Ignorant Historian

On the radio today I listened to the local hosts, Brad and Britt, compare John McCain’s relationship with John Hagee and Barack Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright. They played a clip of Hagee preaching from Jeremiah 16. In that clip, he says that God used Hitler to drive the Jews back to the promise land. Brad and Britt were absolutely outraged that he would call Hitler God’s instrument (though this wasn’t exactly what he was saying, it was what they took from it).

While they thought that they were arguing a political point, they really had issue with a common theodicy (explanation for the presence of evil in a world created and ruled by an loving, all-powerful God), called the Greater Good Theodicy. It is the view that in everything, God allows evil because it will bring about a greater good. This was my view for most of my life, but only recently have I rethought it, with the help of my philosophy professor.

Brad and Britt were upset with the idea that God would use a horrible man killing millions of Jews to bring about an arguably smaller purpose: bringing the Jews back to Israel. Britt stated that God could have loaded them up on buses bound for Tel Aviv rather than trains bound for Auschwitz if that was his plan (which is absolutely true). Brad was adament that Hitler had nothing to do with God, and for the most part I think he is right.

For too long Christians have sat around and talked after a tragedy saying, “I’m sure that God will do something greater out of this” as if this justifies the tragedy and makes everying all better like a kiss on a boo-boo. Of course God is able to bring about good in spite and through tragedy, and He often does. But He does not require tragedy to work His purposes among believers and non-believers.

This type of reasoning, that God allowed the Holocaust or 9/11 for some greater purpose, tastes sour to those who are not Christians, and even many who are. Who defines what is greater? Who decides how much good it takes to outweigh the evil? My philosophy professor brought this home to me when he asked the class what good came out of 9/11. The best answer anyone came up with was that a few people got saved and that the nation united for a brief time. Then he asked us if that was worth 2400 souls going to hell (a totally estimated number of 9/11 victims that were not trusting in Christ for salvation). No, indeed, it’s not. Nor is the 6 million Jews who died a reasonable cost to pay for the Jews to regain the Holy Land (which is still not completed to this day).

I don’t believe that God allows evil in order to bring about some greater good. God does not need evil in order to accomplish his purposes. Evil exists because of sin. I’m not saying that victims of tragedy (such as those who were killed in the Chinese earthquake and the Burmese cyclone) suffered because of their own sin, but they suffered because of the affects of sin on this world.

Brad and Britt were right to be dismayed by what they heard Hagee preach. They just didn’t realize they were arguing a theological question, not a political one.

Thanks to Dr. Little for helping me learn how to think through these things. I still don’t have all the answers yet, but I do have the tools to think more biblically about such issues.

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