 The issues I come down to or the issue I came down to before I received Christ was the question of evil There's also the dichotomy of predetermination and free will which are mutually exclusive but coexist in the scripture Those questions are the ones that when you really finally get down to an issue That is a real decision point for people who are serious and who are good-hearted and who are truly open-minded predetermination free will and And then and the problem of evil You know either God is not all good or he's not all powerful or there wouldn't be evil So those are some issues that if you can address those that be good Okay, I'm gonna this is sort of the passage that I like to begin that this kind of discussion with Because they are they are separable items, but they are of course related this whole you know sovereignty free will and then the evil issue This is the story of David at Kyla, okay. Let's just read through the story because I think you're something's going to jump out at you here So David learns in the first verse behold the Philistines are fighting against Kyla and are robbing the thrushing floors Therefore David inquired of the Lord should I go and attack the Philistines and the Lord said to David go kick their butts and Save Kyla, but David's men said to him behold we're afraid of you to how much more if we go to Kyla against the armies of the Philistines So he inquires the Lord again God says didn't you hear me arise go down to Kyla for I will give the Philistines in your hands So he does and at the end here David saves the inhabitants of this city so he's in this city and We read this when a by-a-thar the son of a Himalek had fled to David to Kyla. He had come down with an ephod in his hand That's preparatory to what we're going to see in a moment that little detail It was told Saul that David had come to Kyla of course Saul is chasing David all over the place trying to kill him We all know the story of David and Saul And so Saul hears this and he's like this is sweet Saul says God has given him into my hands for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars That was dumb David So Saul gets it in his head I'm going to go down there and I'm going to surround the city and there is no way out So Saul summons the people to ward go down to Kyla to besiege lay siege to it David and his men David finds out Saul was plotting against him and he said to a by-a-thar. Hey bring the ephod here. I got a question for God Then David said oh Lord the God of Israel your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come up to Kyla to destroy the city on my account Will the men of Kyla? Surrender me into his hand will Saul come down as your servant has heard so he asked two questions Is Saul going to come down here and when he gets here are the people I just saved going to turn me over? Because that you know they don't want their city attacked and laid siege to they're going to give me up And the Lord said he will come down in verse 12 then David said will the men of Kyla surrender me He repeats it surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul you only answered one question I still need the answer to the second one and the Lord said yep You bet you they're going to surrender you So what does David do then David and his men who were about 600 arose and got out of dodge They leave do you see the point? God foreknows two things in this passage That never happened Foreknowledge does not Necessitate predestination and this is not the only passage like that so On the one hand the fact that God foreknows think about the old, you know I don't know what Heidelberg catechism whatever it is But the thing that theologians love to say when they talk about omniscience God knows all things real and possible Have you really thought about that statement? Well, if God knows the possible But the possible by definition Isn't stuff that happens. It's just possible Then how can foreknowledge Necessitate predestination because if God knows it doesn't it have to happen. No Okay, I'm not I'm not giving you anything different than that little ditty that you always hear in theology class It undermines the idea of foreknowledge necessitating predestination, but it seems like people just don't realize it There is predestination So the things that don't happen are not predestinated What about the things that do happen again? My view if you've read you know in my myth draft here My view is that the things that do happen God could have predestinated them But he doesn't have to the fact that he knows something will happen Does not necessitate predestination either because foreknowledge of an event Whether it happens or not does not necessitate predestination The fact of foreknowing does not require Something happening. So if God foreknows an event that will happen We have to be consistent and say well that doesn't necessitate that was predestinated either Although it could be because there's very clear scriptural language that God does predestinate certain events God is very free. I'm not going to tell him he can't do this I like to say I try not to put the words God and can't into too many sentences God can do that if he wants to God can knock Saul off his horse and say you come over here. I got a job for you to do just shut up Go to Damascus. You're going to meet this guy. I mean he can do all that Hey, there is predestination language. And so what you have here's we're back to general revelation You have a situation Where the things that happen in life? May or may not be predestinated by God Now I am not an open theist Okay, because open theists like to sort of deny They like to deny foreknowledge or redefine it I don't see any any reason for doing that and they don't like predestination really in any sense And I think that goes too far too I have friends who are open theists and you