Evil Times

God Is Evil? No Way, Dean.

This week I participated in an interesting online debate, sparked by Dean Esmay's post on why he renounced Christianity. The Reader's Digest version of Dean's original post is that he believes that if God punishes anyone eternally (by sending them to hell forever) for a single lifetime of sin, then God is not worthy of worship - more so, that God is actually evil and must be actively rejected and disdained.

Of course, this raised an outcry amongst many Christian bloggers, several (many) of whom are at least semi-regular readers of Dean's blog. I won't try to recap everything that was said, both in support of and in response to Dean's original post. Follow the many threads leading from the original post. Dean has added some additional posts dealing with the subject. If you're interested in this, read them all, including the comments. There are a lot of thoughtful and well-informed comments that make reading all of it very worthwhile.

One of the best comments, not surprisingly, was from Reverend Don Sensing. He blogs at One Hand Clapping, and is a Methodist minister in Tennessee. He always has something insightful to say on any topic he chooses to write about. He linked to an article he wrote on the topic some time ago. It's definitely worth reading.

Others pointed out that C.S. Lewis has written on this topic as well, specifically in his book The Great Divorce. I haven't ever read that particular book by Lewis, but I plan to do so as soon as I can. Also, apparently other great theologians of the past, such as St. Augustine, have dealt with this topic. I haven't read first-hand what they've said on the topic, either. I've only read indirectly what they taught, so digging through some of those other writings would be interesting.

Of course, my personal belief on the topic is that God is not evil. Concluding that God is evil would require me to discount the entire message of the Gospel. Dean Esmay makes critical errors in his thinking, in my view.

First, he misunderstands the nature of eternity. He thinks of eternity as time continuing without end. Naturally with that view, the idea that someone would suffer endlessly without respite for a single lifetime of sin seems incredibly unfair - and it would be, if it were true. However, as I understand it, eternity is timeless. That is, time does not exist in God's eternity. Scripturally, this is supported by verses such as 2 Peter 3:8, "But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." So, the concept of endless torture in hell is really a false one. Any punishment is not endless, it just is. It's a concept that I can't completely grasp, being bound to a temporal world as I am. It is also a concept that cannot be proven or supported by any objective, physical evidence, so it has to be taken on faith to be true.

Second, Dean discounts the message of the Gospel and the free will of humankind. Jesus said in John 3:16 and 17, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." Each and every person is loved by God. He sent His Son to save the world. None of us has to go to hell. What we need to do to avoid it is quite clear. We also have free will. We can choose. Therefore, it seems obvious to me that each of us alone is responsible for our salvation - it is our choice to go to Heaven or to hell.

Allegorically - you read the resort brochures. You are warned that Satan is lying to you about how "cool" hell is and that Heaven is dull, dull, dull. You're offered a free trip to Heaven, if you'll just ask God's Son for a ticket - He already paid the price for the trip to Heaven for you. But ultimately, you choose a ticket for the destination you prefer. God validates your ticket, and puts you on either an airplane or a subway car (if you get my meaning). You can't honestly blame God or say He's evil if it turns out that your "retirement" resort is really, really hot, the air conditioning doesn't work, the food is horrid, and the waiters are plain nasty. You picked the wrong destination, yourself. And, it was a one-way ticket.

Like all allegories, mine has weaknesses, but it conveys the message: each of us is responsible for our own salvation. Blaming God for our choice is wrong.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Terror in Turkey

The evil Islamist terrorists have been on one of their nonsensical killing sprees again.

The latest bombings have been in Turkey. Two synagogues in Turkey were targeted by truck bombs earlier this week and then today, the British consulate and a British-headquartered bank in Istanbul were attacked by suicide bombers in trucks. Scores of people have been killed and wounded. Among the dead is Britain's chief diplomat in Turkey. The attacks on the synagogues killed several children. The deaths of innocent people in these attacks is an outrage to any civilized person (more on that later).

Once again, it appears that Al Qaeda is responsible for terror attacks in Muslim countries that caused more deaths and injuries among Muslims than Westerners.

So, my question is, are Muslims everywhere going to finally denounce these terrorist groups for what they are and join the U.S. and our allies in hunting them down wherever they are until every last one is behind bars for life or dead? Are the Europeans going to finally recognize that their stupid, reflexive anti-Americanism, which is really nothing more than petty jealousy, is hurting them just as much as it is us? Every civilized person, no matter if they are American, Israeli, Arab, European or Asian, is viewed as a target by the Islamist terrorists.

The Islamist terrorists deliberately target the innocent. They are depraved, cowardly, small men that strike the defenseless and then run away, knowing that they are too weak and frightened to fight against anyone prepared to face them.

The civilized world must not back down or try to appease them. It has been shown time and again that doing so just encourages more terror. Instead, the civilized world must join together in patient, steadfast resolve to defeat terrorism, both militarily and socially, so that the attacks stop and the depraved mindset that gives rise to terrorism is eliminated from the Muslim world.

Loonies in London

No, I'm not talking about Canadian coins, here. I'm talking about all of the "people" in London that showed up to protest President Bush's visit there. <sarcasm>In an incredibly brave act of protest against the Bush "regime," they pulled down a fake statue of Bush in a mock re-enactment of the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Baghdad after U.S. military forces took over there. Boy, they really showed George. How will he ever cope?</sarcasm>

Up above, I said that the deaths of innocent people in attacks by terrorists is an outrage to any civilized person.

Well, the protesters don't appear to be outraged by that. They are more outraged by the President of the United States visiting their country to thank the British for the support of their government in the War on Terror.

At roughly the same time that they were protesting, in Istanbul, two truck bombs, driven by Al Qaeda terrorists, went off, killing and maiming dozens of people.

Yet the protesters blame the victims - many of whom were British. It's really almost unbelievable. The "protesters" aren't outraged by the cowardly and heinous targeting of civilians by terrorists. They aren't outraged by the fascist anti-Semitism of the Islamists. No, they are outraged that our president, George Bush, and the prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, have resolved to protect us by fighting back, rather than capitulating.

The ignorant behavior of the protesters is abhorrent. If it wasn't so dangerous to the war effort, their misplaced anger would be ridiculous. As it is, there is nothing at all humorous about it. It is indirectly putting my family, and everyone else, in mortal danger by giving encouragement to the terrorists. Because our government, and the British government, are responsive to public opinion, the protests may limit the effort made to fight the terrorists. The War on Terror is then less effective, and so, more innocent people suffer and die.

Since the protesters aren't outraged by innocent civilians dying, what else can I conclude but that they aren't civilized?

Of course, since the protests are organized by communists, socialists, radical environmentalists and Islamists, it isn't all that surprising that the protesters aren't civilized. Maybe they're just evil, too.

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