Re: Predetermination: God's controlling will?

From: Howard J. Van Till (hvantill@chartermi.net)
Date: Wed Jul 09 2003 - 08:42:35 EDT

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    Thanks, Bob. Well said.

    Howard

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    From: "Robert Schneider" <rjschn39@bellsouth.net>

    €
    I'm with Howard on this one. Let's look at Isa. 45:7 in context. It occurs
    in an oracle in which the prophet conveys the words that Yahweh is speaking
    to Cyrus, Shah of Persia. The words are addressed to the Persian King.
    Yahweh is telling him, so the prophet declares, that contrary to his own
    faith in Ahura Mazda, and his Zoroastrian belief in an independent lord of
    darkness and evil, Ahrimam, the whole world and all that is in it is the
    work of the one true God of Israel, that there is no other god, that Yahweh
    is the creator of the world, and he is the lord of history, and therefore
    all events, good and evil, fall under God's sovereignty. That he, Cyrus, is
    God's Messiah to lead God's people home.

    The notion that the God of Israel is the source of evil as well as good is
    not peculiar to the thought of 2 Isaiah; one finds it in Genesis and in
    historical texts. Eventually, this notion, that God is the source of evil
    as well as good, raised serious questions about the nature of God; and the
    unremitting suffering and evil that Israel experienced under imperial powers
    eventually led to a development in concepts about the source of evil in
    human history and life, with the development of the concept of Satan and
    rebel angels, and the notion that this world was under the control of evil
    powers. It is in this theological context that the NT authors understood
    the coming of the Messiah and the work of Christ Jesus.

    Where does this lead me? To the conclusion that the God of Jesus, the God
    who is Love and Compassion, is not the author of evil, and that it is not
    the matter of excising a verse, as George put it, but of recognizing that
    our sacred witness to the mystery of God does not stand still, and it did
    not stand still in Holy Scripture. I do not believe that God was
    responsible for the death of Josh Speer, and I believe in that analogous way
    I speak of God that God weeps with Holly and Josh's family.

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