I’ve made it a personal goal to read through the Old Testament in 2010. Although completing the entire OT this year is quite unlikely, I am really enjoying reading through the Torah. Deuteronomy is a wonderful read, especially if you look at the law and ask the following question:
- What does the law reveal about God’s heart towards mankind?
A simple challenge is this: read through Deuteronomy and consider what things are revealed about God’s heart and about God’s character.
If you’re not into the Law, you can also walk through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament) and consider what things are revealed about God’s heart and about God’s character towards you and towards your neighbor (your fellow man.)
Looking at it from a story perspective, one might consider God the “Author” of the law in Deuteronomy. In the New Testament Gospels, He is both “Director” insofar as the story of Jesus was part of His plan to restore mankind to Himself, and He is the main character as well in Jesus.
Ask these questions when reading through scripture. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will reveal something new about His character!
- What does the law reveal about God’s heart towards me?
- What does the law reveal about God’s heart towards my neighbor?
- What do the Gospels reveal about God’s heart towards me?
- What to the Gospels reveal about God’s heart towards my neighbor?
Filed under: Challenges | Tags: Challenge, Core Assumptions, Problem of Evil, Worldview
A few days ago I leveraged a challenge to consider your core assumptions about God and evil and how they interact together. This was all based on a challenging statement by Solomon in Proverbs 15:3. This follow up is to provide you with some resources for reading more and to perhaps challenge your own core assumptions. Maybe this is old stuff, maybe new, but the better we can deal with understanding the role of evil in the world the more wise we become!
If you’re interested in reading more about the problem of evil, I recommend you first establish a baseline and examine how you feel today- your core assumptions about evil and about God and about their intersection in your heart/mind first.
Recommended Resources:
- The Problem of Evil by Kreeft
- The Problem of Evil by Casey Carmical
- Crazy in depth philosophical consideration in “Logical Problem of Evil” in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Definitely read Lewis’ The Problem of Pain – you can probably pick up a copy at your local library, too
Filed under: Challenges | Tags: Challenge, Core Assumptions, Problem of Evil, Worldview
In Proverbs 15 we read “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” That raised a fundamental and challenging question- how can God “keep watch on the evil and the good” and let the evil continue?
Quite simply this brings up the problem of evil. It is one of the major objections to Christianity or for that matter Theism as a whole- how can a god be good if he created or allows evil? Kreeft defines it best:
The problem can be stated very simply: If God is so good, why Is his world so bad? If an all-good, all-wise, all-loving, all-just, and all-powerful God is running the show, why does he seem to be doing such a miserable job of it? Why do bad things happen to good people?
Before researching any apologetic thoughts or checking out any other resources I’d like to see your thoughts. Given that I believe in God, how can I deal with the existence of evil? Or, maybe you are asking yourself the polar opposite question: Given that evil is a reality, how can I deal with the existence of God?
Please chime in with your thoughts below. Establishing a baseline of my core assumptions is an important step in dealing with the problem of evil in my own heart.
In a day or two I’ll post a follow up with further resources to consider regarding the problem of evil.
