Message

The word of God was preached today at chapel by Dr. David Platt of Brook Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham. God’s voice was heard. As you hear this, note that all Scripture is recited from memory. Be blessed!

The Authority of the Word of God

The Problem with the Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil assumes four premises from the Judeo-Christian understanding of God and draws the conclusion that God cannot exist. This is problematic for several reasons. The four premises are:

1. God is all-powerful

2. God is omniscient

3. God is omnibenevolent

4. Evil exists

There are several problems with this argument that stem from a misunderstanding of God and His purposes.

Part of the argument goes something like, ‘If God is benevolent and wants men to be happy then He would allow a lesser degree of evil.’ This is a logical fallacy. The argument assumes that the degree of evil is directly indicative of God’s willingness to allow evil. This is a comparative argument to which we have nothing to compare. If there were indeed less evil in this world, would we not still decry how much evil there is? If it is possible that there be more evil in the world does this not affect our argument as well?

This is something we have no concept of and cannot determine. Therefore, essentially what we are saying is, ‘If I were God I would allow less evil.’ This line of reasoning assumes that 1) you know better than God and 2) you are more benevolent than He indeed is. So you assume the role of God and thereby strip God of His power, benevolence, and omniscience. Thus, your concept of God is no longer the Judeo-Christian God. So of course, it follows that this God does not exist, but this is not the God you set out to disprove!

The second problem with the argument from evil is its concept of what qualifies as evil. If there is no God and naturalism is true, then evil is a random and arbitrary notion. God is necessary for the concept of evil, for without a concept of perfection, how can we conceive imperfection? If I have never seen a circle and am shown an octagon, how do I know it is not a circle? Taking this in another direction, it is necessary to answer the question of what is evil? If we are assuming the attributes of the Judeo-Christian God to make this argument, we should also include the Judeo-Christian definition of evil.

According to the Bible our definition of evil should be something along the lines of, ‘Any action or inaction that is contrary to the will or nature of God.’ So if we dissect this definition further we see that evil is defined in negative terms. The definition is not what evil is, but what evil is not. Evil is not God’s will or nature. So we see that evil is the lack of good in the same way that darkness is the absence of light. This leads us to conclude that evil in and of itself does not exist apart from good (and by good we mean perfection). Here we could pause and make an argument for God from evil, but I won’t do that at this point.

Knowing now that evil is ‘any action or inaction that is contrary to the will or nature of God’ what can we say about the degree of evil we find in the world? The degree of evil must be to the degree that it is not God’s will. Let’s take this and apply it to governments.

Let’s consider the government record of atheists Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Adolph Hitler. Mao murdered by some estimates 70 million of his own people, Stalin 15 million, and Hitler 6 million Jews. Three leaders, three atheistic regimes, and the body count is a staggering 91 million. On the other hand, let’s add up the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, the Crusades, the burning of heretics, and whatever other cruelties of the church we can think of. The number is in the thousands. Making an argument of evil by degree is not on the side of atheism. In fact it is on the side of Christianity by odds of about 1000:1 judging by the death toll alone.

Going further, let’s analyze the contributions of Christianity to the world. It was Christians who gave us the first hospitals and universities. In fact, atheism would not have a platform in academia were it not for the Christian founders of universities such as Oxford, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. Where human suffering is most apparent are nations without proper health care. Christianity gave us a high value of women, ended the slave trade, founded orphanages, and has been the promoter of freedom in modern society. Where there is freedom of speech for an atheist to share his views, he can undoubtedly thank Christianity.

What are the contributions of atheists to society and humanity? I daresay they are few without the infrastructure provided by Christianity. Feel free to draw your own conclusions, but it seems obvious that the degree of evil, suffering, and injustice in this world directly correspond to the belief in God -specifically the Judeo-Christian God.

So where does the problem of evil leave us? I think it should leave us pondering the holiness and the mercies of God. Seeing the depths of evil magnifies the highest holiness. As we look at the evil we have done, we must understand that God is merciful by even allowing us a single  breath. If He were only about ridding the world of evil, He would have destroyed each of us all a long time ago!

On the one hand we must understand that God’s justice requires an infinite sacrifice for our evil deeds. On the other hand, in His mercy and love, God saw fit to send His Son to make that sacrifice. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, free from any evil, and died on a cross. He withstood the most horrendous evil this world has ever seen -the brutal killing of a perfect and innocent man. He died because we could only pay the infinite penalty with an infinite amount of time in hell. Not only did he pay the penalty, but he rose from the dead on the third day, conquering death and raising to life those who would choose to follow him.

This world is evil. That is for sure. But God is good and desires that none should perish. Confess your evil deeds, believe in the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then the problem of evil is put into the proper perspective and God is glorified!

