Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
A smart philosopher says that if God is perfectly loving, He must want to abolish all evil and if He is all powerful, He must be able to do it. "But evil exists, therefore God cannot be both omnipotent and loving," says this thinker. Is there an answer to his problem? Fools rush in where angels fear to tread; therefore we must walk softly.
Can the Bible help? It teaches that God took all the evil that exists in the world and bore it in Himself. "The LORD hath laid on [Christ] the iniquity of us all" and "He hath made [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (Isa. 53:6; 2 Cor. 5:21). God wishes to abolish all evil, the Bible says (1 Tim. 2:4), but since "God is agape" (1 John 4:8), He could abolish evil only by dying to it, being crucified to sin. The answer to the philosopher's challenge is to explore the breadth and length and depth and height of that agape, wherein is "the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:17-19).
Every philosopher and atheist will someday bow and confess the infinite logic that is wrapped up within the cross of Jesus, even those who have spent their lives ridiculing it; but there are some--perhaps many--who will humble their souls before the cross right now in this life and confess the truth of God. But this blessed result will require deep thinking and deeper feeling on the part of those who now profess to keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. God loves the brilliant people, the philosophers and scientists in the world, just as much as He loves us common people. No one can "by searching find out God"; all the universities in the world cannot teach these bright people how to find Him.
The neglected truth that agape teaches is that God finds man; no lost sheep, however intellectual, can find his way back to the shepherd--the Good Shepherd must go and find him. God has commanded His church on earth to be His agent in proclaiming that news about this God who is the seeking-and-finding Good Shepherd. A people in whose hearts and souls self is crucified, who are in perfect unity and harmony, who "glory" in that cross, will proclaim the message, for it must "lighten the earth with glory" before Jesus can return; then every honest hearted philosopher will hear a voice that says "come out of Babylon" (Rev. 18). We will be surprised who or how many will respond (cf. Rev. 15:2, 3).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 22, 2001.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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