Cave To The Cross Apologetics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZceTZowEag

God is free of evil because of who He is and His transcendence over His creation. But is He still considered the “author of evil”?

Looking at people like the authors of the Westminster Confessions, Jonathan Edwards, and John Frame we see the Reformed tradition is not caught off guard by this claim that results in recognizing God’s complete sovereignty over all things – including evil. Good analogies exist to show the clarity of this paradox as long as we recognize that all analogies break down.

We look at what God’s transcendence, intentions, decrees, and knowledge allows Him to decree evil while not being evil Himself or His actions be evil. God is responsible for all things but those responsibilities can be deficient in cause. In similar fashion, God’s commands that man ought to do something (or not do something) might seem to need an allowance in an ability to do/not do those things but that’s a misunderstanding of the ought/can distinction.

God is good because of His nature and standing above His creation. Man, as His creatures, are not good because of his nature and standing in God’s creation.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep158/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iujmkmgBD0k

Now that we’ve established the character and nature of God and seen that The Bible doesn’t shy away from attributing God’s control to evil actions of humans, we look at two other aspects of evil The Bible talks about.

In divine hardening, we see that God steers the desires of humans to accomplish His will and His plans. We see it with kings and groups of people and individuals. The biggest example is Pharaoh in the Old Testament. But also seen in Romans 1 with those who suppress the knowledge of God. On the opposite end, God restrains evil humanity from being as evil as we could be. The nature of man is set in evil and there’s no divine need to force a choice to do evil. Just the opposite, for any good to occur God must be the first cause.

We, of course, have to look at the biggest example of evil and see that God is in control. Not just of the individual actions and decisions that lead to the culmination of God’s plan of redemption but in every single action, life, and continuation of life to get everything and everyone at that moment. It would take some all-powerful divine Being to orchestrate such a thing! Well, do I have a Book for you!

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep158/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

What About Free Will? Reconciling Our Choices with God’s Sovereignty by Scott Christensen

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOdkyINUywA

Is God the author of evil? That’s the question that Reformed Christians must be able to answer especially after dismantling libertarian free will. Here we begin to look at the characteristics God embodies that informs the discussion of his sovereignty over evil.

Looking at God’s absolute goodness and holiness and righteousness, we have to realize God is not made up of parts and these qualities are embodied in God fully and completely but also in a perfect balance of each other. This can then inform our understanding of God’s sovereignty over all creation including the good – and the evil.

We look at what The Bible has to say about God actually being tied to evil – but seen in the correct outlook. However, this outlook is shied away from by academics and scholars in a pious but improper manner. Looking at one of the biggest examples of this is from the book of Job.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep157/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnc-nstWMko

We delve into the topic of God’s choosing and man’s choosing as it relates to evil. If you’ve ever wondered, “What about compatibilism? What is it and is it true?” this episode will break down the concept for you.

First, we finish up the last two secondary characteristics that stem from God’s transcendent nature. One is God taking action in His Providence. This just isn’t in the miracles or the big events from history but also in the boring and mundane details. Also, we see God’s unrestricted use of His power in His omnipotence. Then we look at the compatible nature of God as creator and man as creature. We see how important both God’s nature and man’s nature limits each in what is able to be chosen. Here highlights the vast difference between God and man but still a relationship and moral culpability.

We hope these breakdowns are beneficial to you and thank you for joining us as we cover topics like this to learn more and to honor and glorify the Lord of Lords.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep156/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

What About Free Will? Reconciling Our Choices with God’s Sovereignty by Scott Christensen

Providence by John Piper

The Doctrine Of God by John Frame

The Providence Of God by Paul Helm

The Freedom Of The Will by Jonathan Edwards

The Most Real Being: A Biblical and Philosophical Defense of Divine Determinism by J.A. Crabtree

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWVaNvKgWOs

Now that we’ve toppled over the main theodicies that have been preeminent in the discussion of evil; we turn back to what should start off any conversation rooted in the Christian worldview – the character and nature of God. Specifically, God is transcendent.

God didn’t just happen upon the universe; He made it from nothing. As such, He is above all and all things that exist and remain because of Him. This is a scary thing for those in rebellion of Him and sadly that is all of humanity. We follow the author as he focuses on the characteristics that follow from God’s transcendent nature. Things like his magnificence, fully incomprehensible nature, and sovereignty are focused on to lay the foundation for the world that exists explicitly because of who God is and His ultimate power.

From that nature, we will see the most complete theodicy arise and that there really is no problem of evil. Just people who have problems with who God is.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep155/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD3y_dGOs3M

Looking at one of the last main theodicies, we look at the topics of divine judgment & Hell. After laying out the argument from the divine-judgment defense we see that while this argument does have some merit to it, it is not an all-encompassing view of evil.

