1 00:00:00,834 --> 00:00:06,639 And this is rather popular in our culture today. So the premise is God good? Absolutely. 2 00:00:07,340 --> 00:00:13,813 Is God all powerful? Well, to a point. And does evil exist? Well, it certainly does. 3 00:00:14,114 --> 00:00:18,651 And so the explanation works this way. And this is the guy, well, the guy named Rabbi 4 00:00:18,651 --> 00:00:24,024 Kushner who wrote, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? This is the answer that he 5 00:00:24,024 --> 00:00:29,462 came up with and it continues to be a very widespread answer. And it goes this way. Of 6 00:00:29,462 --> 00:00:33,533 course God is good. And he wants nothing more than for all of his people to benefit and 7 00:00:33,533 --> 00:00:37,704 to prosper. And he has nothing but the best in mind for everybody. This is what God wants. 8 00:00:38,705 --> 00:00:43,343 And evil certainly exists. Just look around. We know it's there. It's all over the place. 9 00:00:43,576 --> 00:00:48,448 And how can this be? How can a really good God allow evil? Well, you know, he's doing 10 00:00:48,448 --> 00:00:55,922 the best he can. He's working within the system the best that he can. He recognizes evil. 11 00:00:55,922 --> 00:01:01,761 It hurts him as well. And he really wants to overcome it. So he's trying. He's doing 12 00:01:01,761 --> 00:01:09,536 what he can with it. And so we need to recognize that he's upset too. And he would like to 13 00:01:09,536 --> 00:01:13,073 intervene but, you know, some of these things, it's just a big world. And there's lots of 14 00:01:13,073 --> 00:01:18,978 things happening all over the place all at once. And he's a busy God. And what Kushner 15 00:01:18,978 --> 00:01:24,284 ends up saying is essentially, you need to be patient with God too. Cut him some slack. 16 00:01:25,185 --> 00:01:29,022 Because he's working on getting this whole thing under control. And we need to be understanding 17 00:01:29,022 --> 00:01:37,897 of God. So in other words, is God all powerful? Not really. Not really. He's very powerful. 18 00:01:38,064 --> 00:01:43,169 And he can do a lot of things. But he's not completely powerful. And sometimes what will 19 00:01:43,169 --> 00:01:47,474 be used here as well is that we'll slide in underneath this thing the whole kind of free 20 00:01:47,474 --> 00:01:52,445 will thing. And this one I hear kind of a subtle thing. This is pretty subtle but it's 21 00:01:52,612 --> 00:01:57,383 very significant. That of course God is all powerful but he won't thwart human free will. 22 00:01:57,884 --> 00:02:02,689 And so he really can't control everything because he's allowed free will. And so now 23 00:02:02,689 --> 00:02:07,293 once he's allowed free will, the door has been opened and man has this ability to do 24 00:02:07,293 --> 00:02:12,232 his thing. And what are you going to do? And so in a sense what they argue is something 25 00:02:12,232 --> 00:02:17,437 like well God has tied his own hands. And now it's really kind of out of his control. 26 00:02:17,604 --> 00:02:21,274 He's turned it over to the people. They've made a mess of it. But what's he supposed 27 00:02:21,274 --> 00:02:27,013 to do? He's got this thing of free will that he thinks is so important and he values it. 28 00:02:27,647 --> 00:02:29,015 And he can't do anything about it. 29 00:02:31,751 --> 00:02:33,253 He's almost a superman. 30 00:02:34,220 --> 00:02:39,559 Kind of a superman God. Yeah, there are limits on him. He can do a lot but there are limits. 31 00:02:39,859 --> 00:02:46,266 And so you have a God who is limited. This is also the God of what's known as process 32 00:02:46,266 --> 00:02:53,072 theology. In process theology you have the idea that the whole universe is becoming, 33 00:02:53,540 --> 00:02:59,312 progressing. It's a very kind of a idea that grows, fits in really nicely with Darwinism, 34 00:02:59,445 --> 00:03:02,949 progression kind of a thing. So in process theology the world is progressing along. Well 35 00:03:02,949 --> 00:03:07,687 so is God. God's getting better at his job. He's figuring out how to do it. He makes a 36 00:03:07,687 --> 00:03:13,293 few attempts, you know. He did the flood thing. He won't do that again. He learns and he's 37 00:03:13,293 --> 00:03:17,430 making progress too. So he's moving along. So this fits pretty well with this. That God 38 00:03:17,430 --> 00:03:23,236 is, yeah God's God. Well yeah he's learning too. He's kind of like one of us in a sense. 