With the
relentless barrage of tragedies and disasters, the current epidemic, acts of violence, even
wars and rumors of wars, which we personally experience or hear of in the 24/7 news
media, people need to find some
explanation of why these things are happening and who or what may behind them.
It is to this
attribution that I write this essay.
Theodicy is a word philosophers and religious
scholars use to address the problem of good and evil (theo=God / dicy [or dike]=
evil) and how God is related to it. It is the strongest increasingly secular (without God) or cultural objection to belief in a purposive and worthy-of-worshiping deity. The basic argument of the secularists and agnostics is: 'If there is a god and God is "good" and
all-powerful as "religionists" say, why does he allow these atrocities to happen—especially to good or innocent people-- especially if he created them?' A good
question.
These are my answers and assumptions and premises as a Christian:
As one who
believes in the Christian (and only true and revealed and universal) God, I am convinced He is real and He is good. My belief
in the Bible, its teachings, and in the credibility of its many
witnesses (prophets and apostles and God’s firstborn son Jesus Christ) carries great weight. Likewise my testimony of the
truthfulness of other books of scripture, The Book of Mormon: Another
Testament of Jesus Christ and its many human witnesses (I have carefully
read, studied, pondered and prayed about it; most critics have not) even more
strongly supports this view, and the books of Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price, give strong Historical evidence and are available for examination for those who will look at them without bias. My own personal testimony by the Holy Ghost cements
these other testaments (it follows that I also believe the Holy Ghost is real, as I do the divinity of Jesus Christ).
·
God
may have the power to prevent tragedies and atrocities from happening but generally won’t intervene. One reason is that God, Himself, operates under divine pre-existing Law and Eternal principles; he cannot violate them and still be God. He may invoke some other law (yet undiscovered by man) which creates or allows 'miracles to happen, but these are clearly the exception because miracles do not create spiritual growth and spiritual growth is one major reason why we were sent to this earth.
Another reason is because He sent us here to exercise our moral agency for good or for ill, to prove ourselves and ‘work out our own salvation’ in an environment of many options and conditions—from the best to the worst. Work and even pain or other opposition is necessary to growth. Those who are not accountable and suffer (e.g., little children and the mentally or otherwise seriously handicapped) will be saved by the grace of Christ’s Atonement. The rest of us will be ‘saved’ by obedience to the conditions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the plan of happiness—and the gift of His Atonement. All will be redeemed (made immortal) but not will be 'saved' in the Kingdom of God because of their choices. God is merciful as well as just.
Another reason is because He sent us here to exercise our moral agency for good or for ill, to prove ourselves and ‘work out our own salvation’ in an environment of many options and conditions—from the best to the worst. Work and even pain or other opposition is necessary to growth. Those who are not accountable and suffer (e.g., little children and the mentally or otherwise seriously handicapped) will be saved by the grace of Christ’s Atonement. The rest of us will be ‘saved’ by obedience to the conditions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the plan of happiness—and the gift of His Atonement. All will be redeemed (made immortal) but not will be 'saved' in the Kingdom of God because of their choices. God is merciful as well as just.
· The
earth itself, as were all people, as the Bible tells us, was created good by
God (actually ‘organized’ pre-existing matter, not created ‘ex nihilo’—meaning ‘out of nothing’). The earth and all things placed upon it, however, ‘fell’, or was removed, from the direct influence of God by the consequence of broken law (for all broken laws have consequences) but could, in their own time, be redeemed by Christ (through the resurrection commemorated on the day we call 'Easter').
·
As
to the present ills caused by man himself, or the nature of Nature—the earth
itself, its geology and entropy over time—the Atonement of Christ, in congruence with
man’s obedience to the Law which covers all things, became the remedy to all of
man’s temporal and spiritual challenges—even those caused by natural processes
or by other people. But remedies are not always painless until healing or wholeness occurs.
Evil is real. There is a real devil (not the cartoon variety) called Satan. Suffering is real and none will escape it. Even Christ did not. Suffering is not always (and usually isn't) a form of Divine punishment or even discipline. Christ did not live and die to end all suffering, but to end all needless (self-imposed or self-generated) suffering. Sometimes we, like Christ himself, need to "learn obedience by the things He suffered." And Christ, unlike ourselves, was sinless.
Evil is real. There is a real devil (not the cartoon variety) called Satan. Suffering is real and none will escape it. Even Christ did not. Suffering is not always (and usually isn't) a form of Divine punishment or even discipline. Christ did not live and die to end all suffering, but to end all needless (self-imposed or self-generated) suffering. Sometimes we, like Christ himself, need to "learn obedience by the things He suffered." And Christ, unlike ourselves, was sinless.
· This
life and this earth is not a playground, but is a laboratory and testing
center. We come to it by choice (we
signed a ‘contract’ as it were) and we come with the preparations and attitudes
we developed in our pre-earth life. We
knew that it was worth it to come—as difficult as it might be.
·
Notwithstanding
the challenges, some of which are horrific, people can succeed with the help of
Christ and the help of each other. Pain is not permanent. Death is part of the plan. Life is worth living.
“Man is that he might have joy.” “All your losses will be made up to you in
the resurrection provided you continue faithful.” (Joseph Smith, Jr.)
·
Man
is confronted with the bitter--there is much of it-- so he can appreciate the sweet--which will overcome all human tragedy and bitterness —and through trial and obedience come to know his
Redeemer and Savior and thus receive a far more abundant life.