The Myth About Jehovah as a "GOD of LOVE". (page 7)

to smiddy3

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The question of theodicy is fundamental. It is a problem that appears in Christianity, but also, of course, in Judaism or Islam. It's a problem that - it doesn't have to be articulated as in the book of Job, for example - but I would say that every religion or philosophy, has developed some strategy to deal with the problem - from the "primitive": the rain god is angry with us, therefore it doesn't rain, therefore we have to (not) do this or that ... to the "sophisticated" solution, as in the book of Job.

JWs have not, in my opinion, moved "far" from others on this issue. Trying to explain Evil using Satan and in combination with "permissio Dei" => "God's permission", does indeed solve some situations (i.e. explains the source of Evil and God's "non-interference" in human affairs), but this interpretation is problematic in terms of the duration of Evil. If the JW interpretation works say 200 or 300 years after the death of the last apostle, the interpretation fails in that why has God allowed Evil for 2000 years? Or why did this God allow the world and Evil to continue at all after the flood...after all, there was a good chance to end this Evil then. It didn't.

Some then have no answer to these questions. One can often hear that the actions of God can be incomprehensible, it is a mystery. This too belongs in the repertoire of answers to theodicy. Still others add that God brings us up with evil. They speak of the "pedagogy" of Evil. Okay, that's possible, perhaps on an individual level - I made a mistake, an unpleasant thing happened, I feel evil, so I try to correct/not repeat it. As you might guess, "pedagogy" doesn't work in cases of, say, children (they have leukemia) or (Holocaust-type Evil happened to children). Talking about the holocaust and "education by Evil" is deeply despicable, it expresses a deep contempt for the innocent victims...

To make a long story short: resolving the question of God's justice is not just a philosophical quibble, but is crucial to the interpretation of Revelation (cf. the 5th seal in Rev 6:10 and the question: "until when/how long...thou shalt not judge" = "why does Evil take so long").
My solution to this difficult question is that I do not reject the individual answers to this question, I do not completely reject "God's permission", nor "God's mystery", nor the importance of "education" by Evil, nor of course the fact that Satan is a killer of people from the very beginning. All of these are true in certain cases, but in isolation, nothing is able to satisfactorily solve the problem. Nor does the combination of these answers cover the whole range of problems.
What is it then?

1. God is Almighty. He is always able to end this world, all Evil, in an instant. No one and nothing could question that.

2. Satan has created a world that competes with God's world. Satan, he has almost taken over the world.
But this statement needs an explanation: how could Satan, a created being, be so powerful?
My explanation for this dilemma is that God created intelligent beings that could get out of control and within certain parameters achieve "better" results than the creator. Analogy: as a designer, I can create a car or plane that will be faster than me or reach heights I can't reach. In the parameters of "speed" or "height" the created thing is "better" than me - and that is not very intelligent! Still, God should - we would expect - have some way to "turn it off". Why doesn't He? Why does it take him so long? Why did He have His Son killed and 12 legions of angels do nothing? Why did he, as a parent, watch his Son die?

3. God is Love. Abraham's dialogue with God regarding Sodom, reveals the essential point: even if there are only 10 righteous in the city (Earth), God will not destroy a city (Earth) full of the unrighteous because of the 10 righteous = God will not be a murderer of the righteous. Nothing and no one will make him be like Satan who kills people through his world.
Okay, but why is God unable to somehow "selectively" intervene and deliver only the righteous?
The answer, according to Matt. 13:29, is that in "pulling up the tares," the wheat would also be destroyed. This poetic statement about the wheat and the tares explains that behind this we can imagine that Satan has set up several systems of control and "safeguards" to ensure that if the tares are pulled up "prematurely," then the wheat would be destroyed.

But Satan makes a mistake, and that's when God takes advantage of it. This will begin the Revelation.

Conclusion: God is love and He has placed His love above His justice. Otherwise, we would no longer exist. Because of His love, God will not allow the righteous to perish at the hands of God just to save others or to destroy the wicked. But whoever despises his love and grace will be confronted with God's justice and wrath and vengeance. We know the result: the second death.
Satan has created an almost(!) perfect system with many, many "safeguards", various traps, snares, etc. that will have to be removed. But so that no one can ever say that God killed the righteous with the unrighteous.

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Knowing that God is Love, and does not kill the just with the unjust, but seeks to save everyone, whether they are good or evil, I look at Revelation with this view. That's why the images of e.g. the 4 horsemen of the apocalyptic are not about the "physical" destruction of 1/4 of planet earth, but the "surgically" precise operation of separating the wheat from the tares. About "marking" the wicked, but with the goal of bringing them to repentance! So that even the wicked, just like a certain Saul of Tarsus, for example, become, by God's "intervention", like the Apostle Paul...

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I apologize for the length of the text, but theodicy is considered a "master theological question" that was already addressed by the Jews in the Talmud, in the famous scene where Yahweh "hardens the heart" of Pharaoh...

I'll try to answer your points, but I wanted you to know what premises I'm drawing from = that's why I've oozed this long text first...

The Myth About Jehovah as a "GOD of LOVE".

smiddy3

johnamos

TonusOH

PetrW

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