The problem of evil is only a problem if you don’t accept the solution; Jesus Christ!

SERIES TEXTS

  1. RENEW YOUR MIND: Romans 12:1-2, “1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
  2. DEFEND THE GOSPEL: 1 Peter 3:15-16, “15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer (apologia) to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
  3. DEMOLISH DEMONIC STRONGHOLDS: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

SERIES DEFINITIONS

  1. WORLDVIEW: How you see the world and give an explanation for everything you believe.
  2. A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: Seeing the world through the lens of God and His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
    1. Axiom: God exists and has revealed the Bible (sixty-six books) as the foundation for all truth and knowledge.
    2. Presuppositions: The Word of God gives the following six categories of knowledge; “God, creation, humanity, Jesus, salvation, and judgment.”
    3. Propositions: All implications derived from good biblical exegesis and deductive logic.
    4. Best Guesses: All claims based in induction; the scientific method and experience.
  3. EXAMPLE OF USING THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW IN REGARDS TO HOMOSEXUALITY: “Since God’s Word is my foundation (axiom) for all truth and knowledge I presuppose that God has an order for sexuality and make the proposition that it’s a sin and people who act in such a way will perish based on 1 Timothy 1:8-11.

Check our Presuppositional Apologetics Class for more information. 

THE FALL IN THE GARDEN – GENESIS 3

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. (2 Corinthians 11:3 & Revelation 12:9) He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” (Genesis 2:16-17)

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh) and pleasing to the eye (lust of the eyes), and also desirable for gaining wisdom (pride of life), she took some and ate it. (1 John 2:15-17 & Luke 4:1-13) She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Romans 5:12)

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “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. (Isaiah 65:25) 15 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.” (Mathew 1:20,23, Isaiah 7:14, Hebrews 2:14 & 1 John 3:8)

16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Revelation 22:1-2)

THE RESULTS OF THE FALL IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

  1. Mankind Lost God’s Glory & Righteousness (Genesis 3:7 & Romans 3:9)
  2. Emotional Anguish (Genesis 3:9 & Romans 8:23)
  3. Pain in Child Birth & Family Order (Genesis 3:16 & Ephesians 5:22-23)
  4. Pain in Work & Cursed Universe (Genesis 3:17-18 & Romans 8:22)
  5. Physical Death (Genesis 3:19 & Romans 6:23)
  6. Knowledge of Good & Evil (Genesis 3:22 & Romans 12:9)
  7. Separation from God (Genesis 3:24 & Ephesians 2:17-18)
  8. Loss of Spiritual Dominion (Matthew 28:18, John 12:31 & 2 Corinthians 4:4)

THREE MAJOR REASONS FOR THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

  1. The Fall in the Garden of Eden: Natural evil came to both mankind inwardly and outwardly upon the natural world (Genesis 3).
  2. The Fall in Noah’s Generation: God cut short the years of mankind to 120 and destroyed the earth (Genesis 6).
  3. The Fall at the Tower of Babel: God separated the people by different languages (Genesis 11).

THE HYPOCRISY OF MORAL RELATIVISM

JESUS SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

Isaiah 52:13-53:12, “13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness— 15 so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”