Tuesday: The Skeptical Theist
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 11th of February 2025
God proclaims in Isaiah 55:8-9, “ ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’ ” (NKJV).
God’s thoughts are far higher than ours. We cannot even imagine the complexities of God’s plan for history. Given this, why should we expect to be in a position to know just what God’s reasons are for what He does or does not do in various situations?
Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com
One way of approaching the problem of evil, based on recognizing how little we know, is called “skeptical theism.” The skeptical theist is one who believes God has good reasons for acting as He does, but given our limited knowledge, we should not expect to be in a position to know just what those reasons are. The skeptical theist is skeptical regarding the human capacity to be aware of or to understand fully God’s reasons relative to the evil in this world. Just because one cannot see, for instance, germs floating in the air all around us does not mean there are no germs floating in the air all around us. The fact that one does not know what God’s reasons are certainly does not mean that God has no good reasons.
Read Psalms 73:1-28. How does the psalmist approach the evil and injustice around him? What does he see that puts his understanding in a different perspective?
The psalmist was deeply troubled by the evil in the world. He looked around him and saw the wicked prospering. Everything seemed unjust and unfair. He had no answers to give. He wondered whether it was even worth believing in and serving God. Until, that is, he looked into the sanctuary.
The sanctuary provides part of the key to the problem of evil—namely, recognizing there is a righteous Judge who will bring justice and judgment in His own time.
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How can the Adventist understanding of the judgment and the sanctuary doctrine shed light on the problem of evil? Is it helpful to you to know that, while we have many questions now, the details of history and God’s righteous judgments will be revealed in the end? |
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So....should we be skeptical? I think it's good to be skeptical...or cautious of... our own perceptions and assumptions about God, letting God mold them more and more towards an accurate view.
For example, the disciples saw a man born blind and asked Jesus, "Who sinned to cause this, the man or his parents?" (John 9:1-12). They gave Jesus an A or B multiple choice question. They thought they knew how suffering and God's purposes were related. Did they? No. Jesus broke that box of assumptions open for them by telling them that God had allowed the man's (and his parents') suffering for this very moment when God in Jesus would be glorified. Jesus helped His followers to see that we are not targeted victims of God's wrath, but targeted recipients of God's mercy. Not just some chosen, but all of us. All those years the man and his family carried the extra pain of insults and isolation from the religious community because of a false assumption about God, and now the light of the truth of God's love for all was shining into everyone's dark eyes.
So did God MAKE this man blind to demonstrate His power in him one day? I don't think so. We know God does not maim His children...Jeremiah 29:11 NIV assures us God does not harm us, and 1 John 1:5 says there is no darkness, or evil, in God. 1 Corinthians 14:33: "God is not the author of confusion"....blindness is a kind of confusion, right? But God takes "all things"...including the results of sin in the world, like blindness...and makes "all things work together for our good" (Rom. 8:28).
Joseph in the Old Testament had clearly claimed this promise about how God mercifully relates to us in all situations when he told his brothers who had sold him into slavery that though they "meant it for evil, God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20-21). On his journey away from home with the slavers, Joseph could have asked, "Why is God causing or allowing me to suffer more than them? Why do they get to stay at home with our dear dad while I am banished into slavery? They have acted wickedly, not me!" We don't know if Joseph ever asked those types of comparative questions, but we do know he ultimately made the choice to trust God's purposes and promises. Ellen White in Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 213, says,
Joseph grew in Christ's character of forgiveness and compassion through his trial of being rejected in the most hateful, painful way by his own big brothers. God did not cause or encourage Joseph's brothers to do this evil, but He foresaw it and used it for His own righteous purposes, to demonstrate His character to Joseph and to His brothers and family and all of Egypt.
Having faith and trust in God is more important and spiritually helpful than having answers to all questions. It is only God who provides peace, joy, and happiness to human souls and not answers.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6
Thank you Mwanbi, I needed to be reminder to always trust in God and not to lean on my own understanding. I solicit prayers for my family members who are going through some dark moments and fear their soul salvation is in jeopardy 🙏
There are many, many, wonderful promises like this one to guide those who will exercise faith in God for their lives. I like to end my morning devotions with Proverbs 16:3 and also verse 32 of that same proverb. For God to "Establish my thoughts regarding my plans for that day and for Him to keep me patient and at peace with whatever goes wrong that day. And I fully agree, we do not need to have answers to all questions about "Good and Evil," we mainly need to just be "Holy, Happy, and Healthy, as we live for God now in the present." And as we do this also to bless those who do not know what we know about Jesus and His Love.
Amen my brother may God continue to bless you and your family.
Skeptical of the broken human-demonic system. Trusting our wonderful God, His system and purposes.
Skeptical of our broken human nature, its systems and purposes.
Trusting that there is wonderful potential in every human, even me, if we allow the High Priest of God's system (as seen in his sanctuary) to place our feet in non-slip places, lift us by reconstructing our nature, hold us by our right hand, guide us with His counsel, and afterwards receive us to His glory.
