Questions of theodicy, the resolution of the problem of evil
by reconciling the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolence,
omnipotence, and omniscience with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the
world begins here. Evil enters the world
right here, through the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in
disobedience to God. In Genesis 1 God
spoke and it was so. Right up to now all
things were according to plan and His will.
Disobedience enters the world and the world is cursed. How then to reconcile this world to the way
things ought to be? God knew in advance
this would happen. He had a plan before
the beginning of the world to redeem it in Jesus. His other option would have been not to
create wouldn't it? He could now adjust
on the fly and destroy these two and start with new man again and again until
one didn't disobey. When you limit
yourself by not destroying your own creation and allowing sinful man to
continue, you limit your options in many ways.
If He punished all sin by bringing immediate death there would be no
mankind to observe and ask the questions of how could a good God allow evil. As it is should we not rather ask the
question of why anything good ever happens or why more bad things don't, given
the reality of sin in our own lives?
Questions of theodicy deny that basic reality that we are sinful and
deserving of wrath and make us out to be the righteous judge of God.
Jesus will later aver that John was indeed Elijah, the forerunner
from Malachi 4 who will prepare the people for the coming of Messiah. John, however, does not lift himself up to
such heights, he is no more than a voice crying in the wilderness, prophesied
by Isaiah who will prepare the way for Jesus.
The baptism of John was preparatory to the baptism of the Holy Spirit
which will come in Jesus. This baptism was to prepare a people who have dealt
with sin and are pursuing righteousness so that when Messiah comes they will be
prepared to greet him with joy. God has always
had a remedy for sin, beginning with Genesis 3.
In some ways we could argue that continuing to live in a sinful and
broken world is punishment, our own sort of purgatory from which death is the
great release if we believe in Jesus.
It was Jewish tradition that the giving of the Law on Sinai
was accompanied by angels as Paul mentioned in the letter to the
Galatians. If that witness about God's
will was followed rigorously then this one, attested by more than one man and
verified by the many miracles and signs wrought by Jesus, should be accepted
with even more faith. The Scriptures
attest that Messiah will be, for a little while, lower than the angels, but
then will rule over all things. If,
then, Jesus is Messiah, He is no longer lower than angels in any way and
therefore should be worshiped and obeyed as superior to them. Evil was overcome by Jesus. The answer to questions of theodicy goes back
to the cross, God didn't spare His Son from the suffering of this world in
order to redeem the world and give us assurance that this doesn't last forever,
it isn't the final word.
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