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Originally posted by JEE

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Originally posted by PotOnWheel

God wills that there be evil. Although God did not create evil, God clearly wills, according to Christian scripture and tradition, that evil and sickedness exist. The fathers, interpreting scripture, make this subtle point by saying that though God does not eill evil metaphycisally, God certainly does will evil providentially. This is proven by God creating those he kew would be evil.

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The argument assumes that which it needs to prove; i.e., that God knew with absolute certainty that moral evil would be chosen. Also, it a confusion of terms to say God "wills" something and yet does not cause that something. If my daughter disobeys me, I did not "will" her to disobey me, nor did I permit or allow her to disobey me; she has simply exercised her self-determining freedom. As you said, evil's origin is creaturely choice.

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God's judgment of evil is his mercy on all. God shows mercy on whomever he wills, and he wills to show mercy on all. This is the biblical teaching. It is God's gospel in Jesus. It is God's judgment on the world. Writings attributed to the apostle Paul tell us that we are to "have hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe" (1 Tim 4:10). Christ's beloved disciple John tells us that he is writing to us that we may not sin, but that "if anyone does sin, we have an advocate (_parakletos_) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 Jn 2:2). Universal salvation is given in Christ. The return of all things to God (_apokatastsis ton panton_) is realized in Jesus seating in glory at the Father's right hand, made the head over all things through what he suffered at the hands of evildoers (Eph 1:20-23). This is the judgment of creation: God's universal and unconditional act of mercy in Christ for which every creature under heaven will one day have to answer and account.


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God will be all and in all through Christ. At the coming of Christ, when the Lord submits everything with himself to God and the Father who subjects all things to him, God will be "all and in all," or (as some English translations of scripture would have it) "everything to everyone" (1 Cor 15:28 cf. also Col 3:11). Paul puts this teaching another way when hw writes that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11). Such sayings lead some people to think that everyone and everything will be saved when all creatures will be compelled to worship God and his Son through whom God will be “all and in all.” There is, however, no logical or theological necessity in drawing such a conclusion. As my dogmatics professor, Serge Verhovskoy, would put it: God will be all and in all, but not all will like it: every knee will bow before God and his Christ, but not all will enjoy it. The scriptural teaching seems to be that the same presence of god that brings refreshment to the faithful brings torment to the wicked. (*16) This seems to be Paul’s teaching when he says that unrepentant evildoers will pay the penalty of “eternal destruction from the presence (or face) of the Lord from the glory of his might” (2 Thes 1:9), and that Lord Jesus will “destroy [the lawless] by the appearance (_epiphania_) of his coming (_parousia_)” (2 Thes 2:8)


We sum up our “saying and unsaying” about God and evil by once more insisting that God is not evil and does not create evil. Evil comes from creatures and inevitably exists as the perversion of good in a human world. God uses evils for positive providential purposes. God orders and orchestrates evil for his ultimate glory and that of his servants. The ways of the Lord, how sends evils upon whom he wills so that they might repent before his terrible justice and majestic mercy, are beyond creaturely comprehension and questioning (Isa 55:8-9). When believers in the Christian God witness earthquake, flood, fire, ware, invitation by enemies and evils of every kind, they believe that they are being visited by God for their chastening, repentance and everlasting salvation. They surrender in love and obedience to God who sends these evils upon them for their instruction and purification, and overcomes them in Christ for their salvation and glorification. They do this by affirming the lord’s victory on the cross and his coming in glory by co-suffering with him in love through the crosses which eh provides for their glory. The refusal of God’s victory in Christ, with the refusal to suffer in love with the Lord for good, results in a mystery and torment which may well last forever.

The biblical psalms proclaim in the most perfect way what Christians believe to be the truth about God and evil in this present age. They declare God‘s sovereign dominion over good and evil, and his steadfast love for those who come to adore his majesty and accept his mercy. For Christians, the psalms are the words of Christ. (*17) They “say and unsay” to every possible positive effect everything that human beings can possibly “say and unsay” in the face of evil, before the face of God, until the Lord’s coming.



*16 – Compare Acts 3:19 where God’s “times for refreshing” for the righteous com “from the presence (or face) of the Lord [_apo prospou tou kyriou_]” with 1 Thes 1:9 where God’s “punishment of eternal destruction” for the unrighteous comes also “from the presence (or face) of the Lord [_apo prospou tou kyriou_].” The word “exclusion” found in the RSV rendering of the Thessalonian text is not in the original Greek. The apostolic texts are clearly inspired by OT prophetic writings which ascribe both the Lord’s mercy and judgment, with his comfort for the just and his judgment on the wicked, to the Lord’s same terrible appearing.

*17 – See Patrick Henry Reardon, “Christ in the Psalms” (Ben Lomond, CA; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Psalms: The Prayer Gook of the Bible” (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1970).