We all hate living with unresolved problems. When I was a researcher it used to keep me awake at night. Actually I live in a very noise household and if you are solving complicated computer problems you need quiet so that your networks of thoughts don't collapse. But, even that did not solve some problems.
The problem of evil is complicated. What we would like to see is simple uncomplicated cause and effect. If you are good you are protected from evil and if you are bad, you get your just desserts! What we see all around us is much more complicated. The evil get away with it, and the innocent suffer.
The book of Job is essentially an argument about the complexity of evil, particularly within the context of suffering. Much of the argument has to do with causality - if event B has happened, then event A must have caused it.
The real take-away from the book of Job is that the issue goes beyond what we can see and understand. Interestingly God asks Job and his theist friends 77 questions that show the limits of their understanding of even the physical world around them. If they cannot answer those questions how do they expect to answer the big existential questions.
The enigma for us is that the big question is not answered. Why does evil and pain continue to exist? Does the book of Job have a relevant message for us?
We sometimes too easily dismiss the ending of the book of Job. In the last few verses it talks about restoration. Job ministered to his friends and prayed for them and in the process he was restored. The sceptics sometimes dismiss this as a sort of fairy-tale ending, but given the context of a universal battle between good and evil, the notion of ultimate redemption and restoration is an important one.
Practical Christianity is less concerned with the answers to the metaphysical questions that will always challenge us, and is more concerned with the work of restoration and ultimately redemption.
Thank you Maurice for this comment. I love the story of Job, and what struck me big time in reading this was that even in all that Job went through, including advice from his wife and well meaning friends, he turned to God not from God. The same thing is recorded in Psalms 73. In all of his frustrations about the wicked succeeding in life, David took a deep breath and he went into the sanctuary of God, and then he understood. You can almost feel the stress and the angst roll off him in that sentence. That is also our refuge, turning to God with our “stuff”. What a blessing we have in scripture.
The Sanctuary in Heaven signifies our hope in the end. God has provided us with a way out. Jesus lives and pleads with God for us.
John the Baptist's death, as recorded in Matthew 14:1-12 and Mark 6:14-29, is a difficult and tragic event. From a practical standpoint, this can raise real questions about faith, justice, and God's involvement in human suffering. Many people might struggle with why God allows bad things to happen to good and faithful people, and John's death exemplifies this dilemma. He was the forerunner of Christ, dedicated his life to God's mission, and yet his life was cut short in such a brutal way.
The fact that Jesus, who had the power to intervene, chose not to can be perplexing. It can leave one feeling like God is silent in the face of injustice. This can lead to a crisis of faith, where believers wonder why God allows righteous individuals to suffer while seeming not to act.
His death reminds us that faithfulness to God doesn't exempt us from suffering, but that God’s purposes can transcend immediate circumstances. God's kingdom operates with an eternal perspective, and sometimes our expectations for immediate intervention are not in line with God's overarching plan.
This doesn't make the suffering easier, but it calls us to trust in God's wisdom and sovereignty, even when circumstances don't make sense to us. For those facing their own struggles with faith in the midst of pain, John's story encourages us to remember that God's justice and ultimate victory are not bound by the limits of earthly time. Like John, we may not see God act in the way we expect, but His purposes are still being worked out.
In practical terms, when our faith is shaken by events like John's death, or by personal suffering and unanswered prayers, we are invited to hold on to the truth that God's timing and purposes are perfect. Just as Jesus did not abandon John's cause, He will not abandon us, even if His response looks different from what we hope for.
Thank you for this comment. We tend to be anxious to partake of the blessings this life can afford us. I believe John’s experience helps us to know that if we receive no enjoyment from this life but are allowed into heaven where “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love Him”, we will not consider ourselves to have missed anything.
The problem of evil in my country Nigeria is a concern for every child of God. The country has become a place where, money, employment, political appointments, and wealth are shared among the nobles and political office holders and their cronies at the detriment of the poor. A country that is blessed with natural resources (crude oil, minerals etc), yet greater number of her citizens are wallowing in abject poverty. The government cannot provide quality education, good hospitals, electricity, good roads etc for its citizens. The country has been embellished in tribalism, nepotism, corruption, insecurity, discrimination, rigging of elections, senseless killings, and gross injustice, inequitable allocation of national resources etc. These have dominated the economic, political, judicial, legislative, executive and religious landscape. Despites soaring revenues from the sale of crude oil, two third of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day. Every day people are seeking for opportunities to leave the country and seek greener pastures outside.
As Christians, many times we wonder why a loving God has allowed these corrupt leaders to continue to exist but we are comforted that in the end God our righteous Judge will bring justice and judgement and bring an end to all the evils we see in the land today.
(I left this comment on the Sabbath School Net Facebook page and will share it here as well.)
