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.
|
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? |
(1)
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
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.