The Friday Post 9.26.08 No. 5 Obj. #1 Cont...

Welcome back to the Friday Post everyone!

This week we will be discussing three attributes of God and how they relate to the existence of evil and suffering. (Again this comes from the book: The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel.)

Attribute #1 God is All-Powerful

To say that God is all-powerful is to say that he can do everything that is meaningful, everything that is possible, everything that makes any sense at all. Strobel then asks Kreeft a question: "So there are some things he can't do even though he's all-powerful?" Kreeft answers "Precisely because he is all powerful, he can't make mistakes." When we examine the all-powerful God agains the problem of evil, the question always arises: "If God is all-powerful then why doesn't he stop evil and suffering?" Well first of all we have to examine where evil and suffering began. Evil and suffering wasn't created by God but God created the possiblity for evil and suffering because he created humans with free-will. Logically you can't have free will and no possiblity of evil! When God created humans he gave them the free-will to make their own choices. That is when sin entered the world and why there is evil and suffering all over the world. All because Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, by their own free-will, and thus chose not God but the world and with it sin.

So then, why didn't God create a world without human freedom? Kreeft says because then there wouldn't be any humans. Kreeft argues that that kind of world would be one without hate, without suffering, but it would also have been a world without love, which is the highest value in the universe. The highest good could have never been experienced. Real love must have a choice involved.

If I might go off track here for a minute, this is Brad speaking, and take a look at this concept: God didn't want robots he wanted people! That is why he created a world where people would choose whether or not they would love Him even though He loves us before we know Him! The Word of God says in 1 John 4:8 and 4:16 that God is love. So if love is the highest value in the universe and God is love, then God himself is what people long for! Each of us was made with a God shaped hole in our heart designed to be filled with God and His love. He values each of us more than we can know. He is our creator. We are made in His image. Therefore, the thing that we desire the most is the love of God and His direction in our life. You may not know it yet but God wants to lead you through your life so that you can experience exactly what God has for you. Even though sometimes the path leads through pain and suffering, ultimately good comes form those things! We will examine this more throughout next week! I am going to be posting attributes two and three throughout the week next week so that you can chew on attribute one now!

For Christ's Cause,

Brad

PS... In Case you didn't notice, this is going to take us a little longer than 8 weeks. I hope that this is beneficial information to you and that you will use it for God's glory and to learn to defend your faith in Jesus Christ! We will finish when we finish!

The Friday Post 9.19.08 No. 4: Are you Following?

Hi Everyone,

The Friday Post is a little different today. Due to various issues this week such as power outages etc. I am going to share with you the reading from Oswald Chambers book My Utmost for His Highest for today 9.19.08. Read through the devotional and ask yourself: "Am I following Jesus like I should?" As I read this this morning I was really challenged by that question. How about you?

For Christ,

Brad

From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
September 19
"Are You Going on With Jesus?"
It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going on with Him? "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" ( John 6:66 ).
The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going on with Jesus in the life we are living right now?
We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. May it never be! It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations. They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. Jesus Christ’s honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?
Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, through the city gate, and on "outside the camp" ( Hebrews 13:13 ). The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow— but only the voice saying, "FollowMe" ( Matthew 4:19 )

