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As I noted in the previous article:
Years ago, a good friend suggested a part-time, ministry venture for me to complement my main employment. The idea was for me to work on presenting a more relatable and less academic version of my British research theses work, publicly.
I had considered my own parachurch ministry as a possibility from before I began formal education. Recently, two other people in Christian leadership have made similar suggestions.
This work would perhaps lead to a booklet and lecture series. My own reasoning is that problems of suffering would be more effectively practical than would problems of evil.
In regard to problems of suffering and my concept of human free will, I shall attempt to simplify.
This is a difficult task!
(The more academic explanations is brackets. These would not be part of the simplified presentation, but can be offered when needed.)
Assuming human problems of suffering exist, how does an infinite (unlimited), eternal, sovereign God allow suffering and evil? Assuming God is also perfectly good and holy (set apart).
My view based in the Protestant tradition that heavily emphasizes God's sovereignty.
(Reformed theology, in my case assisted by philosophical argumentation within philosophy of religion.)
God as unlimited in nature (infinite), either directly wills or indirectly allows (wills) all thoughts, acts/actions of his limited (finite) creatures.
Simultaneously, when a human being with significant free will embraces thoughts, acts/actions, directly or indirectly willed by God; this means there is significant human moral accountability, by the use of what I have coined, limited free will.
(The same can be stated for angelic beings that God has created, assuming they have significant free will and significant moral accountability.).
If significant free will from limited, human beings, does not exist in regard to thoughts, acts/actions; in other words, thoughts, acts/actions are forced or coerced by an external force, then significant moral human accountability does not exist. I would reason that God is not noting human moral accountability with thoughts acts/actions. These would however, be aspects of the fallen creation (Genesis 1-3).
Therefore, where there is significant human free will, limited free will, then person's embrace thoughts, acts/actions.
(My view is philosophically defined as compatibilism as opposed to incompatibilism. Both views agree that God (or an external force) cannot reasonably force or coerce, significantly free thoughts, acts/actions, where there is moral, human responsibility. Where God (or an external force) directly or indirectly forces or coerces human thoughts, acts/actions, there would not be significant, human responsibility.)
(However, compatibilism reasons God as first cause, simultaneously wills, directly or indirectly, all these significantly free thoughts, acts/actions, where there is moral responsibility and it is not forced or coerced. Incompatibilism reasons these thoughts, acts/actions cannot be simultaneously willed by the first cause and remain significantly free.)
(Incompatibilism is often associated with concepts of libertarian free will.)
Human free will, limited free will, although willed secondarily by human beings from their sinful nature, can produce evil and suffering when God willingly allows human opposition to his perfect will, in what is called sin.
AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.
CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1729)(2006) Sovereignty of God, New Haven, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University. http://edwards.yale.edu/archive/documents/page?document_id=10817&search_id=&source_type=edited&pagenumber=1
EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1731-1733)(2006) Law of Nature, New Haven, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University.
EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1754)(2006) Freedom of the Will, Flower Mound, Texas. Jonathanedwards.com.
FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
FLEW, ANTONY (1955) ‘Divine Omnipotence and Human Freedom’, in Antony Flew and A. MacIntrye (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology, London, SCM, in Paul Edwards and Arthur Pap (eds.), A Modern Introduction To Philosophy, New York, The Free Press.
HICK, JOHN (1970) Evil and The God of Love, London, The Fontana Library.
MACKIE, J.L. (1955)(1996) ‘Evil and Omnipotence’, in Mind, in Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger (eds.), Philosophy of Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
MACKIE, J.L. (1971)(1977)(2002) ‘Evil and Omnipotence’, in The Philosophy of Religion, in Alvin C. Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Key problem of evil texts: December 11 2016
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