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| Ernest Hepnar photo: Saint Mark's in Venice |
MPhil from 2003
Statement eight:
In hindsight, the eighth statement was perhaps a little too tricky.
It was: The true reason for the existence of evil in humanity is impossible to construct.
Why do I think this is a tricky statement? Personally, on one hand as a reader, I could read the statement in absolute terms. I would then agree because I think that God alone can answer the statement with knowledge. On the other hand, if I take the statement as a matter of degrees, I can disagree because I believe we can apprehend some of the reasons why evils exists, but that we lack complete comprehension.
I view this statement in somewhat similar fashion to statements on the concepts of Incarnation and Trinity, where complete human comprehension is not possible but levels of apprehension are attainable. Some of the doctrines which deal with God’s infinite nature require this humble and cautious approach. Whereas with some doctrines (such as why adultery is wrong), we can claim to understand them for the most part, leaving the unknown details up to God to explain to us. . . or not, upon the culminated Kingdom of God.
Here, 56% of Anglicans agreed that the existence of evil was humanly impossible to construct, while 18% were not certain, and 26% disagreed. With the Baptists, 44% agreed, 20% were not sure, and 36% disagreed.
September 19, 2019
I did provide a PhD theory within the Reformed tradition, and using philosophy of religion, for human problems of evil.
2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter
My theory is that human beings that are saved through Christ with the use of compatibilism will eventually have greater spiritual maturity than Adam and Eve did prior to a fall from God.
It can be reasoned that those within the culminated Kingdom of God will surpass those first persons in spiritual maturity as well. This would be so because those God saves will have experienced their own sin, death, and the atoning work of Christ and his resurrection applied to them. These would be citizens of the culminated Kingdom of God.
Persons cannot be created with experience, even if made with a level of initial maturity. God can create a perfect person, but God cannot logically create a perfect person with experience as such. The act of creating implies newness and inexperience. Admittedly, God could hypothetically create a being with false memories of a perfect life, but this would not be the same as having experience. I deduce the results would not be the same.
Human beings can possess finite moral perfection and goodness but not infinite, God-like moral perfection and goodness. Isaiah 43 makes it clear there was no God formed before God and there will be no God formed after. Isaiah 44-46 make similar statements. The New American Standard Version Bible (1984: 816-821).
Those within the culminated Kingdom of God would not possess the initial inexperience and immaturity of the first persons. It is reasonable to deduce that the problem of evil is possibly God’s means of developing certain individuals to eventual Christ-like stature, not sharing Christ’s divinity in nature but becoming like Christ in a mature and moral manner, combined with an unbreakable devotion to God.
Moltmann reasoned that Christ will be God’s lieutenant in this godless world and bring about, through his crucifixion and resurrection, the promise of a better future, which includes hope. The Kingdom of God was present in Christ and this has been defined in history.
MOLTMANN, JÜRGEN (1993) The Crucified God, Minneapolis, Fortress Press.
MOLTMANN, JÜRGEN (1999) ‘Perseverance’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd.
THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE (1984) Iowa Falls, Iowa, World Bible Publishers.
