Dennis L. Finnan Commentator THE QUESTION OF EVIL
I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about it… Isa 45:7 (KJV) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Psa 90:2 (NNAS) “Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Rom 16:26 (NNAS) "… the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;" Eph 2:4 (NNAS) “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,” James 5:11 (NNAS) “We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” Isa 45:7 (KJV) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” In defense of the faith, we must understand the context of this verse. God is saying to Isaiah and all of us, that He is indeed ultimately responsible for all things in the universe. Why? For He is the Creator of all, and anything that exists, exists because of His divine sovereign will. But being responsible ultimately for something, does not mean He is the one who is the creator of or perpetrator of evil or calamity in our world. Unlike Islam’s false god Allah, who supposedly motivated the Muslim terrorists to kill 6000 people in the World Trade Center Disaster of recent, the one true God of eternity, our Creator is NOT responsible for this moral evil or any other perpetrated by man or devil. Now here’s why.
When God says, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil...” God is telling us that darkness and evil are essentially opposite of who God is. Darkness is simply the absence of light, when light comes on the scene, darkness is driven away and ceases to exist there. When our holy and good God is fully manifested, evil cannot exist or operate in such presence. Thus, God is saying His absolute perfection reveals “evil” anywhere it exists. It is manifested or shown by God’s presence.
Now, the Hebrew Word translated “evil” here in this passage of Isaiah refers not to “moral intrinsic evil,” but more so, to national distress and calamity.” God is saying that because He allows it to happen, that it flourish at times, and befalls His creation, yes, it is because God has “permitted” it. Does this mean God is morally evil because He “permitted” more than 6000 innocent civilians, men, women and children to mercilessly die that black day of September 11, 2001? Not at all. If God permits or allows something good or bad to happen, it is because He ultimately is using it for our greater good and blessing, that can outweigh the tragedy and tears the moment brings. Now if God is not the author of evil and sin where did it come from and why is it here?
The answer is when God designed the creation of the universe and every sentient being ¾ mankind and angel ¾ He chose to create us all in His likeness. The major feature of God’s likeness, is a creature that has free will to ultimately choose its destiny and what it shall love and follow. Now, God being a God of love, wanted to create beings to love Him in return. To do that, God had to create sentient life that could choose to love or reject Him and choose another in His place. You see, giving both angels and man the sovereign “power of choice,” made real and true love possible.
Now, in the Bible evil is associated with the power of choice and cannot exist apart from it. Only beings capable of choice, as you and I am, can have moral responsibility and this power of choice to choose to love God, also makes evil possible and even inevitable. To make a being less than Himself (God), would ultimately create the power of choice that would be less than God’s goodness and perfection, hence inevitability of evil. Was this dangerous? The answer is yes, but what it would produce overwhelmingly, put the danger and cost aside. God would through the process be able to have a multitude of angels and humanity that would choose on their own will, to love and serve Him.
This would be true and real love, not robotic love. I
remember when my oldest daughter was a little girl. We bought her a “baby
beanie” doll. On the back it had a pull string and when you yanked it is
said, “I love you.” You can imagine we heard that recorded voice day and
night. One day I found my daughter’s “Baby Beanie” crumpled up on the
floor near her bed. I asked her how come? She said something I’ve never
forgotten, “ I don’t want a doll that keeps saying it loves me,
Daddy, when it can’t really do that!”
It was then I understood God’s great love for us. God also didn’t want a human race of beings or angels to be like that recorded doll. If we are to say I love you Lord, it must be of our own free will and choice. But to do that, had to allow that the power of choice.
In Heaven, the power of choice began with the angels. Although God knew that sin and evil would be an alternate choice, God went ahead with the plan knowing the final outcome would far outweigh the temporal consequences. We are told that sin and evil became the first choice of Heaven’s angels when the highest one created, Lucifer, chose to love himself over and against God. We are told in Scripture he convinced a third of the angel kingdom, to also choose to love themselves and Lucifer over and against God. This was their right and their first choice. Upon making that choice, every other angel in Heaven had to choose. Would they love and follow Lucifer or love and follow God? Once they all made that choice, by their very own desire and will, God then “sealed” them in their choice!
