Justice and Benevolence

The Bible talks a lot about justice. Justice can be most accurately defined as the way things are supposed to be. If something is wrong, that is injustice. Implementing justice means establishing what is right. Therefore justice is good. Justice is restoring things to the way God had created them to b in the first place.

God is completely and totally just. He has to be. Since justice is good and God is good, God has to be just. God is so good that he cannot even be around sin. Sin requires a punishment. Sin requires judgement. Sin is an injustice that must be brought to right. God cannot let sin go unpunished. Most of us can probably recite Romans 6:23 from memory. Yeah, yeah, sin’s punishment is death. Whatever. And God gave us the gift of eternal life through his Son. We know this is true, but when was the last time we took the time to fully understand it? God is perfectly just and cannot let things go unpunished. So then why does he not punish us when we are so deserving but rather gives us eternal life? The answer is benevolence. The dictionary defines benevolence as “the desire to do good to others.” God is perfectly just but also perfectly benevolent. At times when justice requires punishment to make things right, it can seem contradictory to benevolence. But God is completely both. He had to punish sin, but since he wanted the absolute best for us, he sent Jesus to take the punishment for us. This is where the gift of God spoken about in Romans 6:23 comes in. We have a choice if we want to accept it or not. Those who accept it escape God’s judgement through the substitution of Jesus Christ. But for those who do not accept it, God will still punish them. Thought he wants the best for us, he has to punish those who sin and refuse to accept him. Their judgement will come later. God’s mercy and benevolence is seen even more in the fact that he holds off his judgement and gives those who reject his gift every last chance to take it. The Bible makes it clear that their punishment will eventually come. 

Since God is perfectly just, he also wants us to establish justice. Amos 5:21-24 says, “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” As Christians, we often get caught up in the religious “duties” and the ritualistic part of worship. Often times we ignore justice. We ignore the way things are supposed to be and try to please God using meaningless, flashy shows of faith. God does not desire this. He would rather have us actively enacting justice than performing showy acts of worship to God with an empty heart. Worship is only acceptable to God when justice is a part of it. More than that, this verse shows that justice is an act of worship. We are giving glory to God when we do our best to set things right.

One translation for justice in the Hebrew language is “shalom.” It can be translated as both “justice” and “peace.” Loosely, it means wholeness and restoration. By this definition, justice is also about restoring relationships to what they were intended to be. We were created to have a relationship with God. Since the beginning, human beings were supposed to be on a personal basis with God. Adam and Eve actually dwelled with God in the Garden of Eden. But when they ate the forbidden fruit, that relationship was forever damaged for all human beings. The same is true for us. When our sinful nature gets in the way of our relationship with God, it is damaged. According to the definition of “shalom,” justice is the restoration of relationships, including our intended relationship with God. So when our relationship with God is broken, this is injustice.

Overall, God is perfectly just and benevolent. He calls us to be the same in our everyday lives, our worship to God, and our relationship with him.

https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2014/06/06/how-the-bible-understands-justice/32339

http://voiceoftruthblog.com/the-benevolence-of-god
https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/april-2010/the-justice-of-god/

Epistemology and the Christian Worldview

Epistemology, or the study of knowing knowledge, is a difficult topic to cover. Humans struggle trying to understand what truth is. Is it possible for humans to know full truth? Where does it come from? There are many different people in the world in many different cultures with many different world views and many different religions. The list of ways that how we are all different goes on and on without an end. All of our perceptions of truth are different too. One’s epistemology and perceptions of truth depend largely on his or her world view. Although, not all of these perceptions can be true! They all contradict each other, so they cannot all be considered truthful. Are any of them truly the truth? How do we know? Where does this knowledge of truth come from?From a Christian worldview, God is the center of all knowledge. Our worldview is based on the fact that there is only one true living God. All knowledge and truth comes from him. Since God created all things, knowledge must come from him as well. Everything that exists comes from God, and that includes knowledge. In fact, God created all other knowers. We obtain our knowledge from God. But what about the people who do not acknowledge the existence of God? Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” According to Paul, everyone has some sort of knowledge of the existence of God. Nature and all of the rest of God’s creation proclaims his existence and his glory, “so that people are without excuse.” Even if they do not acknowledge the existence of God, their knowledge still comes from him. Everything we know comes from divine revelation. He gave us the ability to reason and gain knowledge. 

