First of all Fred thanks for the reply. I was beginning to think that our friends on the board thought theodicy was a greek sailor trying to return home from the war. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

However, to be fair to the pastor who wrote the piece I reread the article again after reading your reply. Pastor M. did say that the natural evil was a result of the curse put upon the earth by the fall of our ancestors Adam and Eve. But of course that still begs the question could not a sovereign God still not keep natural disasters from happening even on a cursed world? To say no because it would violate our free will doesn't make sense.

Many of the author's that I have read say that the ordaining of evil is logical if God uses for ultimate good. Pardon the analogy but its sort of like going to the dentist to get your teeth drilled. Yes the pain is an evil but it is for our ultimate good, no tooth ache.

Others point toward the glory of God being the purpose of evil. If evil didn't exist then God could not demonstrate His mercy upon us. If God couldn't demonstrate His mercy to us then He wouldn't be demonstrating all of His characteristics and so His glory wouldn't be completely revealed. And since God's glory is the ultimate good evil must be ordained.

Comments?

Peter

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. Augustine of Hippo