Season 3 Podcast 206 Recognizing the Hand of God, Pt II A: Agency
Pt II A: Agency
If you are new to the “Recognizing the Hand of God” series, we recommend that you first download Season 3 Podcasts 204 and 205 “Mortality vs. Immortality Pt I A and Pt I B for continuity.
The one thing that everyone at the final judgment will recognize unambiguously is that God is Just. On earth we tend to blame God for both good and evil. On my Facebook page today a person wrote, “Where was God during 9/11?” It is a plaintive cry and an understandable question, and one cannot criticize a person for asking it. I suppose that in one form or another, people have been asking that question since Cain killed Abel.
I touch on the question briefly in this podcast, but I go more in depth in other podcasts because the issue is very important. And we all need to come to terms with it.
The short answer is that God is the author of good. Satan is the author of evil. On earth we are enticed both by Christ to do good and by Satan to do evil. That is the only way that agency can exist. We choose whom we follow, or where is freewill? Suffering is the price we pay for the existence of evil in this world.
Let me pose a hypothetical world. First let’s assume there is no God and there is no devil, no absolute good and no absolute evil. Second let’s assume there are two earths exactly like ours. A single dictator rules both worlds. The dictator presents himself as a benevolent libertarian with god-like powers, but he is not what he seems. He is the only immortal. In fact, he is a bored immortal and creates worlds for his amusement. He cares nothing for the happiness or misery of his subjects.
Eternity is a dull thing, and he needs diversion; therefore, he decides to give his subjects everything they desire. He will simply stand back, aloof, silent, sipping Margaritas as he watches things unfold. He never interferes.
On one world he allows only those who think one way and on the other world he allows only those who think the opposite way. The point is that all those who think exactly alike live together. If there were no absolute standards defining what is good or what is evil, how would you know if your world were good or evil? The answer is that you wouldn’t. You would have no opposition. What would be your frame of reference if everything were the same? The only reference you would have would be the consequence of things. The problem is that without contrast, you really wouldn’t know that your way is best.
As we know from our experience in the real-world people often call evil good and good evil. It is Satan’s greatest tool. Satan likes nothing better than a fanatical saint in his service who thinks he is serving God.
In our hypothetical universe where there are no laws only opinions, people would say that they were good. The thing that is missing is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil cannot exist in a world where there are no absolutes, no opposites, and everything is relative.
Let’s use our world today as an example. Let’s say our fictitious dictator focuses on our world and organizes us according to our innate desires.
From America alone the dictator would place all liberals who adopt the woke philosophy on one world and all conservatives who are traditionalists on another. Remember, however, with our dictator, there are no absolutes. People can make up their own laws.
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