[Bill,
April 25, 2007]
Theodicy
I've asked the wrong question. It's not, "Why does God let bad things happen?" It's, "What shall we do now that we have knowledge of good and evil." That is, knowledge of good and evil is in fact the fall, literally. All our questions about theodicy flow from that fall ...
And God is trying to tell us that we are in a dimension now that we cannot handle ... and that the way back is to trust Him, that is, to have faith. Whatever is going on in life, it must run its course. The Bible says as much, talking about the fullness of time, when the time is ripe, etc. The fall set in motion events that cannot be stopped.
Before, perhaps we could have had knowledge of God without knowledge of evil, but for some reason, we now have a more complex task, that of knowing both God and evil ... and discovering we have a terrible propensity to make the wrong choices, to want one yet choose the other.
I still haven't articulated this point. The other day, when I thought it, I felt it was an important insight into Genesis (that is, an insight for me, not for the whole world).
I think it has to do with the fact that with our minds the way they are, we cannot answer that question of theodicy to our satisfaction ... God knows that and simply must tell us, as though talking to a small child, that we must trust Him to set it right, that He can save us from what happened in the Fall, but He cannot explain to us the mystery of evil in this life.
The mystical body of Christ, so to speak, as a cast for a broken bone, and only dwelling within that body makes it possibly for us to know good and evil and yet remain with God (because once we are with God, we cannot unchoose God, for if we sin again, we will be cast out eternally, thus we must be in a state without sin and without the possibility of sin). And the mystical body of Christ is what enables us to do that ... that's the bridge between God and man.
Or something like that ....
And God is trying to tell us that we are in a dimension now that we cannot handle ... and that the way back is to trust Him, that is, to have faith. Whatever is going on in life, it must run its course. The Bible says as much, talking about the fullness of time, when the time is ripe, etc. The fall set in motion events that cannot be stopped.
Before, perhaps we could have had knowledge of God without knowledge of evil, but for some reason, we now have a more complex task, that of knowing both God and evil ... and discovering we have a terrible propensity to make the wrong choices, to want one yet choose the other.
I still haven't articulated this point. The other day, when I thought it, I felt it was an important insight into Genesis (that is, an insight for me, not for the whole world).
I think it has to do with the fact that with our minds the way they are, we cannot answer that question of theodicy to our satisfaction ... God knows that and simply must tell us, as though talking to a small child, that we must trust Him to set it right, that He can save us from what happened in the Fall, but He cannot explain to us the mystery of evil in this life.
The mystical body of Christ, so to speak, as a cast for a broken bone, and only dwelling within that body makes it possibly for us to know good and evil and yet remain with God (because once we are with God, we cannot unchoose God, for if we sin again, we will be cast out eternally, thus we must be in a state without sin and without the possibility of sin). And the mystical body of Christ is what enables us to do that ... that's the bridge between God and man.
Or something like that ....
I'm extremely muddy on this topic, but I wonder if people don't often use language which is too general; that we're too inclined to fall into the lutheran mistake of holding that all people are absolutely corrupt.
I dunno. I'm a little muddy on it, too. I think you can reach a place in your mind where true repentance becomes impossible, at least on one particular subject, or perhaps any repentance at all. But God can do something ...
I also believe, now in a way that I never did when I was younger, that many people will die without repenting, without even seeing the need for repentance.
BTW, this post was a smaller part of a larger piece, which I may post when it's finished.