Rob on God’s Sovereignty
Rob emailed me this comment about my recent posts on God’s sovereignty and the problem of evil. He had some trouble posting so I asked him if it was alright, if I just posted his thoughts.
If God permits something, does he not in some ultimate sense cause it? Look at the very existence of evil in the world (universe, creation), assuming for the sake of this argument that it originates in Satan. Did God create Satan? Yes. Did God create Satan with the capacity to do evil? Yes. Could God have created Satan without the capacity to do evil? Yes. Did God create Satan knowing he would exercise his ability to do evil? Yes. The conclusion we’re left with is that God is ultimately the cause.
I think we (I) get wrapped around the axle because of a limited ability to grasp the good that can come from evil. God said to Pharaoh, “For this purpose I raised you up [presumably to do the evil that Pharaoh would do against God's people], that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” If we see evil as a means of God being glorified in the world, namely his defeat of it, we are enabled to see beyond our own suffering and that of others to the greater purpose of it.
Knowing that God is working all things according to the council of his will (and necessarily for his own glory) is our comfort because (and this will sound rather Piperesque) our passion is for his glory, even if it means our suffering (or the suffering of a loved one or a church member or a baby or people on a bridge).
If we assign purpose only to the immediate causes and do not acknowledge the ultimate cause, I think we are being myopic, and risk failing to see God’s purposeful action. The language of permission is valid but, in my view, incomplete. God permitted Job to be harmed by Satan, but it was God’s idea for Satan to consider Job.
I’m no authority on this. This is just how I’ve personally wrestled through the question.
