"If you were God, how would you have designed the world differently? As you remove suffering or evil and tinker with people's free will, think through the consequences that would result. How would people form character in your utopia? Would they be motivated to seek God in the midst of their pleasures? If you supernaturally intervened to eliminate evil, where would you draw the line - to prevent murder? Child abuse? Theft? Slander? Evil thoughts that may prompt evil actions? At what point are people turned into puppets who lack free will and therefore cannot truly express love?" [Lee Strobel]
As I read and ponder the questions that Lee Strobel wrote, I cannot help but think of the moment in Bruce Almighty where Jim Carrey's character asks God, "How do you make so many people love you without affecting free will?" Which Morgan Freeman (playing God) responds with, "Heh, welcome to my world, son. If you come up with an answer to that one, let me know." I cannot imagine how hard it must be to be God, particularly in regards to the free will problem. I struggle so much with this issue because I feel like even if humans were just robots at least suffering/pain/sorrow/misery/sadness would be nullified. Yet I know how great it feels when my boys run to me when I get home from work. I know how great it feels to have Trenton ask me for a hug and kiss at bedtime. I know how great it feels to have my wife close to me and give me repeated assurances of her love for me. I cannot imagine losing all of that (and so much more!) simply to remove suffering & sorrow in this world. In the end I must sit back and thank God that I am just Landon and He gets to be God. His job seems so hard and heartbreaking. I don't know if and what I would change if I could change how the world was/is formed. In the end I guess I just have to trust that God knew/knows exactly what He was/is doing.
Friday, February 6, 2009
A Different World?
Posted by Landon at 2:39 PM
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2 comments:
The way that you answer the question on free will, will determine your true view of God. The real question is; is God completely Sovereign? I say completely becasue people will say that He is untill it gets to man's free will, either God is in control or man is. ( The scripture is very clear on these things)
A.W Pink wrote a book called The Sovereignty of God please read it. It is just a book please don't trust me or the book always go to scripture.
We still need to do lunch.
This is a stinkin beautiful post. I am amazed at God being willing to put on flesh and join His creation, and humble himself to the possibility of being disappointed by a people whose chief export seems to be disappointment.
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