The Friday Post 9.12.08 No. 3 Objection #1

This week we really begin to go deeper into what it means to be able to defend our faith. The very first chapter or objection that Strobel brings up in his book The Case for Faith is probably one of the toughest questions that Christians are asked or more accurately told is "Since evil and suffering exist, a loving God cannot..." Strobel's goal in finding answers to this question is to journalistically seek out interviews with the brightest and most intelligent professors, teachers, speakers of the Christian faith and ask them these tough questions. Strobel asked the following question to Dr. Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College, after reading an excerpt from his interview with Charles Templeton: How do you respond to Templeton's discourse about a poor African woman holding her dying baby all because there was no rain in their land for months. God could have caused the rain to come but he didn't. Templeton's exact phrase was "considering the plagues that sweep across parts of the planet and indiscriminately kill..and it just became crystal clear to me that it is not possible for an intelligent person to believe that there is a deity who loves."
Kreeft responded that you must focus on the words "is not possible" because to say that there is no God who is infinitely more than you or I is intellectual arrogance. Basically what that means is that to say that there is no God is to place yourself as the highest level being! Kreeft says this in explanation "How can a mere finite human be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate certain short-range evils in order for more long-range good that we couldn't foresee?" Kreeft uses this example to further his explanation: "Imagine a bear in a trap and a hunter who, out of sympathy, wants to liberate him. He tries to win the bear's confidence, but he can't do it, so he has to shoot the bear full of drugs. The bear, however, thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to ill him. He doesn't realize that this is being done out of compassion. Then, in order to get the bear out of the trap, the hunter has to push him further into the trap to release the tension on the spring. If the bear were semiconscious at that point, he would be even more convinced that the hunter was his enemy who was out to cause him suffering and pain. But the bear would be wrong. He reaches this incorrect conclusion because he's not a human being."
Kreeft went on to ask "Now, how can anyone be certain that's not an analogy between us and God? I believe God does the same to us sometimes, and we can't comprehend why he does it any more than the bear can understand the motivations of the hunter. As the bear could have trusted the hunter, so we can trust God."
Kreeft also points out that evil can in turn prove God's existence. Not because God created evil, because he didn't, but because there is a standard of good which determines what evil is! God is the standard of good. God made the standard of good. Kreeft also uses this example that if he is grading students' papers and he gives one student a 90% and another an 80% then there must be a standard that lays the foundation to receive a 100%.
Kreeft also uses this example to show how evil proves God's existence. If there is no Creator and therefore no moment of creation, then everything is the result of evolution. If there was no beginning or first cause, then the universe must have always existed. That means the universe has been evolving for an infinite period of time--and, by now, everything should already be perfect. There would have been plenty of time for evolution to have finished and evil to have been vanquished. But there still is evil and suffering and imperfection--and that proves the atheist wrong about the universe.
Stobel explains that Kreeft goes on to prove the existence of a loving God by showing that God didn't create evil, he allowed for the possibility of evil. Which means that he gave us free-will to choose. By nature of choice we have two choices: good or evil. We, therefore, are the ones who allowed evil to happen because we chose evil in the beginning by disobeying God's commands! Thus sin entered the world and ever since we have been cursed by the evil of our wrong choice. Think about this: The point to remember is that creating a world where there's free will and no possibility of sin is a self-contradiction--and that opens the door to people choosing evil over God, with suffering being the result. The overwhelming majority of the pain in the world is caused by our choices to kill, to slander, to be selfish, to stray sexually, to break our promises, to be reckless.
Next week we will continue to discuss this very issue further. For now I think you have a lot to think about and maybe respond to. Next week we will discuss further the three attributes of God and how they line up logically with the way we think! I hope you will take some time each week to read through The Friday Post. These issues are not easy but they do challenge us to grow deeper in our faith with our all-powerful, omnipotent, glorious, and loving God! See you next week where the conversation continues!

For Christ's Cause,

Brad

Email Me

Friday Post Vol. 1 No. 2--9.5.08

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to The Friday Post! This week is going to be an overview of what we are going to be studying over the next 8 weeks. I am simply posting the 8 topics we will be discussing. These topics again come from the book: The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel. I also want you all to be aware that these topics are very tough questions that have been picked apart by Strobel who took a journalists perspective and came to the conclusion that faith is an extremely necessary part of our life. In fact that's what we were made for! An abiding relationship with God! So read through these 8 topics and think about them. Write down any questions you might have and then post a comment when we we get to that topic. God is real. God is good. But these questions are tough. However, God is bigger than any of these questions and seeking him out for them only makes us stronger in Him. I hope this journey leads you to a stronger faith as well as a stronger sense of defending our faith!

Topics:
1. If there's a loving God, why does this pain-wracked world groan under so much suffering and evil?

2. If the miracles of God contradict science, then how can any rational person believe that they're true?
3. If God really created the universe, why does the persuasive evidence of science compel so many to conclude that the unguided process of evolution accounts for life?

4. If God is morally pure, how can he sanction the slaughter of innocent children as the Old Testament says he did?

5. If Jesus is the only way to heaven, then what about the millions of people who9 have never heard of him?

6. If God cares about the people he created, how could he cosign so many of them to an eternity of torture in hell just because they didn't believe the right things about him?

7. If God is the ultimate overseer of the church, why has it been rife with hypocrisy and brutality throughout the ages?

8. If I'm still plagued by doubts, then is it still possible to be a Christian?

Like I said, these questions are tough questions. But believe me there is no reason to beat around the bush. God is bigger than any of these questions and Strobel will help us to understand God's perspective on each of these very issues! I pray that you will begin to think and write down questions so that you may learn along with us as we endeavor to answer the tough questions. God is good and He will guide us through the next 8 weeks!

Until next week,

Brad

Email Me