Matt Capps interviews Bruce Little (CV) on the problem of evil.
Here are a few examples of where I’d raise questions:
- BAL: These are not things God planned or caused, they are, in light of Genesis 3, the result of man’s disobedience in the Garden.
ADN: Is this a false disjunction? Doesn’t Scripture affirm both? - BAL: I am not saying that we may not learn valuable lessons in our suffering, but that does not mean that is why the suffering came to us. God may bless, but if He does, it is in spite of the suffering, not because of the suffering.
ADN: Does this square with Jesus’ suffering on the cross? - BAL: We must ask the question: if God allows evil to bring about a good, is that good a necessary good? If it is a necessary good, then the evil that brings it is necessary and the only way it could be necessary is if God planned it. This makes God responsible for evil, something I think is clearly contrary to scripture because God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If on the other hand the good is not necessary then we are back to asking the question why the evil?
ADN: Is this trying to relieve logical tension by over-qualifying or denying what Scripture says about God’s sovereignty? (See 3.6 here.)
Dr. Little, I love you and you are a great professor, but you are wrong on this. God was most certainly responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and other “evil” acts, but God cannot sin because His intentions are always good (Gen. 50:20). It is the intention, and not the act itself, that determines sinfulness. In fact it is possible to sin without acting at all (see the Sermon on the Mount), and it is equally possible to do something that is technically a sin, such as Rehab the prostitute or the Hebrew midwives, but absent of intentionality it is not a sin.