Is God to Blame?

On the forum the following could be read one of these days (with reference to God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis).

It is very ironic that by those who claim that God has brought Evil into the world, again and again Romans 9 is referred to. They refuse to accept that God is only Good, and look for proofs that He has helped evil into the world. The reasoning is then: you see, the Potter makes bad pots. And that is right because I see bad pots all around me. And He made Pharaoh bad, and He made Esau bad, and He made everyone into a sinner. For that last point Romans 11:32 is wrongly cited. God gets the blame for everything.

Whereas the whole chapter precisely deals with the fact that man has nothing to remark against God! This is the question: shall man judge God, or God man?

What is said here is not only a caricature of what is put forward on the Goedbericht site, but it is also for two reasons utterly incorrect. First, I believe with all my heart that God is purely good. And second, I resolutely reject the idea that God would be to blame for the evil in the world. I will explain both matters further.

Scripture teaches that God, precisely because He is good, created evil (calamity), because knowledge of the good (e.g. grace, mercy, forgiveness) is only possible against the background of the knowledge of evil. In Scripture evil has a stage-setting function (it is the dark display upon which God’s goodness is exhibited), and therefore God receives the honor for the fact that He brought evil into the world. He created “the ancient serpent,” He placed the notorious tree in the middle of the garden, He has “enclosed all under disobedience,” He gave the law to Israel “that sin might increase,” etc. These were of course not goals in themselves, for then He could not be called purely good. A God who creates evil as a goal in itself is a malicious God. But if, on the other hand, He creates evil with a view to a good that can only be known through a temporary stage of evil, then this precisely demonstrates His goodness!

It is reprehensible when someone wounds another with a knife. But when a surgeon makes wounds with a knife, it is very meritorious or even life-saving! To wound another is an evil, but when it is necessary for achieving a good purpose, we call it a necessary evil. Whoever strikes a child does evil to it, but a father who smites his child sometimes commits a necessary evil. Such an act in that case testifies to love. You could even doubt someone’s goodness if he is not willing to commit such a necessary evil!

Whoever fixes his gaze on the present evil in the world would come to the conclusion that God is either not good or not almighty. But whoever is aware of God’s ultimate goal can trust that all the evil in the world is a necessary prelude to the revelation of God’s ultimate goodness.

From the above it also follows that God of course has no guilt for the evil in the world. For the same reason that a surgeon also has no guilt for cutting open a patient. Such work is precisely his merit! Guilt exists where someone fails, and especially where this concerns culpable (=preventable) failure. If sin and suffering in the world were not according to God’s planning, then God would have made a blunder (sin). And if He could have known this beforehand, then this failure can expressly be imputed to Him. In other words: in that case God would be guilty of the evil in the world! The reproach of C.S. Lewis in the above citation thereby returns like a boomerang upon him. Only when we accept that God created evil (note well, His own solemn declaration!), with a view to the knowledge of the greatest good, only then need God’s goodness not be doubted and can no failure be imputed to Him.

“Because of Him, and through Him, and for Him [are] all things; to Him [is] the glory — to the ages!” (YLT)
Romans 11:36

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