Episode 194. To be sure, the existence of moral evil and horrid natural realities are a serious challenge to the belief in a personal all loving, all powerful, and all knowing God. Let me offer my attempt at dealing with this problem. And I want to underline that this is only a hypothesis to word a Christian Theodicy. To briefly outline where we'll be going, I'll begin with some Biblical considerations, then logical considerations related to Theodicy. And end with experiential considerations. And how personal experience is a factor in our coming to terms with moral evil and horrid natural realities. We will start with biblical considerations related to Theodicy. You will have noticed that this section on Theodicy comes at the end of the course. The reasons for this is because I had to establish the hermeneutics of Genesis 3 and the fall. I am certain that you can now appreciate that Genesis 1 to 11 features Ancient cosmogony and ancient historiography. In particular, there are recycled ancient motifs. Consequently, scientific and historical concordism are not possible. In addition, it's very clear now that the cosmic fall in Genesis 3 is falsified by the fossil record. Suffering and death have been in the world hundreds of millions of years before humans appear. Therefore, in my opinion we need to move beyond the Augustinian, that is western Theodicy. My basic principle with regards to biblical considerations is that the Bible reveals the topic of Theodicy In stages. In other words, biblical revelation develops over time. It's important to point out that revelatory development in the Bible is foundational to Christianity. For example, all Christians agree that the Old Testament develops into the New Testament. In fact, Jesus in Matthew 5:17 affirms the concept that the Bible develops when he states do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets that is the Old Testament. I've not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Here are some examples of revelatory development toward fulfillment by Jesus. Regarding food laws, in the Old Testament some foods are unclean, but in the New Testament Jesus declares all food's clean. Dealing with ethical laws. In the old testament, adulterers were stoned to death. But in the New Testament, Jesus tells adulterers not to sin again. And with regards to the atonement for sin, that is making amends for sin, in the Old Testament the Hebrews used animal sacrifice. But in the New Testament, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross makes amends for sin. Now I'm sure everyone will agree that developments in ethics and atonement for sin are radical shifts. With this being the case, Jesus offers us a precedent for revelatory development with Theodicy. Let me suggest that there are roughly three stages of Theodicy in the Bible. Stage 1 of Theodicy in the Bible is the fall in Genesis 3. Sin is causely connected to suffering and death. Adam and Eve sin, and then God launches suffering and death into the world, in other words, the Cosmic Fall. And indeed, this chapter is a Theodicy. It explains the origin of moral evil and horrid natural realities. The second stage of Theodicy in the Bible is the Book of Job. Which is dedicated entirely to the issue of suffering. This Biblical book begins to challenge the notion that sin is causely connected to suffering. In Chapters 1-3, Job loses all his possessions. His children are killed. And he's stricken by a debilitating disease. Then for most of the book, through Chapters 4 to 37, Job's so called friends are still in Stage 1. And they attempt to argue that Job's suffering is causely connected to sin. Finally, towards the end of the book of Job in Chapters 38 to 41, God enters and points to the creation. And asks Job where were you when the foundations of the Earth were set? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Do you feed the lions? In essence, this is an intelligent design argument. In the final chapter of the book, Chapter 42, we have the conclusion. Job is humbled by the creation. In other words, he's humbled by God's intelligent design argument. And states in Quote 7, surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. End of Episode.