It's natural to get frustrated that so often evil people live long and prosperous lives. When we, as did the psalmist, look into the sanctuary, we realize their end. They will consume away into smoke. This will be all the taste of heaven they will ever know. The goodness of God has been trying to lead them to repentance, but they have taken the blessings and turned them into idols. It is far greater to have a life of toil and trouble, with an eternity of peace and prosperity to come, than to trade eternity for a few decades of prosperity. The very best that this world, and the devil, offers is rubbish when compared to what God has planned for those that love him. (1 Cor. 2:19) "Thy way O God, is in the Sanctuary" Ps. 77:13 There we see how God has dealt and will deal with sin and unrepentant sinners.
The problem of evil in my country Nigeria is a concern for every child of God. The country has become a place where, money, employment, political appointments, and wealth are shared among the nobles and political office holders and their cronies at the detriment of the poor. A country that is blessed with natural resources (crude oil, minerals etc), yet greater number of her citizens are wallowing in abject poverty. The government cannot provide quality education, good hospitals, electricity, good roads etc for its citizens. The country has been embellished in tribalism, nepotism, corruption, insecurity, discrimination, rigging of elections, senseless killings, and gross injustice, inequitable allocation of national resources etc. These have dominated the economic, political, judicial, legislative, executive and religious landscape. Despites soaring revenues from the sale of crude oil, two third of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day. Every day people are seeking for opportunities to leave the country and seek greener pastures outside. The cry from our lips everyday is: “How long, O Lord? How long?”
As Christians, many times we wonder why a loving God has allowed these corrupt leaders to continue to exist but we are comforted that in the end God our righteous Judge will bring justice and judgement and bring an end to all the evils we see in the land today.
“A stoic's attitude is marked by calmness, rationality, and emotional detachment, where a person accepts what they cannot control and focuses instead on managing their own thoughts and reactions. By prioritizing virtue and reason over external events, they cultivate inner peace even amidst life’s challenges, distinguishing between what is within their control and what is not.” - AI
I find this mindset compatible with having faith in God’s working out His Will. A person can trust in the Creator’s sovereign Will while maintaining a composed and thoughtful approach to life. In fact, not worrying is a sign of faith — an acknowledgment that our loving, just, and caring Father oversees all things rightly. Instead of striving to control or understand what lies beyond us, we should seek His guidance in strenghtening and applying our faith.
Before questioning God’s actions, we ought to first examine our own hearts. Honest self-reflection ensures that our actions align with the integrity of our faith and love for God, as evil begins in secrecy, hidden within the heart; it is evil's disposition which attempts to mask the true intent.
With 'sin' starting in the heart and mind, sinful acts will likely follow — Matthew 5:27-30. Therefore, the 'skeptical theist’s' fervent prayer should be: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." — Psalm 51:10-12; Matthew 5:8; 1 John 1:9.
An analogy of understanding evil
Matthew 13:51-52 ESV
[51] “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” [52] And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."
OK what's the analogy. Do I understand evil. Yes, yet to understand as much as God gives. I live with the Master for a spell to hear and to see. And even then many questions I leave to God's mysteries. As human I don't understand some things, I leave it to God who knows His ways, I don't need to understand somethings, somethings I need to accept.
Matthew13:11-17
Isaiah 55:8-13
God said it and I believe it
and that settles it for me
God said it and I believe it
and that settles it for me
Though some may doubt that His word is true
I've chosen to believe it, now how about you?
God said it and I believe it
And that settles it for me.
Let me say that I firmly believe, we will study God's ways through out eternity and never fully understand. Otherwise we would not be studying throughout eternity. It comes back to obeying by faith alone, there are 8 reasons to obey by faith alone. I hope you get a chance to read 'To Know God, A 5 Day Plan, pages 109-113.
On Tuesday's lesson I have learnt that in the midst of my suffering and affliction and seeing as if God is not acting, this the time I should be strong 💪 much in Faith.
In Isaiah 1:18 God invites man to come and reason together. How again are we taught, as in this week lesson study that His ways are so complex that man cannot understand.......
Hello Bonn Odhiambo Mirindo! I will let God’s Word answer your objection.The context of Isaiah 1:18 is in regards to our sin, "...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as snow."
Romans 11:33-36 Amplified Bible (AMP)
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and decisions and how unfathomable and untraceable are His ways!"
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God's wisdom and intellect is vastly beyond our own to such a degree that it makes some of the things of scripture hard to comprehend.
Romans 11:34 confirms this, saying, “Who has known the mind of the LORD ? Or who has been his counselor? ” 1 Corinthians 2:11 says, “ For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God . ”
In our limited, finite human understanding there are some things about God that we are unable to comprehend. When we receive our glorified bodies then we will better understand, but I believe that we will still be learning things about God even as the endless ages roll by in heaven.
I always tell people not to let the things that you don't understand about God interfere with those things that you do understand.
Have a blessed day!