With two interesting problems, it doesn’t seem to deal with the very first evil of the Fall and it doesn’t seem to link evil that is not a direct result of sin. We also see that it doesn’t seem to tie in God’s love and goodness which needs to be in the picture to have a full theodicy picture. Finally, we cover the topic of evil affecting “innocent” people where it seems also appropriate to cover the topic of Hell, damnation, and the fairness of judgment.

While this isn’t a full coverage on the topic of Hell, the need to introduce the topic is done and further reading is offered.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep154/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn

Hell Under Fire by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson

God & The Problem Of Evil – Five Views by Phillip Cary, William Lane Craig, William Hasker, Thomas Jay Oord, & Stephen Wykstra

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y65dqyPZF4I

Two of the subset theodicies of the Greater-Good Theodicy are the Soul-Making Theodicy and the Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds Defense. In these, soul-making in the best possible world gives a purpose to evil existing as a means to an end.

From the soul-making side, we see this as a desire in our own stories we share and treasure. Without evil, life is a boring non-story. However, there are some major issues with this theory that involves every non-Christian who ever lived. And from the best possible world, we have a logical idea dependent on the character and nature and God. We see a couple of glaring issues including examples of two worlds that are actually better without evil in it. But we still help Leibniz out with making his work more biblical.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep153/

35:28 – Ep.150 – Hermeneutics & Apologetics

35:40 – Ep.151 – Hermeneutics & Practical Bible Study

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Postmortal by Drew Magary

My Review From GoodReads

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f3AZo-9SkE

Looking at another explanation for why there is evil in the world, we turn to the Greater-Good Theodicy. With this, we see a focus on the good that is accomplished as a result of the evil that occurs. From the evil actions of people or evil in the natural world, God is able to produce an abundance of good.

Just as with other theodicies, there are a lot of good things the Greater-Good Theodicy produces and explains. There are also limitations to our creaturely aspect when it comes to always seeing the good from evil. There are several objections this brings up that proponents attempt to explain. Our desire from this idea is that we don’t pursue evil nor do we pursue inaction. Ultimately, the biggest example we can put forward of this theory is the trial, torture, and death of the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.

Like the other theories, we’ll look at the issues with this next episode but this explanation does have strengths to support its holding.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep152/

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41ti1G3VZE

Continuing our discussion from last week, Jeff and Josh from The Anarchist Bible Study and Patrick talk about how hermeneutics & practical Bible study and how to use each in the other. Hermeneutics isn’t important just for pastors, theologians, and seminaries. It is important for every Christian reading his/her Bible by themselves or in church or in doing apologetics.

In this episode, the guys talk about what to do with different interpretations conflict, or just differ. While not a requirement for understanding, knowing Greek or history deepens your understanding of Scripture. Then we look at practical Bible study tips like how to know what to apply to oneself, how to approach the Bible before opening The Book and how Sola Scriptura plays a part. Then we close with how important this topic is when we do apologetics.

***Note*** – You’ll also have to forgive Jeff’s notifications as he’s super popular at the late hour in which this episode was recorded.

00:00:00 – What Happens When Different Interpretation Clash?

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep151/

01:13:00 – The Evangelical Modern Downgrade

Website

Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar by Bill Mounce

Reformation Study Bible by God

ESV Study Bible by God

The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm

The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden by Kevin DeYoung

New Testament Greek For Beginners by J. Gresham Machen

Learn New Testament Greek by John Dobson

God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth by GK Beale

Living By the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible by Howard Hendricks

Knowing Scripture by RC Sproul

Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation by GK Beale

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament by GK Beale & DA Carson

Invitation to Biblical Interpretation: Exploring the Hermeneutical Triad of History, Literature, and Theology by Richard Patterson and Andreas Köstenberger

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzzS6bWWLa0

Hermeneutics & apologetics go hand-in-hand with each other. Since The Bible is our ultimate standard that it is important that we read it and interpret it the way God meant it to be. And to communicate it to other people accurately is just as important in our apologetics.

Patrick is joined by two amazing guys who are actively showing this important quality of Bible study – Josh & Jeff from The Anarchist Bible Study. On their show, they show the importance of fair and methodical reading of Scripture especially when it comes to exegesis and application.

In this first episode, we go over what hermeneutics is and the importance of understanding the text as the original audience would have understood it. This is important for the average Christian to do and not just the pastor in the pulpit so this is an encouragement and direction to everyone. Josh & Jeff give practical advice from Scripture, logic, and history that will aid you and your witness to the truth of God’s Word as revealed in The Bible.

***Note*** – You’ll also have to forgive Jeff’s notifications as he’s super popular at the late hour in which this episode was recorded.

00:00 – Introduction

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep150/

00:31 – Prayer Help – Ep. 136 – Interview With A Pastor – Pastor Jim Li

Website

Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar by Bill Mounce

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”