Necessary Evil
As Christians we can't explain the existence of evil.
Oh, we can give explanations for why we're sinful but we can't explain how evil crept in to a perfect Universe.
I'm going to suggest that perhaps the possibility of evil is necessary in some way even if only temporarily. Perhaps if Adam and Eve had resisted temptation (taken literally or figuratively) evil would have been disposed of then and the Universe could have gotten on with only a brief interlude of evil.
Perhaps God made a fragile Universe that was open to evil because fragility is necessary for everything else. Perhaps fragility is necessary for love. Perhaps for us to learn to love God and to love good we had to learn we could be separated from those things.
I'm drawn to a line out of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
At the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened with men.
3 comments:
Nice quote from Dostoevsky. Oh, and thank you for adding "Necessary Therapy" to your blog roll. It really means a lot to me.
My first visit. Your first line was correct, in my opinion. We can't explain it.
Deuteronomy 29:29 ..."the secret things belong to the Lord".
We can't put the infinite mind of God into our finite understanding. Some things are "mystery".
For the believer, God will reveal these things to us later. Then and only then will they make sense.
For now, we need to grin and bear it.
I found you in the Christian Carnival and enjoyed my visit.
Thanks!
My Old Testament doesn't include Deuteronomy 29:29 so I'd never actually read it.
My Old Testament is translated from the Septuagint.
Thanks for stopping by and God Bless, Mr Porter.
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