Re: Cobb County

In his compendium of Lutheran Orthodoxy Schmid says: "The most difficult problem in the science of Theology is that of exhibiting the method of the divine concurrence in the evil actions of men, without at the same time in any wise throwing the blame of the evil upon the first cause, i.e., upon God." This is indeed the hardest part of the theodicy problem which we've debated before here. I won't try to resolve it now but only point out that the putative action of Satan in giving the whole universe a spurious appearance of age creates problems that seem to me to be an order of magnitude greater. The question here is not just how God could allow Satan to torment some some other creatures but how God could allow all creatures who investigate the world by scientific means to be misled by the physical evidence that the world presents to them. & if the entire universe is misleading to that extent, it becomes very hard to see what can be meant by saying that it is God's good creation. It is not enough to say that it's just flawed in one aspect (i.e., its indication of age) because we then have no reason to have any confidence in the results of any of our experience of the world.

If the problem Schmid (& you) note is difficult, apparent age is "most difficult of most difficult" if I may coin a Hebraism. & one might be willing to accept that except for the fact that it's an entirely gratuitous difficulty brought about by an insistence that one way of reading scripture is the only possible way.

The idea that Satan is responsible for the apparent age of the world, and is thus the effective creator, has a parallel in the ideas of some 16th century theologians who emphasized the seriousness of original sin so strongly that they were willing to say that the devil was the creator of fallen human nature. That view was condemned as Manichaean by Article I of the Formula of Concord.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Don Perrett
  To: George Murphy
  Cc: ASA Discussions
  Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 11:43 PM
  Subject: RE: Cobb County

  George wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
  And if you then argue that Satan is in fact subservient to God then you are right back to the problem that Dave points out - that God is (albeit through the agency of Satan) deceitful .

  Don P:
  I understand the logical process of this statement, but I must point out that I am subservient to God. And, while I may be evil, deceitful and down right nasty to people, that does not make God that way. Satan's actions or misleadings are not the direct responsibility of God. Just as God does not stop me from doing wrong, except when it serves his greater purpose, I believe that he does not stop Satan unless it serves his purpose to do so. We see things in our little realm of existence and cannot see otherwise. God of course sees all and knows what is best, even if that means leaving things to fend for themselves.
Received on Thu Jan 20 08:23:43 2005