God and suffering

[OakWood]

 

[Guest]

That is actually a pretty good video in my opinion. 

He addresses the argument which asks:

 

"If God is all powerful, and God is all good, how can evil exist?"

 

The question is expanded upon with the assertion, that evil cannot exist, unless God is not all good, and allows unnecessary suffering, or else He must not be all powerful, and does not fix things because He is unable to.

 

The video addresses this, by pointing out certain flaws in the argument. In my opinion, another possible solution to this problem is missed. I maintain that God is not all powerful. Now of course I realize some of you are already thinking I am a heretic or at least have a small view of God, please allow me to explain.

 

I do believe that God is all-powerful, but I have a different definition of what that means, than many people assume it means. People assume that God's omnipotence, means that God can do anything. However, according to scripture, that is not strictly true. All things, even God, are limited by their own nature, You cannot have round cubes or married bachelors. It is outside of their nature. The nature of a cube, is to be composed of straight lines and right angled corners, no roundness at all.

 

Most of you have probably heard the silly question: "Can God create a rock so heavy, that He cannot lift it?" That is supposed to be some sort of clever, logical trap to make you admit that there are things God cannot do. My advice? Grant the argument, admit there are things that God cannot do. Some things are logically impossible, and nothing can violate it's own nature. First off, God is the manager of the universe, He does not lose control of it, so He would never grant the universe any quality that He cannot manage. There will never be any rocks that God cannot move. The argument, in spite of how some people think it to be so clever, is in reality, just childish.

 

The fact that God has a nature, is important. His nature is one in which no evil exists, therefore, it is outside of His nature to do evil. This means that His nature, places limitations upon Him. For example, consider the following passage:

 

  1Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 3but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior,

 

There, scriptural proof that there is at least one thing, that God cannot do. There are things that we can do, that God cannot. It is our nature to commit acts of evil, it is outside of God's nature.

 

So, if God is not really all-powerful (able to do anything), as we have just seen, what do we mean by the idea of omnipotence - being all-powerful? We mean that all of the power that exists, every thing in the entire universe, is under His dominion, He has the ability to do anything that is possible, without limitations EXCEPT the limitation of His nature. In other words, all power that does exist, is His to wield, or to delegate, as He sees fit, for His own purposes. This being the case, I am glad He is a good God, working all things together for good, to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)

[Pro1728]

Todd Friel's "Wretched" TV video has a pretty good take on it too: "Why Good Things Happen to Bad People" and "Aurora, Drought, and God."