem of evil and suffering, the bible - ALL OF IT - points to the great defeat of it all in Jesus Christ. Everything from beginning to end points to Jesus - the God of heaven - the Son and God and Son of Man - the Word who was with God and WAS GOD!
The "whys" and "how's" of the origin of evil, the origin of Satan and his power, are dealt with in the end. Not according to anything I understand, but according to God's purposes in Jesus.

The God of the Bible owes me nothing. He does not have to explain his ways to me - the created. I understand the truths found in the bible, but I don't pretend to KNOW EVERYTHING about God and his ways. I am content with the understanding that "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29).


One other choice is to say that there are ELEMENTS of the Bible, or God, or whatever else - that are true, but not all of them. One would ask, "Is it wrong to choose the good things from the bible and reject the bad? Doesn't a responsible person use the intelligence given to them to choose wisely?"
The answer is yes, one may choose which elements of the bible and God they would like to believe in.
What happens at that point, however, is the person making the choices is picking and choosing a god of their own liking. A person who decides to take "good" things and reject "bad" things from the bible is making their own theology. There is no way around this.

A person who chooses to believe the entire bible - even the things which cannot be explained according to logic - is choosing a theology. It is the theology of the God of the bible.
A person who chooses to subscribe to certain pieces of the bible and reject others is choosing a theology of their own. This person is looking for a god who will ultimately answer to them. The burden to show that this is not the case rests on the one who does these things.


So - - to sum up: I believe in the God of the Bible, the God who created everything. This God is not bound by anything at all, which includes my logic. I believe it is possible for to things to make absolutely no sense - according to logical deductions - and still be the truth of a God who is not bound by logic. We'll call this faith.
God does not have to explain to me HOW He goes about choosing to glorify Himself. I believe that He IS and forever more WILL BE glorified and exalted (Psalm 46:10). I believe that somehow He has chosen a way - a way which will bring HIM the most glory - to end evil. And I believe it is all through Jesus Christ.

When Paul was asked to explain his faith to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens, he began by speaking of the creator (Acts 17:16-34). This is the beginning of everything, and it MUST be agreed upon that the creator cannot be bound by the limits of what his hands have made. "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." (Acts 17:24-25)