A Sanctuary for Biblical Logic

The origin of moral evil has baffled many Christian theologians throughout the ages. For many years, I have been thinking much about the topic of theodicy. If God is good, why is there evil? Many Christians concluded that God is the creator of everything except sin or moral evil because the infinitely good God cannot be involved with sin in any way. Satan and man are the sole causes, founders, and creators of sin. For many Christians, that’s the safety mark. However, I am not satisfied with that cowardly answer. I heartily agree with the famous Christian Counsellor, Jay Adams, who laid out the most basic theodicy question in his book “The Grand Demonstration: A Biblical Study of the So-called Problem of Evil”:   “To say that all evil is the result of the fall of Adam is perfectly true—but piteously inadequate. That response merely moves the question back a step: how could there be a fall? To suggest that Satan is the cause of the fall, again, is true, but only pushes the inquir...

  Most Christians would imagine that the universal fall of man into sin is something unfortunate. God is sad and broken-hearted at the current state of the world and wished that no one had sinned. He had no other choice but to curse the world to punish humanity for their abuse of free will. He forced Himself to do it. Many would have wished that Adam and Eve had not sinned against God and hypothesized what would have happened if man did not fall into sin. Some might have even joked that they would scold Adam and Eve in heaven for being deceived by the serpent. They imagined a hypothetical post-adamic world of peace and righteousness, where Christ does not even have to come to save mankind. Since God's original plan failed because Adam sinned and brought along his posterity down the drain, therefore now God must activate His back up plan to bring in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of men and rose again on the third day for their justification. Is the above descr...

Many Christians cringe at the topic of the origin of evil. Where did evil come from? Many Calvinists and non-Calvinists will answer with either “don’t know” or “evil comes from the devil and man”. For the Calvinists, they agree that God pre-ordained evil before the foundation of the world, but many will deny its logical consequence that  God is the ultimate cause of or the creator of evil. God is the one who created Satan and man with the potential to sin. It was so definite, according to God’s eternal decree, that they would sin. Hence, there is no way we can ever cut the link between the origin of evil and God.  Even for the doctrine of eternal reprobation, many will say that it is conditional on man’s foreseen sin. But it is God who hardens hearts as He is pleased. Most are afraid of making God “the author of sin”, hence they’d rather not talk about it. John Calvin and Gordon H. Clark proposed a certain biblical presupposition that would vindicate God in His sovereignty to ...