Post by Lee on Jun 8, 2014 3:35:07 GMT
GOD THE AUTHOR OF EVIL
James writes (1:13–17) that God is the author of every good gift. How are we to reconcile this with the fact of His having planted the tree of Knowledge of Good AND EVIL which brought death? Is he not the Author of Evil according to this, and according to Joshua, 23 ch. 15 verse?—ANSWER: God is certainly the author of evil. He himself declares it: “I make peace and create evil” (Is. 45:7). “Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6). “Behold, I bring evil on all flesh” (Jer. 45:5); and so in numerous instances throughout the prophets. But how then about the statement of James? Well, God and not man is the author of every “good and perfect gift.” Man takes the credit, but the origin is in God, as even common sense must recognise. But the fact that all good comes from God is not inconsistent with the fact that He gives evil also when circumstances call for it. Who drowned the antediluvians? Who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha? Who scattered Israel? Who has subjected the whole human race to evil for a time? There is only one answer. God contrives evil as the punishment of sin. In that case, says the objector, you make God the authod of sin. Not so. Sin is disobedience. God is not the author of disobedience as such. God gives the power to obey Him, and calls upon us to obey Him, but leaves it with us to obey or disobey. If we disobey we sin. This is not God’s act, although the power to perform the act is of God, as all things are. It is the relation of things we must keep in view. God inflicts evil as the punishment of disobedience. He is the author of the evil in a sense in which he is not the author of sin: for sin is the wrong use of independent power conferred upon a creature, and of this He is not the author. But of the evil inflicted in punishment thereof, He is the author direct. But then, says the objector, James has said “God cannot be tempted with evil.” This is not out of harmony with the other truth. He does not deal in evil for the love of it. Evil presents no attraction to Him that He should inflict it for the mere sake of it, or draw men by temptation into the channel of it. He is good, and good only: but he inflicts the evil on rebellion, and this indeed is part of His goodness. There ought to be no difficulty in perceiving these distinctions.
1892 Christadelphian: Volume 29. 2001 (electronic ed.) (263). Birmingham: Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association.
James writes (1:13–17) that God is the author of every good gift. How are we to reconcile this with the fact of His having planted the tree of Knowledge of Good AND EVIL which brought death? Is he not the Author of Evil according to this, and according to Joshua, 23 ch. 15 verse?—ANSWER: God is certainly the author of evil. He himself declares it: “I make peace and create evil” (Is. 45:7). “Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6). “Behold, I bring evil on all flesh” (Jer. 45:5); and so in numerous instances throughout the prophets. But how then about the statement of James? Well, God and not man is the author of every “good and perfect gift.” Man takes the credit, but the origin is in God, as even common sense must recognise. But the fact that all good comes from God is not inconsistent with the fact that He gives evil also when circumstances call for it. Who drowned the antediluvians? Who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha? Who scattered Israel? Who has subjected the whole human race to evil for a time? There is only one answer. God contrives evil as the punishment of sin. In that case, says the objector, you make God the authod of sin. Not so. Sin is disobedience. God is not the author of disobedience as such. God gives the power to obey Him, and calls upon us to obey Him, but leaves it with us to obey or disobey. If we disobey we sin. This is not God’s act, although the power to perform the act is of God, as all things are. It is the relation of things we must keep in view. God inflicts evil as the punishment of disobedience. He is the author of the evil in a sense in which he is not the author of sin: for sin is the wrong use of independent power conferred upon a creature, and of this He is not the author. But of the evil inflicted in punishment thereof, He is the author direct. But then, says the objector, James has said “God cannot be tempted with evil.” This is not out of harmony with the other truth. He does not deal in evil for the love of it. Evil presents no attraction to Him that He should inflict it for the mere sake of it, or draw men by temptation into the channel of it. He is good, and good only: but he inflicts the evil on rebellion, and this indeed is part of His goodness. There ought to be no difficulty in perceiving these distinctions.
1892 Christadelphian: Volume 29. 2001 (electronic ed.) (263). Birmingham: Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association.