The issue of evil | Rapp Report Weekly Wrap-up 0002 | Striving for Eternity

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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May 12, 2018

00:04: Welcome to The Wrap Report, Daily Edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications.
00:12: This is a ministry of striving for eternity. This is the weekly wrap -up, and this week we were dealing with the issue of evil.
00:19: And if you missed all of the episodes, well here you're going to get all five of the daily episodes in one shot, so you have them all together in case you want to keep them for later reference.
00:31: I hope that you subscribe to The Wrap Report every day, you'll get a two -minute podcast five days a week, and then you'll get the weekly wrap -up, and you'll also get the hour -long weekly podcast where we interview people and we discuss different topics.
00:47: So here's this week's topic on evil. Richard Dawkins and many other professing atheists like to argue that if God is all -powerful and all -good, then evil could not exist.
01:03: This argument has many logical fallacies, and as we look at this subject of evil this week, we're going to see not only the logical fallacies, we're going to see a lack of understanding of the part of atheists to be able to understand what evil actually is.
01:19: Let us start with the fact that if the atheistic worldview were true, they would not even be able to say something is evil.
01:28: You see, their argument starts with the premise that evil must exist. But what is the standard for evil?
01:36: You see, if we are just chemical reactions and nothing more, then there cannot be a standard that is absolute to say that something is morally good or evil.
01:48: In fact, if they say that something is evil, it needs an absolute source to be able to deny
01:56: God's existence. However, evil is defined by the absence of goodness.
02:03: And the definition of good, where we get goodness from, is the nature of God.
02:09: God is what defines what is good. Therefore, the absence of that goodness is evil. So when they argue that evil is a proof that God does not exist, they run into a problem.
02:19: Because without God, you would not even be able to explain that something could be evil.
02:26: So evil proves God exists. This week, we are looking at the question of evil.
02:32: And many professing atheists like to argue that the fact that evil exists proves that God cannot exist.
02:39: As if the fact that there is evil in the world means that God can't be good, or can't be all -powerful, or just can't exist at all.
02:50: The reality is, as we saw yesterday, the fact that there is evil in the world can only be explained by the fact that God already exists.
02:59: So, God's existence is required for something to be evil because there has to be an absolute standard.
03:06: Now, we will look at, later this week, where evil came from. But when people try to argue that evil proves
03:13: God doesn't exist, what do they have to rely on without God? They are going to rely on a subjective form of morality.
03:21: They are going to set themselves up as the judge. Well, every criminal thinks they're innocent.
03:27: Every single person is going to set the standard to what they do. And people who are worse than them are evil.
03:34: But how could you call them evil when they set their own standard and they say they're good? In other words,
03:39: Hitler used to think that he wasn't bad. It was guys like Stalin, because Stalin killed far more people. Stalin could point to Mao.
03:46: Mao could have turned to someone else. Everyone can find someone worse than themselves to point to as evil.
03:53: So, what is the standard of evil? Well, if their standard is self, if the standard is society, then you can't say anything is wrong.
04:01: You can't say what Hitler did is wrong, because society would be the standard. We've already seen this week that professing atheists will try to argue that an all -powerful, all -knowing, good
04:13: God cannot exist if there's evil in the world. And yet, they have nothing to appeal to once they deny
04:18: God for a standard of evil. And therefore, they're stuck. They have to rely on society.
04:24: Now, they will always speak in language of absolutes while denying an absolute standard.
04:30: And therefore, you end up having this problem as a dilemma that they have.
04:35: And you can test this with them. Ask them this question. Is the act of rape always wrong?
04:41: They always say yes. Now, notice the question. The act of rape itself. Not the consequences, not the way it makes anyone feel.
04:49: The act of rape itself. Is it always? Now, once you say always, it's an absolute. Is the act of rape always wrong?
04:56: They say yes. Why? They're going to say because of harm. However, if you have someone who is raped while they're in a coma, or as one dentist had done, had raped several women while they were asleep, they had no harm.
05:08: One woman discovered she was pregnant, having not been with a man, so she figured it out and tested the paternity test with the dentist.
05:17: He was the father. Other women came forward and found out they too had been raped by him. The women who found out afterwards then suffered the consequences of rape because they now knew about it.
05:27: Interesting. It wasn't the act of rape that caused the harm. It was the knowledge that they were raped that caused the harm.
05:33: Now they have a dilemma for the atheists because they want to say it's the act itself, but they can't appeal to it when they say it's just because of harm.
05:41: The act of rape is always wrong because God's not a rapist. So as the professing atheists try to argue that God cannot exist because of the fact that there's evil in the world, the question really comes into is what is evil?
05:54: Well, we see where evil entered into the universe if you take a look at what happened with Satan.
06:00: This is seen in Isaiah 14. When Satan chose to be prideful and argue that he would be as great as God and he fell, that's when sin entered into the universe.
06:12: We see when sin entered into humanity and brought a curse not only upon Adam and Eve but also the entire earth, in fact the entire universe according to Romans 8, but that occurred in Genesis chapter 3.
06:25: When Adam and Eve were instructed not to partake of a certain fruit and they chose to disobey
06:31: God and to act as if they were God and they chose to disobey
06:36: God and partake of that fruit, they brought sin into the world. And as our federal head, all of us suffer a sin nature because of their choice.
06:46: This is what brought sin into the world. It was something that God allowed. He could have stopped it if he wanted to, but then the atheists would complain,
06:55: God makes us into puppets and we don't have free choices. Well, the reality is God allowed
07:01: Adam and Eve to make a choice. He allowed them to do it knowing what they would choose and knowing that he would prepare a way of salvation for them.
07:09: We see that sin brought about evil. It was man's choosing, so atheists shouldn't blame
07:15: God for what they do. In fact, they still think that they are God and still want to be like God.
07:22: As we wrap up this week talking about the issue of evil, we see that the professing atheists who try to argue that the presence of evil means that God cannot exist, they then try to argue that there is not an absolute standard, but that society is the standard or their own feelings and what they believe should be the standard.
07:40: We've also seen the origin of evil. We see that evil was because man disobeyed
07:46: God. This is important to understand. The reality that people don't want to believe that there is evil in the world or to account for something other than evil, rather than human beings in the creation, because of the simple fact that if there is an evil in the world, it is brought about by man, and therefore man would be accountable to God.
08:11: And that's the very thing that people want to avoid. They want to pretend as if God does not exist so that they don't have to be accountable for their law -breaking.
08:22: But this is the very thing that we must, as Christians, inform them about. The fact that they have broken
08:29: God's law and will be accountable to an infinitely holy, infinitely just God.
08:36: And we have to compassionately and lovingly tell them the truth of that they will spend eternity in a lake of fire if they do not repent and believe in the
08:45: Lord Jesus Christ. This is the most loving thing we could ever do for an atheist, is to tell them the truth of where they would spend eternity so that they may turn and believe on Jesus Christ.
08:57: That's our commission to do. This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org