The result? A host of evil angels, sealed in their power of choice to sin and be evil, were forever manifested. But on the contrary, remember two-thirds of the Heavenly hosts chose willingly to love and serve God by that same power, and they too were sealed in it forever. But now God also created a higher being called man. In His image God gave all of us every aspect of His being in lesser form of course. We were created with the power of choice to love God and receive His love in return. Our fore parents, the federal head of the human race were put in the Garden of Eden and showered with God’s love and care. But they had this same “power of choice.” Eve one day chose and convinced her husband to choose, to love self, the god of Lucifer now Satan the fallen angel. To love Satan is to love self, to place self as god in one’s life and heart. Although Satan enticed Eve to sin and she chose evil, Eve was morally and totally responsible for her choice. Thus, the human race fell, and inherited a sin nature that loves evil and sin, the opposite of all God is.
So, God has now “permitted” this evil, sin and rebellion to Him, to have free rule until all the human race is birthed, and everyone has opportunity to “choose” to love God, sin, self and the Devil. As a consequence, we all will experience personal evil and sin, and worse collective evil and sin such as wars, terrorism, bloodshed, and even nature’s fury that is operating by man’s choice without God’s direct hand of control and care. Why does God permit evil? The answer is, 2 Pet 3:9 (NNAS) “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” It’s kind of like a surgeon who tells you, you have a serious illness. This illness if left unattended will bring you greater suffering and eventually death. However, the doctor can help you, but to do it he must operate. This operation will cause pain and suffering for a while. The knife will hurt, the pain of healing will hurt, but in the end you will be better and restored to health.
We all accept this pain and suffering of surgery and recuperation knowing greater good will result. Well my friend, in a small way we can apply this to sin and evil that abounds in this fallen world of ours.
Yes God could corral Satan right now and cast him and his fallen demons into the bottomless pit. But God allows Him to be and to present Himself as the alternative to loving God. Thus, all humanity has a choice, and the power to activate it. You can choose to seek out and love the Creator God. He alone carried out a plan to save us from our sin nature that ultimately chooses sin, evil and Satan over and against God. Now, God became a human being, like you and me, so that He could live a sinless, perfect life and not be under the judgment for sin, the penalty of death in eternity. He went to the cross of Calvary, died their as a substitute payment for the sins of all the world.
Now those who choose to love Jesus Christ, and accept Him as their God and Savior, God gives the power to not only choose Him, but to remain in that choice forever and ever; and, one day like the angels, to be “sealed” in purity, goodness, perfection, holiness, love and grace. Yet for all who have made that choice, by choosing to accept Jesus Christ, His sacrifice and God’s love now, we must await the perfection of it to come. Meanwhile, God is offering Himself to all the world.
Now, the more we see evil reigning in life, the more we should be willing to see Jesus and His way of goodness as the only way for our lives. But as long as we have breath, remember, we can choose. Once we die the choice is made forever. In fact, the truth is we are all born in the state of our fore parents choice of self, sin and evil, and unless we change that in this life, we die in our sins. Jesus said, John 8:24 (NNAS) “’Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He [ your God and Savior], you will die in your sins.”” John 3:18-21 (NNAS) “”He who believes in Him {Jesus Christ] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”” So, the Question of evil is answered in the fact that evil originated simply by having the ability to choose someone or something less than God. God is not the author of it, only that He permits it for the greater good of allowing all His sentient beings the power of choice. Say friend, have you chosen God through His Son Jesus Christ? Unless you do, and until you do, evil will reign in your heart and self will be on the throne. Before it’s too late and choice is over, turn to Christ right now and call upon Him to save you from your sins. He is ready and will accept all who will on their own, choose to love Him. The Bible calls and says, John 3:16 (NNAS) “”For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” …God has not created evil in the sense that He is the author of it. That is the choice effect of created beings, less than God, choosing to love, worship and follow themselves over and against God. This is and was the great sin of Lucifer and the fallen angels. As a result they are forever sealed in that state and will suffer the penalty of it in Hell for all eternity. So likewise will every human being who chooses self over and against God. Friend, make your choice today and be sealed in a wonderful, unsurpassed ability to love and serve the one true God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. · Radio talk #4501 · Broadcast date: November 04, 2001 · Speaker: Dennis L. Finnan, Commentator · Program: The World, the Word & You! Radio Broadcast · Address: P.O. Box 40133 Grand Junction, CO 81504 The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 22 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also. Want to Help? If you've been blessed and encouraged by these messages, you can help keep them on the Internet. Below is a secure link to PayPal, a way to donate through the Internet to this Christian Radio Broadcast. We are a faith ministry depending totally upon the love gifts of friends like you. Please consider a donation today of any amount. Or you can use the snail mail address at bottom left to write to us. God bless you. |
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