The Problem of Evil and the Glory of God, part 8

There are some objections to the view I have presented in my other posts. If you accept the free will method to answer the problem of evil you are presented with a number of problems. If God cannot ensure the results of the free acts of men, God does not have complete control. He is no longer the sovereign Creator who foreknows and foreordains all according to His good pleasure and will (Ephesians 1:11). Man has genuine autonomy and God must helplessly watch man wreak havoc with creation. But this is not all. Once we assume that free will means the autonomy of man from God, we are faced with the consequence that God cannot ensure the triumph of good over evil in the life to come without squashing man’s free will. If man will have free will in the coming life, there is always the chance that he may use it to do evil and once again fall. If, however as Doug Erlandson states, “free will theodicy advocates admit that man will not have free will, we must wonder about its value. If it is of such great value that God would give it to man despite the consequences of evil, we would think that man would retain this in his state of eternal bliss. Either way, the free will defense faces a most unwelcome result.”

Those who use the free will defense would add that the potential or even the actualization of evil is not too high a price to pay for granting man genuine free will. My position teaches, with Scripture, that God’s will determines everything. Nothing exists or happens without God, not merely permitting, but actively willing it to exist or happen. “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (Isaiah 46:10). In conclusion, with this first objection, the free will theodicy, one must surrender the complete free will of man if they will adhere to the complete control of God because He even controls the choices we make (Psalm 65:4; Proverbs 16:4; 20:24; 21:1; Job 14:5; Daniel 4:35; Acts 18:21; Philippians 2:13; James 4:13-15; Revelation 4:11).

Filed under: The Problem of Evil and the Glory of God