Since knowledge comes from God, epistemology and Christianity go hand in hand. We must know God to know anything at all. The one and only way to truth is through Jesus. In John 14:6-7 Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Jesus IS absolute truth. He was sent to earth, as fully human and fully God, in order that we will be able to know the Father. It is through Jesus that we know God, and through God that we obtain knowledge.

Although God gives us absolute truth and knowledge, these can get lost in the many different false worldview and false perceptions of truth in the world. So then, how do we know what is truly true? If only we had some sort of map to point us towards truth. If only there was some sort of guide book to tell us what is truly knowledge. But there is! God gave us his Word in the form of the Bible to be a guide towards truth. But the Bible is not the only way we can obtain knowledge. It acts as a guide distinguish what is true and what is not, but not all of our knowledge must come from spiritual experience. God created us with reason and intuition so that we can understand and learn. So even if we are using our rational minds to obtain knowledge, that knowledge still comes from God, since he gave us those rational minds to use. But although human reason and intuition, given to humans by God of course, can access some knowledge, God’s word is the best source of truth and knowledge. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” Even if God was foolish, his foolishness would be much much wiser than the wisest of people. That is why we should go to God first and foremost for knowledge and truth. He is the ultimate source of truth and much more trust worthy than our human reason, which is often times faulty.

As a Christian, I believe all this whole heartedly. God is the center of my life, and is my source of all truth and knowledge. In order to know truth, I must first know God through his son Jesus Christ. Everything I know comes from God, which is passed down through the Bible, spiritual revelation, or the human reason that he gave me. God is the source of all truth.

http://www3.dbu.edu/naugle/pdf/devo_7.pdf
http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/12/03/the-knowledge-of-the-self-revealing-god-starting-point-for-the-chrisutian-worldview/
http://www.proginosko.com/2009/04/a-biblical-epistemology/

Reality and Existence

One major question has plagued humanity for a long time: does God exist? People have debated and searched for the answer, many in vain, for centuries. But how do you prove, or disprove for that matter, the existence of God?Personally, I firmly believe that God exists. Just look around. There is so much detail found in creation that I can’t imagine all of it happening by accident. Just the intricacy in one human cell is astounding. Look even at the earth itself. It is in the perfect position from the sun in order for life to thrive on it. Even a fraction closer to the sun, and we would burn. A fraction farther away from it, and we would freeze. This amount of order and perfection cannot be produced by chaos and mere chance. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” God’s creation is proof of his existence. Everything around us speaks of his glory, and by seeing it, we should know that there is at least some sort of creator. Like Romans says, because of God’s glorious creation, our unbelief has no excuse.

God’s fingerprint is evident in us as well. We are created in his image and are therefore a reflection of him. Even more, God is at work in us. We are all born with somewhat of a moral compass. Although not every right and wrong are clear, we experience guilt, proving that there is a right and wrong. God created good and evil, and we are somehow in tune to parts of what that is. God is at work in us in other ways as well. So many people have actually experienced God and been filled with the Holy Spirit. I’ve seen it happen, and it has happened to me as well. I do not know how so many amazing things can happen without an existing God. 

Looking at creation and ourselves, we know that God exists. But this idea of God is hard to wrap our heads around. God does not change. He is constant and will remain constant. He existed even before time began. In fact, he created time. That is probably the hardest part for us to understand. Time is a part of our reality, but God created it. His creation cannot limit him. He is outside of time, which is really hard for us to understand. In a world where everything has a beginning and end, we cannot imagine something that is constant throughout all of eternity. But that is who God is. He is above all things and is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Another difficult concept of God to understand is the Trinity. A basis of the Christian faith is that God exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because God is above everything that we know, it is hard for us to understand. God is ultimately unified as one, yet ultimately distinct as three separate persons. There is no earthly analogy or idea that can compare to God being one being yet three persons, yet it is so detrimental to our Christian faith. 