39 00:03:23,603 --> 00:03:30,076 And he's got things to work out and he's getting better at it. So be patient with him. Yes? 40 00:03:30,777 --> 00:03:37,283 Would this be consistent with something like Genesis when God gives Adam dominion over 41 00:03:37,283 --> 00:03:44,891 the earth? Because we sinned and messed it up we still have dominion. We just have dominion 42 00:03:44,891 --> 00:03:50,496 over a messed up earth. Yeah. Yeah we do have dominion over a messed up earth. That's true. 43 00:03:51,130 --> 00:03:58,605 But could God do it differently? Well yeah if he wanted to revoke his agreement to give 44 00:03:58,605 --> 00:04:03,443 us dominion over the earth. Well I mean he could just say you know you guys have blown 45 00:04:03,443 --> 00:04:10,483 it and you're doing a bad job. I'm stepping in. That's it. Yeah I'm tired of this mess. 46 00:04:10,683 --> 00:04:13,786 I'm tired of messing around with you guys. I'm done. Would he have that prerogative? 47 00:04:14,220 --> 00:04:21,928 Could he do that? Yeah. Yeah I mean how often he threatens it frequently. He threatens it 48 00:04:21,928 --> 00:04:28,368 a lot. So the problem with this premise is it undermines the concept that God really 49 00:04:28,368 --> 00:04:34,674 is all powerful. Because to solve this problem of doing a theodicy by making God less than 50 00:04:34,674 --> 00:04:42,982 all powerful you end up with a God who tries. A God who would like things to be different. 51 00:04:43,616 --> 00:04:50,523 But man it's a tough thing. It's kind of out of his control. You've got to be patient. 52 00:04:51,457 --> 00:04:57,363 This I think is a pretty widespread idea. And I hear this kind of thing coming from 53 00:04:57,363 --> 00:05:01,668 people. And it creeps into a lot of the popular culture. 54 00:05:18,251 --> 00:05:27,293 He's just saying we've got to understand omnipotence a little differently than we think. Omnipotence 55 00:05:27,293 --> 00:05:43,509 is the limit. I mean Judaism is a funny animal. It's all over the place. And you've got a 56 00:05:43,509 --> 00:05:49,248 few who really take seriously what it means to be a Jew and what you call the orthodox 57 00:05:49,248 --> 00:05:55,688 practicing really conservative Jews. They're a pretty small number. And you might read 58 00:05:55,688 --> 00:06:02,495 the book of the Jews. And then you've got the vast majority of Jews who are, well, the 59 00:06:02,495 --> 00:06:06,766 vast majority are probably just Jewish in this country. And for them it's just a culture. 60 00:06:07,133 --> 00:06:12,004 You know, eat matzah once a year and do the Jewish thing. And it's who I am. But do they 61 00:06:12,004 --> 00:06:16,642 believe anything about it? No. Then you have another bunch that are reformed who take it 62 00:06:16,642 --> 00:06:21,247 somewhat seriously and go to synagogue and go to temple and do their thing. And but man 63 00:06:21,247 --> 00:06:25,151 they're pretty, pretty liberal too. And there's all kinds of room for it. So Rabbi Kushner 64 00:06:25,151 --> 00:06:31,491 probably speaks for the majority of them. Just it's like Christianity. I mean, you got 65 00:06:31,491 --> 00:06:34,994 liberal off the wall people claim the name Christian. You got really conservative people 66 00:06:34,994 --> 00:06:38,765 name the Christian. It's the same within Judaism except they're the people who take it seriously 67 00:06:38,765 --> 00:06:46,572 are even smaller minority than they are in Christianity. All right. So this is the first 68 00:06:46,572 --> 00:06:54,180 crack at it. How happy are we with this answer? Acceptable? Can we live with this? Why not? 69 00:06:57,183 --> 00:07:06,359 Because we're talking about God. Yeah. God's God. He's all powerful. Is he really up there 70 00:07:06,359 --> 00:07:10,830 in Heaven stewing because his hands are tied and he wishes he could do something else but 71 00:07:10,830 --> 00:07:17,403 he just can't? You see that's one of the problems even with this free will idea. And this is 72 00:07:18,171 --> 00:07:22,675 the attractive one for a lot of Lutherans. You'll hear this kind of well you know God 73 00:07:22,675 --> 00:07:29,081 would if he did then he would be interfering with free will and he won't do that. And show 74 00:07:29,081 --> 00:07:33,753 me anywhere in Scripture where it says that God has given man a free will and that's the 75 00:07:33,753 --> 00:07:38,591 sacred trust and he's not going to violate that sacred trust and free will. You won't 76 00:07:38,591 --> 00:07:43,596 find it. This is a really popular idea and we have assumed it and it's very widespread 77 00:07:43,596 --> 00:07:47,733 among good Bible believing Christians that well yeah free will of course that counts 78 00:07:47,733 --> 00:07:53,573 for everything. The problem is Scripture doesn't really teach that. And free will is much more 79 00:07:53,573 --> 00:07:59,245 appealing to us in our humanity and in our desire to be significant and to be our own 80 00:07:59,245 --> 00:08:08,287 person but it really doesn't have Scriptural support. So the free will card we'll see that's 81 00:08:08,287 --> 00:08:13,826 a tempting one. We'll come back to that one I think. Talk about it some more. Especially 82 00:08:13,826 --> 00:08:18,397 with friends and everything. Sometimes I start to think that people have different definitions. 