KINGS AND KINGDOMS - THE ORIGINS OF EVIL
KINGS AND KINGDOMS
Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is loving, why is human suffering possible? Does the weight of a great life fall on God’s sovereign control, or are there human factors involved too? In this preaching series, KINGS AND KINGDOMS, we will explore how God has delegated to individual believers a kingship, with responsibility to understand the principles that make the kingdom thrive. We will learn how to engage spiritual authority, how to defuse the emotional shame that drives a king to live like an indigent, and ultimately how to live like God’s royal people. If you have ever had questions of why “God let this happen,” you will find nurture, freedom and a deep sense of security from this series.
TODAY’S SERMON NOTES
ROMANS 5:17 AMP For if because of one man’s trespass (Adam’s original lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing GRACE (unmerited favor) and the free GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS [putting them into right standing with Himself] REIGN AS KINGS IN LIFE through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN,
AND WE ARE KINGS,
WHY…?
THE ANSWER COMES UNDERSTANDING TWO THINGS
God’s Sovereignty (Last Week)
The Origins of Evil (Today)
CHARLES TEMPLETON
After reading an issue of LIFE magazine and seeing a photo of an anguished mother clutching her dead infant in drought-ravaged Africa.
“I thought, ‘Is it possible to believe that there is a loving or caring Creator when all this woman needed was rain?’ How could a loving God do this to that woman? Who runs the rain? I don’t; you don’t. HE does – or that’s what I thought. But when I saw that photograph, I immediately knew it is not possible for this to happen and for there to be a loving God. There was no way. Who else but a fiend could destroy a baby and virtually kill its’ mother with agony – when all that was needed was rain?...and I began…considering the plagues that sweep across parts of the planet and indiscriminately kill…and it just became crystal clear to me that it is not possible for an intelligent person to believe that there is a deity who loves.” (Page 42, Case for Faith – Lee Strobel)
WHEN WE BELIEVE GOD IS CULPABLE
Erodes EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT & personal closeness to God
Wires you with REACTIVE ANGER towards God, causing you to FIGHT God, AVOID God or simply SHUT DOWN in your relationship with God
Position you as an EMOTIONAL VICTIM in life, DISEMPOWERING your ability to move forward. [If God is against you, or allowing the enemy to thrive, what hope do you have?]
Compel you to DECONSTRUCT your belief in God altogether
WHY WOULD WE PROFILE GOD AS PUNITIVE?
We are emotional beings with survival instincts
Our brains try to make sense of suffering
Placing blame gives an illusion of power to protect
God is the most convenient target of blame, others are second
We hope discovering the purposed-meaning will make us whole again
We have been taught bad theology, so it is what it is
We don’t know how to deal with problem Scripture texts
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL – PROBLEM TO OVERCOME
God CAN destroy evil (All-Powerful)
God SHOULD destroy evil (Loving & Good)
YET, evil IS in this world
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL – HOW IT HAPPENED
God is absolutely perfect! (Matt 5:48)
God created only perfect creatures! (Gen 1:26-31)
One of the perfections God gave some of His creatures was the power of free choice! (Gen 2:15-17)
Some of these creatures freely chose to do evil! (Gen 3)
Therefore, a perfect creature caused evil! (Rom 5:12)
HOW FREE WILL CAUSES EVIL
Some of our suffering is brought on DIRECTLY by our own free choice. The choice to abuse my body can result in sickness.
Some of our suffering is brought on INDIRECTLY by our own free choice. The choice to be lazy can result in poverty.
Some physical EVIL TO OTHERS can result DIRECTLY from our free choice, as in the case of spouse or child abuse.
Others suffer INDIRECTLY because of our free choice. Alcoholism can lead to poverty of one’s children.
Some NATURAL-PHYSICAL evil may be a NECESSARY BY-PRODUCT of a good process. Rain, hot air, & cool air are all necessary for food and life, but a by-product of these forces is a tornado. (Also consider, the earth fell under a curse at Adam and Eve’s disobedient “free choice” which gave rise to natural disasters)
WHY DOESN’T GOD DESTROY EVIL?
God cannot do what is actually self-contradictory (Round squares, colorless color, rock too big to move, cease to self-exist, make good into evil, cannot lie, cannot change, cannot make mistakes or do something stupid… like make a round square)
It is contradictory to destroy evil without destroying free choice
But free choice is necessary to a moral universe
God cannot destroy evil without destroying this good moral universe
IF GOD KNEW, THEN WHY…
God wanted a personal relationship with His created beings
A free world where no one sins may be conceivable but may not be achievable
Yet, at the end of all things God will have a free moral world where beings have chosen to surrender to Jesus and God’s Kingdom
MATTHEW 18:18 CEV [Jesus said] I promise you that GOD in heaven WILL ALLOW WHATEVER YOU ALLOW on earth, but HE WILL NOT ALLOW anything YOU DON'T ALLOW.
WHAT NOW???
EVALUATE your trust in God
ACKNOWLEDGE your emotional resistance
SURRENDER to the REAL JESUS and GOD’S GOODNESS
NEXT SUNDAY MORNING!
WHY DOESN’T GOD MIRACULOUSLY INTERVENE IN HUMAN SUFFERING?
Seek to know God’s organization, systems and process laws!