- Jul 16, 2013
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I was having a very good discussion on the problem of evil in the Exploring Christianity forum and I thought I would move part of it here. Please join in on the discussion.
(Italics are my posts, green text the reply to it, plain text my answer to the reply)
Originally Posted by dhh712
I don't see any point of contradiction. God's benevolence doesn't depend on His loving everyone; that would reduce His standards to humanity's standards of benevolence (or one standard of benevolence if some portion of humanity equals benevolence to loving everyone). I trust God is benevolent because that is what the Bible says He is and I have experienced it in my own life. When I say we I do mean Christians (or I should say they should trust that God is benevolent. Sometimes when we are going through times of suffering it is difficult to see His benevolence. That's why it is ultimately based on trust).
Do you trust that God is benevolent when he sits there and does nothing to stop a rapist from raping an innocent child? Just how would God be benevolent towards that child by doing nothing to prevent the rape when he's fully capable of preventing the rape?
Though it may appear that way to us, God's benevolence may not be defined in the way that our benevolence is. His love may not be the same (some times) as our what our idea of love is. It may appear He doesn't care. What is actually occurring is the unfolding of His plan, which apparently sometimes involves people being raped.
To answer your question, I don't know the mind and specific details of the plan of God so I can't answer the question for you.
The question was:
Does God love child rape victims enough to prevent rapists from raping them?
So what would happen to God's plan if he did stop a rapist from raping a child?
Apparently, it was in His plan to stop the rapist; He then had a God-glorifying reason for it to be that way.
All I do know is that whatever happens to a person who has been raped it is has all happened for a greater God-glorifying purpose and that answer usually isn't satisfying, especially to unbelievers.
So what you're saying is that God wouldn't be able to accomplish some kind of greater good if he stopped the rapist from raping the child. Do you not realize by saying this, you are asserting that God's omnipotence would be somehow diminished if he were to prevent the child from getting raped. Just how would you know that God's omnipotence would be diminished if he were to stop a rapist from raping a child?
Apparently it wouldn't have been the best way that would have been accomplished. I don't see how His omnipotence would be diminished. All that is diminished is our expectation that His will revolves around our being immeasurably fulfilled in this world by the things we think will fulfill us.
Also, the child rape victim could possibly not be someone God loves, there unfortunately is always that chance being how there is biblically-documented evidence that God has not loved every single person He has ever created.
So you're saying God may think the child deserves to be raped. That God doesn't care enough to prevent an assault as heinous as child rape. Is that correct?
One thing I should have clarified is that we deserve nothing less in this world than the eternal wrath of God. It seems that a lot of unbelievers have this idea that they deserve something other than this, like a nice happy life. The fact that some of us (a good percentage most likely) aren't experiencing suffering at all times in our lives is something which we should be exceptionally grateful for.
Like I said before, it may seem to us that He doesn't care. What actually is going on is the unfolding of His plan which will result in the greatest good which will be the most God-glorifying of all ways in which it could have unfolded. Most likely we will not ever know how all the suffering in our lives will have been worked into that plan. Hopefully it is one of the things which our Lord will reveal to us when we are with Him eternally.
(Italics are my posts, green text the reply to it, plain text my answer to the reply)
Originally Posted by dhh712
I don't see any point of contradiction. God's benevolence doesn't depend on His loving everyone; that would reduce His standards to humanity's standards of benevolence (or one standard of benevolence if some portion of humanity equals benevolence to loving everyone). I trust God is benevolent because that is what the Bible says He is and I have experienced it in my own life. When I say we I do mean Christians (or I should say they should trust that God is benevolent. Sometimes when we are going through times of suffering it is difficult to see His benevolence. That's why it is ultimately based on trust).
Do you trust that God is benevolent when he sits there and does nothing to stop a rapist from raping an innocent child? Just how would God be benevolent towards that child by doing nothing to prevent the rape when he's fully capable of preventing the rape?
Though it may appear that way to us, God's benevolence may not be defined in the way that our benevolence is. His love may not be the same (some times) as our what our idea of love is. It may appear He doesn't care. What is actually occurring is the unfolding of His plan, which apparently sometimes involves people being raped.
To answer your question, I don't know the mind and specific details of the plan of God so I can't answer the question for you.
The question was:
Does God love child rape victims enough to prevent rapists from raping them?
So what would happen to God's plan if he did stop a rapist from raping a child?
Apparently, it was in His plan to stop the rapist; He then had a God-glorifying reason for it to be that way.
All I do know is that whatever happens to a person who has been raped it is has all happened for a greater God-glorifying purpose and that answer usually isn't satisfying, especially to unbelievers.
So what you're saying is that God wouldn't be able to accomplish some kind of greater good if he stopped the rapist from raping the child. Do you not realize by saying this, you are asserting that God's omnipotence would be somehow diminished if he were to prevent the child from getting raped. Just how would you know that God's omnipotence would be diminished if he were to stop a rapist from raping a child?
Apparently it wouldn't have been the best way that would have been accomplished. I don't see how His omnipotence would be diminished. All that is diminished is our expectation that His will revolves around our being immeasurably fulfilled in this world by the things we think will fulfill us.
Also, the child rape victim could possibly not be someone God loves, there unfortunately is always that chance being how there is biblically-documented evidence that God has not loved every single person He has ever created.
So you're saying God may think the child deserves to be raped. That God doesn't care enough to prevent an assault as heinous as child rape. Is that correct?
One thing I should have clarified is that we deserve nothing less in this world than the eternal wrath of God. It seems that a lot of unbelievers have this idea that they deserve something other than this, like a nice happy life. The fact that some of us (a good percentage most likely) aren't experiencing suffering at all times in our lives is something which we should be exceptionally grateful for.
Like I said before, it may seem to us that He doesn't care. What actually is going on is the unfolding of His plan which will result in the greatest good which will be the most God-glorifying of all ways in which it could have unfolded. Most likely we will not ever know how all the suffering in our lives will have been worked into that plan. Hopefully it is one of the things which our Lord will reveal to us when we are with Him eternally.