I think that most people are familiar with the Biblical account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But as a refresher: the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image of himself and commanded everyone to worship it whenever musicians began to play. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were Israelites and to worship such an image was strictly forbidden, and thus they did not worship it. Nebuchadnezzar became furious, summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to him and gave them an ultimatum; either worship the image or die. Daniel 3:13-18 states:
13 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
What I want to focus on is the assertions found in verses 17 and 18: “17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Now I am going to transition into a topic that one may find strange but give me a moment to explain.
The Problem of Evil (POE) is a major philosophical and human objection to Christianity. Leibniz (2009) stated in his Theodicy[1]:
1. Having so settled the rights of faith and of reason as rather to place reason at the service of faith than in opposition to it, we shall see how they exercise these rights to support and harmonize what the light of nature and the light of revelation teach us of God and of man in relation to evil. The difficulties are distinguishable into two classes. The one kind springs from man's freedom, which appears incompatible with the divine nature; and nevertheless freedom is deemed necessary, in order that man may be deemed guilty and open to punishment. The other kind concerns the conduct of God, and seems to make him participate too much in the existence of evil, even though man be free and participate also therein. And this conduct appears contrary to the goodness, the holiness and the justice of God, since God co-operates in evil as well physical as moral, and co-operates in each of them both morally and physically; and since it seems that these evils are manifested in the order of nature as well as in that of grace, and in the future and eternal life as well as, nay, more than, in this transitory life. (Kindle Locations 1977-1984)
It has been objected through philosophical and human history that the existence of evil and the existence of God are utterly incompatible, and going further, the existence of evil shows one of two things:
1. God does not exist, or
2. God is not the God Christians claim He is.
I say this because there are many times whenever Christians ask God to remedy some evil in their life and nothing happens and this can call into question whether God is truly omnibenevolent (all-loving). Some, including myself, have asked for God to something and situation we ask for God to remedy gets worse instead of better. The question that must be asked then and something that is found in Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s answer:
Q. “Is God who He is even if He does not do what we ask in instances of evil?”
I will set aside (Q) for the moment. Examining (1) from above, consider the following argument presented by Tooley (2009)[2] that I will label as (T):
- If God exists, then God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect.
- If God is omnipotent, then God has the power to eliminate all evil.
- If God is omniscient, then God knows when evil exists.
- If God is morally perfect, then God has the desire to eliminate all evil.
- Evil exists.
- If evil exists and God exists, then either God doesn't have the power to eliminate all evil, or doesn't know when evil exists, or doesn't have the desire to eliminate all evil.
- Therefore, God doesn't exist.
I do not believe that (T) (or (POE) for that matter) proves that God does not exist. First, the argument is logically valid but I contend that it is not logically sound because (T6) is false. Now, Christians cannot deny premises (1) through (5) but they can reject (T6). Allow me to introduce some logical symbolism from sentential logic. (T6) can be symbolized in the following way:
((e • g) → (~p v (~k v ~d))
A conditional such as (T6) is false if and only if the antecedent is true and its consequent is false. Therefore, the way to show (T6) false is to show that the consequence, (~p v (~k v ~d)), is false. So, consider the following truth-table:
P | Q | R | P v (Q v R)
0) T | T | T | T T
1) T | T | F | T T
2) T | F | T | T T
3) T | F | F | T F
4) F | T | T | T T
5) F | T | F | T T
6) F | F | T | T T
7) F | F | F | F F
The focus is on line (7). If P, Q, and R are false then the entire disjunct is false. With this in mind, returning to the consequence of (T6), (~p v ~k v ~d); if the Christian asserts p (God has the power to eliminate evil), k (God knows about all evil), and d (God has the desire to eliminate evil), then the disjunct is false given God’s divine attributes. Since for a Christian the antecedent of (T6), (e • g), is true, but the consequence is false, (T6) as a whole is a false premise. Therefore, (T) is logically unsound and can be rejected because in order for an argument to be logically sound the argument’s conclusion must follow from true premises, a condition (T) does not satisfy.
So, the existence of evil does not show that God does not exist. (Granted (T) is just one of the many arguments but I cannot possibly cover all of them.) But then comes the more pressing problem for Christians and is commonly pressed by objectors. Recalling the existence of evil shows one of two things:
1. God does not exist, or
2. God is not the God Christians claim He is.
Since (1) has been eliminated, what is a Christian to do with (2) in light of (POE)? I believe this is where most Christian struggle whenever it comes to (POE) because, as shown previously by rejecting (T6), Christians believe God has the power to eliminate evil, God knows about all evil, and God has the desire to eliminate evil and this is due to the fact that Christians claim that God is all-loving (omnibenevolent), all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowledge (omniscient), and all-present (omnipresent).
However, the evidence (appears) runs contrary to what we believe, and what I mean by evidence is that Christians experience evil in their lives, asked God to do something about it, and sometimes nothing happens or the situation gets worse. This is contrary evidence is commonly used by objectors to undermine the beliefs Christians have concerning God and who He is.
A few examples. I have experience numerous times where I have asked God to remedy evil in my life or in other’s lives and nothing happens, and in some instances the situation only got worse. For example, whenever my Aunt Ginger cancer came back with a vengeance, there were numerous individuals praying that she would be healed, but it seems like the more we prayed the faster she deteriorated. Eventually she died. Or, my own life, I have battled numerous post-secondary skin infections due to my eczema. I have prayed to be healed in every instance but nothing happens; there is no supernatural intervention in the sense that the infection was healed without the aid of medicines. Every infection has required doctor’s visits, medications, etc.; it seems as if God is completely silent and I have to turn to the physical world for remedies.
Recalling (Q):
Q. “Is God who He is even if He does not do what we ask in instances of evil?”
Some have replied in the same fashion as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who faced evil, and they answered (Q) with an emphatic, “Yes.” Essentially their answer was, “No matter what happens God is still God and has all of the attributes we ascribe to Him.” In the instance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, God did intervene and saved them from death.
But then comes the next objection: “So God remedies evil for some people and not others. Why is that the case? According to the evidence, God does not equally love everyone because if He did then He would answer everyone’s prayers, especially in instances of evil. There are even instances in the Bible where so-called Godly men and women were tortured, and killed, and there were others who were rescued from these evils. Care to explain why God picks and chooses?”
The only answer I have to this question is, “I don’t know; I’m not God.”
Unfortunately I doubt that this answer satisfies. Personally, it has not satisfied me in many cases.
[1] Leibniz, Wilhelm; Freiherr von Gottfried (2009). Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil. Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.
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