What does that mean for reality? The philosophical definition of reality is “something that exists independently of all other things and from which all other things are derived.” According to that definition, God is our reality. As Christians, God should be the center of our lives. Everything that exists is from, through, and to him. Creation is from him because he created all things. Genesis states that God created “the heavens and the earth.” This establishes the idea that there is more than just our physical world. The idea of heaven and hell and a life after death is part of the reality that God created. Everything is through him because he continues to rule over it. The world is still dependent on God because God continues to sustain it. All things rely on God for their existence. His power continues to allow him to uphold and govern the world. The world functions through him. Reality is also created to God. Everything that exists is created to glorify God. Their purpose is to point to God and his glorious power. That is our purpose as well. Since we are a part of God’s creation, we are called to glorify him in everything we do, in order that others might see his power. God is the focal point of our reality.

 https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/christian-metaphysics-and-the-creator-creature-distinction-part-i

https://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/it1dvxa9mo

The Fall and the Problem of Evil

Genesis 1:31 says, ““God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” When God made the Garden of Eden, it was good. The dictionary defines good as “that which is morally right; righteousness.’ The dictionary defines evil as “morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked.” By definition, good and evil are complete opposites. Everything God created was good, and therefore not evil. Genesis 3:1 states that the serpent is a “wild animal the Lord God had made.” Since the serpent was a part of God’s creation, it by itself cannot be evil. Satan must have possessed the serpent or influenced it in some way. Even so, God gave punishments to both the serpent and Satan. First he cursed the serpent, saying, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.” Then he cursed Satan, saying, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15) God seemed to have blamed both the serpent and Satan. 
But if the garden was good, how did Satan, who is evil, even enter the garden? How did sin enter the garden? Well the Bible does not say that the Garden was perfect and incapable of blemish; only that it was good. Adam and Eve were just as capable of sinnning if the serpent had not been there because God had given them free will. The Garden was good until Adam and Eve made a choice to sin. Think of it this way. If you take a test, you are neither right nor wrong until you make a choice. Before you answer the first question, it is simply blank. But how could Adam and Eve sin if no one had been there to put that idea in their head? Unlike gravity, sin is not an external force. Sin is an internal decision to reject God. From the moment that Adam and Eve were created, they had the ability to reject God. So just like the Garden, Adam and Eve were morally perfect until they made a choice to reject God.

Adam and Eve were created good. Their choice was what made them sinful. Since then, we as humans have been inherently sinful. From the moment we are born, we have selfish desires. Again, sin is the internal decision to reject God. We are born trying to go through life on our own, but we were not created to be independent. We are created to be completely dependent on God and follow his plan only. God’s plan is the best for us that we can possibly have. When we sin and try to do life our own way, we miss out on what God has planned for us. So why do we do it? Because Adam and Eve sinned, those sinful desires are now inherent in us. We are born wanting the best for ourselves, but when we try, it ends up falling really short of God’s perfect plan for us.

Since God’s plan is perfect, how can evil even be a part of it? Scripture clearly shows that evil had existed since the very beginning of time. The very fact that the forbidden tree was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil clearly proves this fact correct. But why did God create it? This question brings us back to the problem of free will. God wants us to be able to choose our own destinies. He wants us to love him, but he wants that to be a choice. Therefore he needed to create another option. Without evil, there would be no other option to loving God, and free will would not make much sense. We would simply be robots professing our love for God, a love that we did not choose for ourselves. Some will argue, however, that free will does not exist since God is all knowing. But influencing someone’s decisions is different from knowing what that person will choose. God is outside of time and knows all that happened, is happening, and will happen. He can know what will happen without influencing that event.

Overall, sin in the Garden happened because of God’s great love for us. He loves us so much that he allows us to make our own choices, even if they are not the right ones.

http://www.allaboutgod.com/faq/why-did-god-create-evil.htm
http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/alevelphilosophy/data/AS/IdeaofGod/FreeWillGod.pdf
https://creation.com/who-was-the-serpent

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