know, we have these discussions and they're good discussions But I'm just I don't think that that's coherent that I have to go one way or the other I'm just going to let the content be what it is Evil God created humankind To be his Imagers and we can talk about the image of God the image of God is not a thing Put into you It's not the ability to pray. It's not the ability to speak. It's not intellect. It's not a spiritual inclination It's no quality and I know that's very traditional to say that but you know Sometimes I need to be careful what I what I say I have I've gone into I've gone to places and said something like You know, if you believe the image of God is something put into you Then you might as well just be pro-choice pro-abortion at least until brain development Because all those things require a brain The little single-cell thing that's conceived in a woman that we would call a person that is a human being Doesn't have any of these capabilities. Well, they're there potentially Mike. That's what they're going to be great Now we have life. That's potentially sacred. Oh That's comforting Again, why are you pro-life? From the point of fertilization if you're defining the image you got that way you have no argument You've got no argument at all other than you just don't like the thought of abortion The image of God is actually a status, you know, and again if you've read my stuff I argue for the point of Hebrew grammar here the bet Ascension the bet of predication bet Salem should be translated not in our image, but as our image prepositions mean things in English the word in believe it or not is variable if I say put the dishes in the sink What am I denoting? Location putting them someplace that's what in means there if I say I broke The vase in pieces I'm talking about result Okay, if I say I wrote the letter in pencil I'm talking about instrumentality If I say I work in medicine What do I mean? It means I work as a doctor a PA a surgeon a physician, whatever In other words, it's about function and Capacity it's about role That's what we have in Genesis God creates humankind as his image think of it as a verb we image God We represent God. We are him as though he were here in the flesh Christ of course, this is why he's called The express image he's like the ultimate imager in every way We are being conformed his image. What does that mean? We know what it means It means we're being made like him. We're made a progressively better representation of him And all these ideas, you know work together So if that's true We have as our theology classes tell us we have we share attributes with God if we Represent God and we need communicable attributes. Don't we we need to be able to do things We are reflections of God one of those attributes is free will God is a perfectly free being he is exhaustively free. We are not We have that attribute just like we have other attributes of God incrementally in You know small doses But if we lacked freedom, we would no longer be like God would we Freedom is indispensable to imaging if you don't have human freedom. You are not The divine imager. It is an essential quality to being like God That means that when and since we aren't God when we are tempted We will fall We will act selfishly. We will do horrible things We don't do horrible things. I mean yesterday we talked I talked about you know this whole God an evil thing I don't believe that God predestinates evil evil happens There's no necessary link between for knowledge and predestination God knows it's gonna happen He doesn't mean he causes it. I also don't think he needs it for his plan to work out The reason that there's evil in the world is because God decided to make humans Who shared his abilities and capacities and We because we lack those abilities. We lack his holiness. We lack his character in the full capacity We will do evil We will use a God-given thing For self-interest and harm of others You say well can't God just step in there and stop that Do you realize what what God would have to do to stop evil? He would have to eliminate humanity Evil is a consequence of God's good decision And I think a decision we all enjoy to have us exist Now God knows That since we are not him He knows what's going to happen. He doesn't predestinate the fall and he ain't surprised by it But he deemed it preferable He enjoyed the idea of creating humanity Knowing the risk to us there is no risk to God But knowing what what pardoned upon what the fallout would be That the potential for rebellion was there and so We should not blame God for evil. We should blame people for evil We should recognize that the reason evil is part of our world is because we are not God If we were God, we would get the utopia that we so desperately desire if we were God Then we would have the place that we really want to live in So rather than turning it on its head like the Gnostics do and making God the cause of evil Again, they're operating on certain presuppositions you know What they want to shoot at are the traditional views of God and evil That's where they find their strength Because they want you to feel like I Have to admit that God's just an evil person or capricious or something God is someone who wanted you to have life and wanted you to have a good life and You ruined it or Again, the history of humanity ruins it but He didn't just obliterate you or Adam and Eve or you know how any of the biblical stories. He doesn't do that God is a fan of redemption God likes that idea just as much as he liked the first one So I don't think God needs evil at all. It's not an indispensable cog You know or plan in the way he wants things to work out I just have to have all this horrible stuff to make it work. No, he doesn't But he's left with the decision. I'm either going to redeem humanity or kill them all and he makes the first choice