A Christian's View Of God: "All Powerful, All Knowing, All Good, All Just" (Part 1)

EpicDweeb

I'm a Christian, and have been for all my life. I grew up in the Church and was raised reading the Bible. I realize many will assume that means I'm brainwashed and only believe in God because that's what I was taught. I've had plenty of people try to show how wrong I am through logic, especially the classic argument of "if there's a good God, why is there evil in the world?"

A Christian's View Of God: "All Powerful, All Knowing, All Good, All Just" (Part 1)

These kinds of arguments are the ones people most often use to try and disprove Christianity. So allow me to address them.

1 God's goodness:

People argue against this in many ways, and some even do it from scripture itself.

Isaiah 45:7 (KJV) "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create EVIL: I the LORD do all these things."


The problem is that when arguing in this way is that people use this translation. The wording denotes "evil" which we see as all things bad, sinful, etc. However let's take a look at another translation.

Isaiah 45:7 (ESV) "I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create CALAMITY; I am the LORD, who does all these things."

Calamity would obviously refer to disasters, such as earthquakes and floods. In fact we know this is true from the book of Genesis when God told Noah to build an arc. Why? Not because a flood was coming. It was because God was going to SEND A FLOOD.

But then how can calamity be good? Well what are we defining as good? Are pain and suffering inherently evil and/or sinful? This doesn't seem to be the case.

(ESV) Proverbs 3:11-12
My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.

And what is the motive of discipline?

According to Proverbs 13:24 (ESV)
"Whoever spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."

And Provers 23:13-14 (ESV)
"Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
If you strike him with the rod,
you will save his soul from Sheol."

The motive then for discipline is love which I think we can all agree is a good thing.
Therefore we understand that even calamity happens for our good as His children,
and for His glory as our God.

That still doesn't answer the question: "If God is all good, how can He be all powerful?"

A Christian's View Of God: "All Powerful, All Knowing, All Good, All Just" (Part 1)

There are two flaws in these arguments which people fail to notice.

1. God is all Just: God cannot let sin go unpunished.
2. God is not all Loving: If God were all loving then that would deny His hatred of sin.
The Bible even says that God hates His enemies. (This is a whole other topic that I don't plan to address here, but https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/gods-love-and-gods-hatred/ this should give a decent explanation of that whole issue). "But God is love" I hear you say. Yes God is loving, but that means He is perfectly loving, not infinitely loving.

So then to establish my argument allow me to make a controversial statement.

Suffering Isn't Evil

So many people base their criticisms of God's goodness around the existence of suffering. This is foolish as the Bible establishes that suffering can be a very good thing. The suffering of the wicked is justice, while the suffering of the righteous builds character and strength. Suffering has become many people's definition of evil. For many, what is right and what is wrong is defined through the filter of "What makes the most people the happiest or least miserable." Essentially, many have the idea that suffering is the epitome of evil and that suffering is inherently bad and must be therefore minimized. On the contrary, suffering, while a RESULT OF EVIL, is NOT evil incarnate but a mercy which hinders the power of evil.

Death is a result of the curse on all creation that occurred due to Adam and Eve's sin. Before the fall, Adam and Eve would have been immortal. If they had remained immortal even after sin came into the world... that would have meant they'd be forced to suffer all eternity in a world filled with evil. How then would that have been loving? Death was a mercy on them that they wouldn't have to live forever but one day might return to paradise. Likewise death is punishment of the wicked meaning that good will always triumph in the end. Suffering in discipline and punishment is most often meant to reprimand us and warn us of the dangers of something just as pain reflexes cause us to avoid things that hurt, punishment causes us to avoid doing evil. (Not to say that's suffering or discipline's only purpose, to correct wrong doing, it clearly isn't as we see in the book of Job). Punishment therefore, according to scripture is not evil but the result of evil. Suffering may be used for evil on the part of man, but as Joseph testifies in the book of Genesis 50:20:

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." - Genesis 50:20 (ESV)

Closing:

I know I have yet to address the subjects of God's Omnipotence and Omniscience "If God is all knowing so as to know how to put an end to evil, and is all powerful so as to carry out that knowledge then there would be no evil." However, there is another topic entirely that I must address in order to provide context, that being the topic of "free will." I hope you'll bear with me on this. In hind sight this myTake is essentially just my opening thoughts to set up the next my take (I'll update with a link to part 2 when it's finished).

Quite frankly I don't expect to somehow win over anyone through this myTake. I don't believe logic is capable of winning over anyone whom God has not already decided to save. (Based on 1 Corinthians 1:18-31) but if nothing else perhaps this will provide fellow Christians to understand a bit better what it is that they believe and what the Bible says in order to "give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you," as mentioned in 1 Peter 3:15 I hope this myTake will at least give everyone something to consider, whether or not they disagree with every word. Thanks for reading. God bless.

A Christian's View Of God: "All Powerful, All Knowing, All Good, All Just" (Part 1)
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