I Got That E-Mail Again

I got that e-mail again. You remember, the one with the story of a professor that tries to silence his Christian students by intimidation while using philosophy. His accusation is God must be evil since He created all things. Therefore since evil exists, God must be evil.

Then some quiet, thoughtful Christian student asks a question and blows the atheist professor out of the water by citing Einstein (Who knows if Einstein ever really said the statements in the e-mail).

The problem I have is that God needs no defense. We as Christians want to defend God’s actions as if God needs defending. Although there is nothing wrong with defending the faith, we often do it from weakness and not simply trusting the foolishness of God’s ways.

Here is a portion of the original e-mail and a slightly modified response that I wrote concerning the ideas in it:

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold...a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

Although it is true that God did not create evil directly, neither did he create the chair I am sitting in. Yet, who denies that God created all things and all things have their existence either directly or indirectly by His decree.

So the real problem with the professor is not that evil exists, but that he would even raise the issue. Most Christians miss the obvious in order to make sure that they keep God's nose clean. It is as if we must defend God from the charge that someone may accuse Him of even ordaining evil. God simply needs no defense.

So many evangelicals don’t realize that while we are trying to learn the Bible’s view of the world and God Himself, we often hold onto our old worldview. This causes many Christians to falter in a discussion such as the above. We feel we are being marginalized, and therefore we need to beat the enemy with his worldview (whether we realize it or not). So while the atheist is borrowing from the Christian worldview, evangelicals have the tendency to borrow from their old and often naturalistic worldview. This creates much confusion and allows the enemy to use Christians against themselves.

The truth is however, that Christians must learn Presuppositional Apologetics in order to be effective with this argument. The dirty little secret is that the professor ASSUMES the existence of evil. In order to do this he must accept the Christian/Trinitarian worldview. Then he attempts to use our worldview while mixing it with his in order to refute Christianity. In order to do this he must believe in the Laws of Logic and morality, and ect... But they ONLY exist in the Christian Worldview.

Therefore the professor need not even raise the problem, for in his worldview, there really is no problem.

Reconciling the problem of evil in the Theistic/Trinitarian worldview may require us to surrender our rationalism. But there simply is no contradiction in God ordaining all things including evil, while remaining Himself pure and Holy. This is the issue that needs to be explained to the professor. Otherwise God "allows" darkness with no purpose from Himself. If God is truly sovereign, this cannot be allowed.

God Bless

Howard