You Will Respect My Authorit-I

I’ve come to realize something amidst all my reading, thinking, praying. There is something in human nature that not only does not respect authority, but causes us to seek to be our own authority. This is apparent on so many levels and in so many situations.

As we approach the Scriptures in this post-enlightenment age, we approach them using our supposedly advanced ration and logic. Rather than the Scriptures, and thereby God, being our ultimate authority, we rationalize what can or can’t be true based on our worldviews, beliefs, and situational preferences. We don’t seek the authority of our Maker and His purposes for our lives, we seek a God made in our image, that bends to our will. This becomes apparent in many of the current debates in the church.

There has been a controversy regarding the inerrancy of the Scriptures which is directly linked to God’s authority in His Word. Although there are those who do not hold to inerrancy, but hold a high view of the Scriptures, there is an inherent problem with this line of thought. At what point(s) do(es) the Bible err? How do we know? If any part that is mistaken can we trust any of it until we determine which part(s)? Who becomes the final authority on what we can trust?

This leads to each of us deciding for ourselves what parts of the Scriptures we can trust usually based on what parts we want to follow. Suddenly the Scriptures become not the Word of God, but the words of men which we may choose to ignore or heed based upon our own whims, with each person being his/her highest authority.

Some speak of the Scriptures as outdated. As if God couldn’t have looked forward a few thousand years! As if God is stuck in the minds of a first century man! How small their God is! No wonder they don’t respect His authority! There is talk of new understandings, but the ultimate authority for these new understandings becomes the shifting sands of our own cultures.

Feminism has risen in America and suddenly we reinterpret biblical texts to promote egalitarianism, that is not only equality between men and women but the two genders sharing the same roles. This is clearly not what the Bible teaches when it says that the ‘man is to be the head of his wife, loving her as Christ loved the Church.’ Is the Church equal to Christ?! Can Christ submit to the Church?! Absolutely not! Christ is in authority over the Church, and the Church must submit to his authority.

If men and women are equal and have the same roles in marriage then what open homosexual marriage? If a man is the same as a woman what does it matter if a man marries a man or a woman? This thought process is a foot in the door to radically unbiblical thinking.

The Reformation was a question of authority as well. Who had authority? The Roman Church hierarchy or sola Scriptura? In the Roman line of reasoning, the Church created the Scriptures and therefore the Scriptures received authority not as the Word of God, but at the administration of the Church. How foolish! As Robert Saucy writes in his book Scripture, ‘The church no more created the Scriptures than Isaac Newton created gravity.’ The Scriptures and gravity were the result of God acting and humans accepting His gracious actions.

The New Testament Scriptures began being assembled as they were received by the churches in the first and early second century. The Scriptures were widely accepted and agreed on with the exception of a few disputed books (Hebrews, 2 Peter, Revelation, etc.) long before the Church recognized the canon. What became part of the New Testament was not a question of what the Church wanted, but what had God inspired?

The same is true of the Old Testament. What the Church accepted as the Old Testament was not something voted on by a council, but what had already been canonized by the Jews before the Church even existed. How then were the Scriptures given authority by a Church that didn’t yet exist?

Jesus and the apostles quoted every section of the Old Testament as authoritative and all historical records from their day (i.e. Josephus) lead us to the conclusion that the Old Testament existed as we find it in Protestant Bibles. There is but a single New Testament quote from the Apocrypha (to my knowledge), the intertestamental writings between the Old and New Testaments. Jude 1:14 quotes a prophesy from Enoch that is recorded in the Apocryphal book of Enoch, but this may be a quote not of the book Enoch but of an oral tradition. This quote in no way grants Scriptural status to Enoch. The Jews knew without a doubt that Enoch was a pseudonymous book written thousands of years after the life of Enoch.

The question of the authority of the Apocrypha as Scripture was settled by the Roman Church in response to the Reformation. It was an attempt to display the authority the Church had to deem writings as Scripture. The only problem is these apocryphal books teach things that don’t fit within the theological perspectives of the Bible! Many of these books even speak of the silence of the prophets and don’t assume to have the authority of Scripture. Without a prophet, there is no Scripture!

How about you? Who is your ultimate authority? Is it yourself? The world? Critical scholars? The Roman Church? Your local church? Or is it the God who created You and sustains your life? In submitting to the authority of God, we will rightly submit to all authorities in our lives; the rule of government, the Church, the Scriptures, and all the authorities that have been placed over us. But we will submit to their authority only so far as it does not hinder us from submitting ultimately to God.

It is wise to submit to our Maker and Father who knows exactly what is best for us and seeks to bring us from spiritual death to abiding life as we walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do you trust His authority?