83 00:08:18,564 --> 00:08:21,501 I mean obviously you throw a definition out every it's going to mean something different 84 00:08:21,501 --> 00:08:28,207 to everybody else. I mean the concept of free will everyone's got their own definition. 85 00:08:28,674 --> 00:08:32,178 Because I've had conversations with oh I believe that and you get further into it and they 86 00:08:32,178 --> 00:08:35,982 understand grace alone. You know what I mean? But I have free will because they're confusing 87 00:08:35,982 --> 00:08:39,385 I have choices on or you know I can choose to drink the coffee or I can choose not to 88 00:08:39,385 --> 00:08:44,690 drink. And somehow well then I have the will and that's free will. And from my experiences 89 00:08:44,690 --> 00:08:51,831 it seems like there's a blending or a mixture or a misunderstanding of what the term means 90 00:08:51,831 --> 00:08:57,169 or the term is used way too. Well it's used in a wrong context frequently. And I think 91 00:08:57,169 --> 00:09:02,375 there's also the case that people just don't realize that to hold onto one thing negates 92 00:09:02,375 --> 00:09:06,479 some of the other things. They just hold onto two contradictory things and happily go their 93 00:09:06,479 --> 00:09:13,519 way. That's not the first time that would happen in America. With a lot of people who 94 00:09:13,519 --> 00:09:20,393 are struggling with this question and other questions what it seems to me is though what 95 00:09:20,393 --> 00:09:24,864 they do is they do this like weird bargain thing where they look at God and they say 96 00:09:24,864 --> 00:09:32,338 okay if God conforms to my expectations then I'll believe in Him or my perceptions or whatever 97 00:09:32,338 --> 00:09:41,814 it is. And it seems to me as though inherent in the actual definition or concept of God 98 00:09:41,814 --> 00:09:47,653 is this idea that He doesn't exist to fulfill our expectations we exist to fulfill His. 99 00:09:48,421 --> 00:09:55,061 So they got it backwards. Oh yeah I agree. Absolutely. Alright that's true. So the first 100 00:09:55,061 --> 00:10:00,967 attempt is you try to go after the God is all powerful. And this is actually pretty 101 00:10:00,967 --> 00:10:07,373 appealing and it fits in well with the American Gestalt because evil that's fine that's real. 102 00:10:07,807 --> 00:10:12,745 God is good of course he is. Counting on him good. Grandfather in the sky but you know 103 00:10:12,745 --> 00:10:18,584 he can't do everything. And actually this is kind of comforting to us. And that's why 104 00:10:18,584 --> 00:10:22,888 I think Kushner's book was so popular. It sold like hotcakes and it's still very popular 105 00:10:22,888 --> 00:10:28,961 with a lot of people. Because it's kind of comforting to say yeah he's like the grandfather 106 00:10:28,961 --> 00:10:33,165 who's really powerful but you know he just can't quite do everything and that helps to 107 00:10:33,165 --> 00:10:38,170 explain why problems still happen. And we're understanding we can be patient with God. 108 00:10:38,504 --> 00:10:45,444 We can even forgive him. And that's really cool because now we get to forgive God. And 109 00:10:45,444 --> 00:10:50,816 see that puts us on a par with God in a sense. And so we have to understand him and He has 110 00:10:50,816 --> 00:10:57,990 His limits too. And that's pretty cool. And that this really kind of pumps us up and I 111 00:10:57,990 --> 00:10:59,392 think that's part of the popularity of this thing. 112 00:10:59,425 --> 00:11:02,094 Does he use any scriptural support for these? I haven't. 113 00:11:02,094 --> 00:11:06,732 What I would call it right. I haven't looked at it that closely but no you can find God 114 00:11:06,732 --> 00:11:10,569 appears to be limited. He limits himself on occasion. He'll do that. But if you're really 115 00:11:10,569 --> 00:11:14,807 take seriously all powerful you just can't abide by this. My contention I want you to 116 00:11:14,807 --> 00:11:21,747 realize is how much this sinks in and slips into our psyche and our thinking to kind of 117 00:11:21,747 --> 00:11:26,385 try to come in terms of this thing. Alright so if God is not if we're not going to be 118 00:11:26,385 --> 00:11:30,089 satisfied with this explanation that God is limited.