There is an interesting conversation
over on the Spectrum Blog under the article written by Herbert
Douglass entitled The
Great Controversy.
The conversation in the comments is not
between others and Mr. Douglass but with the various views set forth
on this unsatisfactory notion of the place of evil in the world if it
is ruled by a loving God. Adventist have long thought they had the
answer with what they often call the Great Controversy Theme or
Motif. Though it is exceedingly rare to find anyone actually spell
out what they mean by the Great Controversy theme or motif. Herbert
Douglass does spend a small portion of his article describing what he
believes the GCT (Great controversy Theme). He sums it up as freedom.
God's love demands the gift of freedom because love only exists in
the reality of freedom to choose.
The central issue in the Great Controversy between God and Satan is “freedom.” Over that mysterious word, that word that has summoned unspeakable courage, honor, and unselfishness in its defense, the well-being of the universe has been wrenched and jeopardized. Why did God risk all on freedom?
The problem I see
with the GCT is that it requires us to make concrete, mythological
Biblical stories. In this case Herbert Douglass mentions both Eden
and Lucifer. Lucifer by tradition being Satan rather then the
metaphor for the king of Babylon actually found in the Bible in
Isaiah 14. Thus the foundation of the GCT is based upon what to many
seems an allegorical creation story of Eden in perfection and
metaphor's about one in a series of opponents of Israel in the book
of Isaiah. The foundation therefore is a bit weak. But what about the
overall philosophy of freedom and love being the root cause of evil.
That sounds bad
doesn't it, but that is what this theory says. Because of love God
gives the freedom to people to do whatever they want. So people can
choose to be cruel. This theory does not explain how diseases and
pathogens infect and shorten our lives, nor why the animal may stalk
and kill the child on the edge of the village or why the storm or
famine causes desolation. So the GCT is not really even that specific
on what evil is. A literal reading of the book of Genesis does not
let God off the hook for such things. God curses the ground and then
with a flood because man is wicked he kills off everything but what
is put in the ark. Yet somehow the GCT is all about love and freedom.
If one were to
hold to the literal Eden story then when the two people disobeyed God
they started events rolling that could not be stopped until billions
were affected. Instead of God explaining to them about choices and
consequences and that there was an evil being God had created and
allowed the freedom to lie and deceive about anything and everything
and that there were such things as facts and that God could in fact
present a case for why His ways were better. He cursed them and
kicked them out of Eden. Which kind of throws the whole love and
freedom thing on the bonfire pretty early. It is rather like your 3
year old disobeying you and you kick him out of the house. Do you
really think anyone is going to believe that what you did was out of
love?
Herbert Douglass
actually acknowledges this problem in his article when he writes:
The risk of granting freedom was not only that God should have a forever heartache. He would also put Himself on trial. He became One charged with the meanest, most unfair accusations that could be leveled against our Holy Lover. For millennia, it has seemed that Satan with his accusations has been winning. More people, it seems, have believed Satan’s lies about God than those who have had faith in His Word, His promises, His trustworthiness. All this trading sad, self-destructive independence for genuine freedom will be covered in lessons to come.
Sounds like
because of the rash act of not talking about the problem but kicking
them out of Eden God opened Himself up to even more charges. So these
people through the millennia don't know the truth of the situation
yet somehow they are supposed to now judge God Himself as if He is on
trial. They can't tell the difference between true and false yet they
are supposed to judge God! Fat chance. Perhaps if God gave them all
the data they need to judge, reveal to them the complexities of
history and the very thought process of God maybe they could make
some kind of judgment, though we have to assume then that what God
grants them in knowledge is in fact true and if the question is what
God says is true then we being dependent upon God for all this
information are back to square one, why believe what He says or
shows. Maybe He is just manipulating us?
I wish there was
some unified theory of Evil and God. But there is not. Is a volcano
evil or a prion or virus? Or are they part of a natural scheme to
maintain an indefinitely functioning life cycle of an entire planet
filled with life. That is what I tend to think, but then I don't
subscribe to the literal nature of the Genesis stories. If those
things are the results of curses by God...then the GCT just does not
work at all. But like any theory there is elements of truth in the
GCT. People do choose to love and they do chose their actions. Those
actions will be good and evil. Sometimes evil may even cause
something good to happen and sometimes good might in some way promote
evil. So we can't simply disregard the importance of freedom. But as
with any religious teaching there will be those who disagree and they
will even abandon freedom. God did it, such as good old Calvinism,
God chooses some to be saved and some to be lost.
The real question
when one searches for reasons to understand God and evil is going to
come down to what will your theory do for you and others in the here
and now. That unfortunately is a judgment call for each individual.
However much we may want to declare our truth, we are ill prepared to
document the evidence for our truth. We don't like that, we want to
think we have special truth that we can share and of course the other
religions and denominations and philosophies have the same desire. It
is uncomfortable to actually know so little. But honestly that is
where we are.
Feel free to talk
me off of this ledge, it is not a nice place to be.
