There is a lot of disagreement in the Christian world over the fact that there is evil in the world. How can a righteous God allow evil? They even have a word for the problem that a righteous omnipotent God allows evil to be in the world. That word is theodicy. Theodicy is the defense and vindication of God and His plan for saving some, but not all the people in the world. It comes from 2 Greek words, God, theos, and just, dikaios. I have read many books on this subject, and most fail to answer the problem. Those who hold to the Open View have an answer. It is this! God created beings who are truly free, who do what they want to do, and who can revolt against His will. I believe Greg Boyd has written two of the best books on this subject. They are God at War and Satan and the Problem of Evil.
Because Satan’s rebellion happened, we are in a universe at war. The devil and his angels rebelled against God and became extremely evil. The Bible says in 1 Pe 5:8-10 that our adversary is the devil.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
In contrast to Satan, Christ came and died for the sins of
the world so, as it says in 1 Jo 3:8, He could destroy the works of the
devil. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy
the works of the devil.” That is reiterated in Acts
When we realize
how extremely evil these spiritual beings are, we should be more motivated to
get into the battle at the spiritual level. Then we will be aware that the
wickedness in this world is inspired by extremely evil beings who take great
pleasure in causing hideous acts of cruelty. We’ve had the repulsive killings
of Columbine and the
Now, my question
is: Could a righteous holy God be the cause of such hideous merciless acts? To
my astonishment, many Christians say, yes. But, if God causes everything that
happens and is all-loving and perfectly good, He must want to protect the
innocent ones who have not had the chance to trust in His Son for their
salvation. If God exercises absolute control over the world as Augustine,
Aquinas, Calvin, and those who hold fast to the Westminster Confession believe,
then, He must have been in total control of the airplanes, and decided not to
protect those who died in the
The God of the Bible is not omni causal. God’s beings have a certain amount of freedom to war against Him and His desires. For example, spiritual beings oppose Him. Dan 10:1-6,11-21 shows this:
In the third year of Cyrus king of
It says human
beings oppose Him, are blind in their understanding, and have corrupt minds in Eph
2:2: “You once walked according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience.” Their minds are darkened according to Eph
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith.
Since we are at
war, how do we prepare for battle? Psa 91:4 tells us that “His truth
shall be your shield and buckler.” We must be armed for this battle against the
wicked spiritual hosts according to Eph 6:11-19:
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the scheming of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
Most determinists miss the point of God’s theodicy. I happen to believe that God is just more powerful than Calvinists represent Him to be when they attempt to answer Open Theism statements. R.C. Sproul believes that things might get out of God’s control if one molecule is free to move wherever it is blown. I believe God is so powerful that nothing can cause Him so much trouble that He cannot handle it. In scriptural situations that show evil, did God make those people be as evil as they were? Did He then destroy them because they were so evil? I believe the Bible shows these nations became evil on their own. God didn’t make them evil. God took action against them because they were so evil, but He calls them to repentance before He destroys them.
One of the best passages in support of God’s theodicy is the assertion in Ecclesiastes that man’s evil is his own doing and not God’s: Eccl 7:29 “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” Now, I think the question is: Could a righteous holy God be the cause of such hideous merciless acts as we have experienced in the world? To my bewilderment, many Christians say, yes. But, if God is all-loving and perfectly good, which I believe He is, and if God exercises absolute control over the world as Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and the whole Reformed tradition hold, then, He must be in complete control of all the horrible tragedies in the world.
Those in the
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. (to do evil) 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
I want to look at a passage in 1 Kings 22. We should read the whole account of the lying spirit, Ahab, and the 400 false prophets in 1 Ki 22:5-28:
Also Jehoshaphat said to the king of
Did the Lord send the lying spirit? Yes. Did the Lord send Micaiah to speak the truth? Yes. Did the Lord know that Ahab would believe his 400 false prophets? I believe He did. Did the Lord know that Jehoshaphat would ask for a prophet of the Lord? Yes. Did the Lord show that the false prophets were speaking from a lying spirit? Yes. Did Micaiah tell Ahab the truth? Yes. Did Ahab follow the word of the Lord delivered by Micaiah? No. Did Ahab go into battle and die as God wanted him to because he was so evil? Yes. Did God punish Ahab for all of his wickedness? Yes. Does God do evil? No.
I think the
episode described in 1 Kings 22 is a marvelous example of how God works through
evil beings (humans and spirits) while maintaining His own integrity. God’s
purpose here was not lying or any other evil. His purpose was to bring to
judgment the wicked king Ahab. Now, God could have accomplished that easily by
Himself. One quick lightning bolt would have fried Ahab – no muss, no fuss.
Yet, God, for reasons I think He never fully explained, decided to work within
His creation, using the freewill actions of created beings in order to achieve
His desired result. God essentially puts out a contract on Ahab. The deceitful
spirit volunteers for the mission. The lying spirit is a lying spirit; God does
not induce him to lie. Nor does God violate Ahab’s freedom in any way; Ahab is
a wicked king who deserves the judgment he gets. Perhaps the best part of all
this is how God works out the actual killing of Ahab. Ahab takes the unusual
step of disguising himself when he goes out to battle. Ironically, this attempt
to elude the judgment pronounced by Micaiah is in itself an acknowledgement of
its veracity. The king of
Normally,
Elijah’s prophecy that dogs would lick Ahab’s blood would indicate that his
body would be left exposed – a hideous shame in a culture where being left
unburied was the worst form of dishonor. Yet, we read in
R.C. Sproul’s Calvinistic approach ruins everything that’s so delightfully ironic in this story. In that model, God has eternally predestined all actions. The entirety of history is like an instant replay, like rolling back the tape. In that model, nothing particularly special is going on here. In the Open View, in contrast, we see God as the Master Artisan, gracefully intervening at just the right moments to steer the course of events to His desired end. In a vast sea of spiritual, human, and simply natural forces, each to a degree independent and yet all ultimately interdependent, God deftly manipulates an occasional detail here and there in order to accomplish through this maze of forces what He could more easily have done Himself. Where God, as understood by R.C. Sproul, is strong enough to predestine all things, God in the Open View is powerful enough to orchestrate His desired conclusion while interacting with countless other beings and circumstances which He has not predestined. Our God is more than powerful: He is a poet who has given us the privilege of penning a line or two in His epic; He is an artist who has honored us by placing in our hands little brushes of our own.
For the Calvinist who says “God is not the author of evil, but He has decreed evil things to happen by use of second causes”, what on earth in their theology could a second cause be? They believe that God has predestined every single thing that ever has happened, is happening or will happen. What difference does it make whether God utilizes a lying spirit as an intermediary in the process of bringing about the lying words of Ahab’s flattering prophets? In their theology, God in eternity past predestined those prophets to lie just as He predestined the lying spirit to inspire them to do so. The very fact that they are reading the biblical text in terms of finding secondary causes belies their belief that God predestined all things. They recognize, whether they realize it or not, that the biblical text is written in real time, not some sort of eternal now. It presents God as interacting with other beings whose actions do not stem automatically from His predestination. God in Calvinism does not manipulate events as we see so beautifully portrayed in 1 Kings 22; according to them, His only power is to cause them from start to finish.
I reject the theological makeup of God that Calvinists present, in large part because, as much as they deny it, their theology makes God out to be the author of sin. In their writings they repeatedly demonstrate an inability to differentiate between God and their concept of God, between God’s word and their interpretation of God’s word. R.C. Sproul and his allies use “sola scriptura”, but the reality is that they see it as sola interpretatio scripturae mea –only Scripture as they interpret it.