Bart Ehrman asks why God didn’t give humans “the intelligence they need to exercise it [free will] so that we can all live happily and peaceably together? You can’t argue that he wasn’t able to do so, if you want to argue that he is all powerful.” (13) This objection is Ehrman’s slant on the …
Ehrman’s Problem 3: God Could Have Made Us So We’d Always Do Right Read More »
As I mentioned yesterday, Ehrman admits that free will can explain much human evil, but he asks how it can explain malaria, dysentery, drought, hurricanes, mudslides, or a “tsunami that kills hundreds of thousands overnight.” (12) In other words, how does the misuse of free will explain “natural” evil? Although there are other answers to …
Bart Ehrman, in his book, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer, tries to make the case that neither Christians nor the Bible can answer why God, if He were to exist, would allow “the cesspool of misery and suffering” that many people endure. Ehrman says that he …
Ehrman’s Problem: He Misreads the Bible and Impugns God’s Fairness Read More »
I know what many of you are thinking: “The last thing those who are sick need to be told is that it is because of sin!” But, I agree. To do that would be dumb. How would I know if their sickness is the result of some sin they have committed? But it’s not that …
If You’re Sick, Maybe It’s Because You’ve Sinned Read More »
I need to begin with two important qualifications. First, Christians are commanded to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) and we are commanded to care for the sick. Compassion must always be our first response to tragedy but, sadly, too often that is not the case. In what follows I’m not writing on how …
See my article on Biola’s website regarding the unsung lessons from September 11, 2001: all of us are born in a state of sin and that’s why all fear death (1 Cor. 15:56). Accepting these truths prepares us to receive the good news about Jesus Christ—we can be forgiven, inwardly changed, adopted into God’s family, and inherit eternal …
Unsung Lessons from 9/11: “Moral Monsters” & Fear of Death Read More »
In 1 Cor. 6:2-3 is an amazing truth: “Do you know not that we will judge the world…. Do you not know that we will judge angels?” Christians will judge the world? Judge Angels? That’s extraordinary! But, why would humans in any sense be qualified to judge others—humans or angels? The answer is simple: those …
Since I teach on why God allows evil, I often talk about Job. I have learned that many Christians have missed a major lesson of that book, if not the major lesson. Although many rightly conclude from Job that we should be humble when it comes to why God allows this or that suffering, there …
Sound the alarm and bar the door! We’ve been robbed! Two doctrinal jewels are missing: human depravity and the Christian’s glorification. But I wonder how many Christians consider them jewels? After all, who likes to talk about the depths of human sinfulness (“Yes, I know we’re all sinners, blah-blah-blah”)? And eternity sounds tedious (we’re not …
