Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Thursday,
November 5, 2020
Pastor Rick Kabrick
God allows evil and suffering, here’s why. Theodicy. Pastor Rick Kabrick
GOD is all-powerful, GOD is perfectly good, GOD is perfect, GOD loves us, if all that is true, why does evil exist?
If GOD is real wouldn’t HE stop these horrendous events?
PSA 147:4-5, “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
PSA 5:4, “For you are not a GOD who delights in wickedness evil does not dwell with you.”
Einstein, Pascal, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Pasteur, Plank, Faraday, Copernicus, to name but a few.
It is an important point to note first and perhaps foremost that we are not to use prayer to try and get GOD to do what we want done.
And don’t forget: Truth is truth, truth has always been truth and truth will always be truth and here is the kicker truth is truth whether you or anyone believes it or not.
2CO 11:3, But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
The brain is either lovingly and carefully created by GOD our creator OR evolved from a single cell ameba what nonsense evolution is.
The eye is one of many things that Darwin could not explain. In a theory called irreducible complexity Darwin admitted the eye was far too complex to have evolved from less.
Gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn’t change.
COL 1:17, He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
We also know GOD exists because HE pursues us. HE is constantly seeking for us to come to HIM.
ECC 3:11, He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which GOD has done from the beginning even to the end.
“…night after night, feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.
The earth’s perfect distance from the sun, the unique properties of water, the human brain, DNA, The gnawing in man’s hearts and minds to determine if GOD is there, the willingness for GOD to be known through Jesus Christ. The only One who ever died for our sin, the LORD Jesus Christ.
ROM 1:19-20, For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and GODhead, so that they (unbelievers) are without excuse.
ROM 1:25, Because they exchanged the truth about GOD for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
We may not understand, but don’t forget GOD doesn’t provide an account of how every event will turn out for good for those who love HIM.
ROM 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love GOD, to those who are the called according to His purpose”
DEU 29:29 tells us, “The secret things belong to the Lord our GOD.”
Remember also that it is not GOD that doesn’t understand why things happen the way they do, HE knows all things.
It is not GOD that doesn’t understand, it is us, it is you and I.
Once we can see that or at least believe that, our life, your life can become laser focused on living inside of GOD’s plan and thus glorifying HIM.
Man’s original sin led to evil and suffering. When you read the Bible, you realize GOD created the world perfect in every way — no evil, no suffering. Man rejected GOD, and as a result, brought sin and evil into the world.
GOD does ordain suffering to judge the wicked. Numerous times throughout Scripture GOD brought suffering on Israel and other nations for their acts of wickedness.
GOD ordains suffering to discipline HIS children.
GEN 50:20, “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”.
HEB 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we have, yet without sin”.
My argument against GOD was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?
A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?