A Look at Suffering - Part Six - Why God CAN'T stop the pedophile...

(NOTE: please DO NOT base your theology upon the following.  I am just a regular Christian like you, trying to sort out issues of faith.  I CLAIM no authority over the Bible or God.  Any "answers" I may provide are NOT the basis for doctrine, but are solely my beliefs and opinions.  Any quotes I use by Boyd or other authors, I use as I best understand them.  Any miss use of the quotes are my fault, and should not reflect upon the original authors.)

I think it's time that we cut to the point.

Why is there suffering?

Or what we really want to know: Why doesn't God stop a pedophile from preying upon a child.

I use this example, because it's one I'm sure we all agree reflects the nature of evil.

The question still, even now, makes me pause for a moment and wonder...

Why would an ALL GOOD and LOVING God allow ONE SINGLE child to suffer in such a way?

Certainly and ALL POWERFUL God COULD stop it from happening...Dare I say, SHOULD stop it from happening.

And, there is evidence that He DOES stop it from happening...by why not all the time?

So, why does and ALL LOVING, ALL POWERFUL God allow such evil to occur?

(Before we even try to answer these questions, we must know this: there is no easy answer to them.  There is no cut-and-dry, this is why answer.  In fact, we may only generally know the answer, but will never specifically know.

But we MUST, MUST remember this:  it IS NOT God's will that this should happen.  We must NEVER lose our picture of who God is, as revealed to us through Jesus.  This can be, will be, tough...)

"What he can hardly begin to fathom, however, is the vast complexity of creation, a creation that includes an untold number of human and spiritual free agents whose decisions affect much that comes to pass." - Boyd.

In other words...there's more going on than just what we see or experience.

We must remember that God's goal is ultimately LOVE.  But in order for there to be true love, in all it's forms, there must be risk.  This risk is manifested by God granting us free will.

Not only us, but of spiritual agents as well - angels, demons.

We can choose God's way, or not.  We see evidence of both every day.  Those we could argue that more to the "not" side than the other.

As in the case of the child.

Now, think a moment, how much our hearts break when we hear such tragedies.  Especially when we couldn't do anything to stop it.

How much more must God's heart break; especially when He CAN.

But why doesn't he?

The short answer: He CAN'T.  Not always.

But not for reasons that we would think.

God "can't" not because He lacks the strength, or the power...make no mistake He does.

God "can't" because that's not the world he created.

God didn't create a world in which he can and does thwart free will as he sees fit.  God created a world that involved RISK and DANGER.  And yes, we become causalities of this.

But it's not God's fault, though God does take responsibility.

Boyd describes it more clearly this way, "God could have created a world in which his will is always done...however, a world in his will is possibly NOT done would have been ruled out....this means he would have ruled out a world where (true) love is possible."

He continues, "Conversely, if God decided to create a world where love IS possible, he thereby ruled out a world in which his will is ALWAYS done...he can't guarantee that his will is always done, not because he lacks power but because of the kind of world He created."

He can't do more than He does because the world HE CREATED prevents him from doing so.

To give it a more simplistic example: God CAN'T make a round triangle.  Doing so would make is a circle.  A triangle is a triangle because it ISN'T anything else - it's a triangle.

If God arbitrarily intervened at any time, anytime He wanted, He would be violating His world of free will...we would only be allowed to make decisions, we wouldn't be free to.

This wouldn't be a world of freely given love.

To intervene at will would change the world he created...thus it would NOT BE the world he created.

Isn't this a reflection of His lack of power?

By no means.

This is what Boyd calls the requirement of irrevocability. (say that ten times fast!)

"Love involves choice.  This means that God can't revoke agents' freedom when the act in unloving ways.  If God were to revoke our freedom...we wouldn't be truly free...He has to give [freedom] irrevocably.  God can't intervene to stop it.  He has to tolerate it.  Not because He lacks the power...but because this is what it means to give genuine freedom to agents."

BUUUUUUTTTTT!

This DOES NOT mean God can NEVER stop an agent from doing something.  However, me MUST and DOES stop short of coercion.  Persuasion, though, is fair game.

But, there's another but...Boyd says, "This...doesn't rule out other agents using their own freedom to prevent an agent's actions or from canceling the effects of that agent's decisions."

This irrevocable freedom that we, and other agents, are granted does not LIMIT God's power.

Boyd says, "God's power is not the issue.  The issue is the kind of world God decided to create and its logical implications."

What is at issue is, "WE don't know how much irrevocable freedom God has granted any individual and thus how much God HAS TO tolerate the ongoing effects of that individuals evil choices.  There is NO reason to think God gives the same amount of freedom to everyone or that the scope of this gift is fixed throughout a person's life...We can only know that to the extent that God has give free will, he can't revoke it."

This, however, does not answer the reason why any SPECIFIC evil occurs, only in general.  Thus, we must keep our focus on God and who he has revealed himself to us through Christ.  And when evil does occur we must trust in God and have faith that he will bring good out of it.