natural evil

Death Row Letters: Soul-Making

Rick TryonLeave a comment

Greetings,

Just a follow-up to our last letter concerning the two kinds of evil – natural evil and moral evil.

Let’s look at natural evil first. Why and when does God allow natural disasters and diseases etc. to occur? That’s the question I left off with last time.

As to the ‘why’, there are several theological attempts at answering that question, including the soul-making theory, the eschatological (end times) hope idea, and the mystery of divine providence explanation. I’d like to discuss each of these ideas in turn with you over the next few letters if that’s okay.

So, let’s start with the soul-making theory, which was advocated by a guy named John Hick who once said, “A world which is to be a person-making environment cannot be a pain-free paradise but must contain challenges and dangers, with real possibilities of many kinds of accidents and catastrophes, bringing pain, suffering, and sorrow.”

I take that to mean that God allows natural evil, like earthquakes, floods, and cancer in order to create virtuous people of high character who have been forged in a fire of calamity and danger.

Well, there are some Bible passages which seem to support this view.

1 Peter 1:6-7 – “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

How about this one? James 1:2-4 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

The soul-making theory makes sense in some ways, but the Bible verses I cited here, and some others like Hebrews 12:11 and 2 Corinthians 4:17, don’t come right out and say that God intentionally created, or allows, natural evil in order to produce virtue in folks.

Granted, one of the results when natural evil happens could be perseverance, stronger faith etc., in believers, but other results are definitely the death and injury of innocents, destruction, pain, and massive sorrow and grief.

So, to me soul-making isn’t a completely satisfying answer as to why natural evil exists, it’s more like a possible side positive benefit stemming from some very disturbing and terrible happenings. But let’s continue to consider it as a part of understanding the whole.

In our next letter we should talk about the eschatological (end times) hope idea to explain the occurrence of natural evil in God’s creation. Sound good?

Until then,
Your fellow death row occupant

Death Row Letters: Two Kinds Of Evil

Rick TryonLeave a comment

Greetings, fellow death rowers.

Let’s pick up where we left off last time where we were discussing one of the main arguments atheists have against the existence of God, which is the problem of evil.

We’ll probably spend a lot of time talking about this in our correspondence here, so let’s start off with defining the two kinds of evil.

Moral Evil

First, there is moral evil, or human evil. Simply put, moral evil is defined as the willful acts of human beings – like murder, rape, thievery, destruction etc.

Lots of that going on in the world, right? Always has been.

Human nature is, by default, depraved and desperately wicked. It’s the natural state as a result of the primeval and continuing disobedience to and hatred for God.

Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

You can’t blame God for moral evil, we’re not robots or puppets. God does provide grace and protection for those who claim it in faith, but murder, genocide, and all manner of horribleness is not on God, it’s on the freewill ickiness of people.

Natural Evil

Second, you’ve got your natural evil, which is stuff like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, pestilence and disease etc. You can’t really blame a human being for an earthquake that kills thousands of people.

But can you blame God for causing those awful things to happen, or at least for allowing them to happen? Well, ‘blame’ is a pretty harsh word, but yes I think we can say God does allow natural evil to happen.

The question is ‘for what purposes’ and ‘under what circumstances’ does He allow earthquakes and tsunamis and cancer to have their way with human beings?

I’ll leave you with this to chew on for now and we’ll dig deeper in my next letter.

Romans 8:22-23 – For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Ciao for now,
Your fellow death row occupant