The Science of Knowing God: Omnis & Evil

Pastor Fletcher preaches from Psalm 139:1-12 about God’s omni- qualities and the problem of evil. Discussion points: God’s omnipotence means he is in complete control of everything, God defines what evil is and imprints the idea of justice on our hearts, there is a multifaceted approach to the problem of evil that includes some amount of trust in the mystery of God.

• See Transcript

  Scripture reader: [Psalm 139:1-12] O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it.

  Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and there your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

  This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

  Preacher: All right, good to see everybody. We're doing this little series on theology at the moment it's a series that we kind of put down and pick up throughout the, years, and we're just kind of working our way through different, topics of theology. And so today we're continuing on this little short series on the. Doctrine of God, which is theology pro proper, which is just the study of who God is and what is he like and last week we talked about how the core attribute of who God is, is that he is good. All the time. God is good. All the time? Very good, thank you. I said he is good and then I was like, why aren't they saying it? And it's like because I didn't say it right yeah.

  Well it's, it's so good to to be able to to do that we sang the song today and there's nothing that's more important to believe about God than that he is good. So today what we're going to cover is kind of a complimentary topic to the fact that God is good and it is the omni. OK, not the Omni Hotel, but the omnis, the omnipotent, the omniscience, the omnipresence of God. We're going to walk through those and then what we're going to do after that, I'm, I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you where we're going so that you can be prepared and so that you can see where we're going because it's really interesting.

  What we're gonna do is we're gonna take the goodness of God and we're gonna just slather that on like a piece of Dave's killer bread, OK? it's the best bread there is, right? And then on the other side, we're gonna take the omnis, the fact that God is all powerful, all knowing, always present. We're gonna put that slathered on another piece of Dave's killer bread over here, and then we're gonna take the two and we're gonna smush it together, and we're gonna have ourselves a nice problem with evil sandwich, OK? Because that's what you get when, when you have them both there, that God is always good, and he's all powerful, and then you have evil, and what do you do with it? OK. So, Go with me, OK? You got one piece of bread last week. That was kind of an avocado toast last week. This week I'm gonna bring in the other piece of bread and then we're gonna have our sandwich at the end. I, I shared this illustration with Alexis earlier and she was like, that sounds like a terrible sandwich. And I think it is. But that's, that's OK. We'll, we'll get there.

  All right, so let's talk about the omnis, OK? Omnipotence. Omnipotence means that God is all powerful. God is all powerful. Psalm 1:15:3. Our, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. Nothing is too hard for God. As we think about Abraham, as he was promised by God, that he would be that his wife would be giving birth in old age, that he also would have a child in his old age. How did he respond, but by saying, is anything too hard for God? Is anything too hard for the Lord. When I became a Christian, I was in high school, so I became a Christian a little bit later, did not go to church often, when I was younger than that. And so when I finally did become a Christian, I was a little holier than now, OK, just a little bit. I wanted people to know that I was a Christian, as many Christians do. I think it's like a phase that you kinda have to go through when you're a new Christian. You get. Looking at me like not me I don't know.

  So one thing that I did in high school to kinda show everybody that I was a Christian is I had one of those like little New Testament Bibles that the Gideons give out, you know what I'm talking about? They're like red and they're just, just pocket size. They call them a pocket Bible and I was like, pocket Bible great. I'm gonna stick it in my pocket. And so I wore this like King James Version Bible which tells me I never read it. I, I'm incapable of reading that. I went to Mississippi public schools that wasn't happening. so I stuck my little red pocket Bible in my back pocket and it was just a way for me to declare that I believe in God, that I was a Christian.

  Well, one day I had a teacher who decided to poke a little hole in in the bubble that I've created for myself, and he asked me a question in front of the class and he said. Can God create a rock that even he cannot lift? How as a high school student, as a senior in high school, am I to respond to this? I feel like I'm just so stuck and I don't have any response for him because either way I go, I'm denying God's omnipotence. If I say yes, he can create a rock that even he cannot lift, then that means that I'm denying that he's all powerful and if I say no, he can't create a rock that even he can't lift. Then I am saying that he can't do anything. Never mind the fact that we have no examples of God lifting rocks in the scriptures. It doesn't seem to be anything that's relevant to it.

  You see this guy, this guy, this teacher, he was attacking God's omnipotence. And you might look at that and say, well, that proves it, maybe he isn't omnipotent. But the reality is that God. It's not omnipotent in the sense that he can do anything, but he is in control of everything that he needs to be in control of. John Frame, the theologian John Frame, he defines God's omnipotence differently. He says God's omnipotence is that it means that God is has complete and total control over everything. We know there are things that God cannot do. God cannot do evil things. God cannot lie. God cannot do things that are logically inconsistent, like create a rock that even he cannot lift up. It is a logical inconsistency. He cannot create round squares. It is a logical inconsistency. And so there are things that he cannot do, but that's not what omnipotence means. Omnipotence means that God is in complete and total control of everything.

  Let's move on to the second omni here. We have omnipotence, and then we're going to move and talk about omniscience, omniscience. Psalm Psalm 1455. I just have a few verses to talk about this. Omniscience means that God is all knowing. So this first one is great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. First John chapter 3. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. This is a wonderful truth, is it not? That we, whatever we face in life, nothing is a secret to God. That he knows us inside and out. He knows what we're going through. And he knows the future, and he has a plan for us. It's a wonderful truth that God is omniscient.

  The third point Is that God is omnipresent, omnipresence means that God is all present. That means that he is present in every place and at every time that he exists outside of our categories of time and space. It's a wild category to think about that he just exists differently than we do. The passage that we read today talks about this. Psalm 139 verses 7 through 9. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. For those who follow Jesus, this is a precious truth. That there's nowhere we can go that is far enough to where God cannot see us, or he cannot be with us, that no dark day can keep the light of Christ out. But for those of us who are wandering away from God. Who are living by our own rules and standards, and who are rebelling against them. This is a harrowing, potentially scary reality. That God will not be evaded. That he is in all places, that you cannot run from him. And though you feel like you might be free of his eye, he is there. He is always with you.

  So there's so much more that I could say about the omnis, the wonderful truths, they help us understand the nature of God, but really what I wanna do, with this sermon is we're gonna take an intermission before we, not that you go use the bathroom type of intermission, OK? We're going to take a, a brief intermission here before we move on to our sandwich. And what we're going to do is I just wanna lead you in a prayer. Because I just want you to take these truths, and I want you to apply them, and I want you to talk to God about these truths of who he is. So would you join me in a prayer and feel free to take my words and allow them to become your words and and to even elaborate a little bit more and to talk with God. Where else can you talk with God if not at church? So let's take a moment to talk with our God, who is all powerful, all knowing, and always present.

  Omnipotence. God, we confess today that you are powerful. You created all things. And God there is nothing too big for you to handle. There is nothing too big for you to handle. There is nothing too small that I can trust you with. God, I, I give you my problems today. Would you do that church? Would you give him your problems? And know that he is all powerful. I hand you my worries. I confess that I've often lived as though I am all powerful, and you are merely my helper. But God, you are everything, you are all powerful, you are in complete control. Church, would you take anything that feels out of control and hand it over to Jesus? Help me to surrender to you.

  God, you are omniscient. You know everything. You know my past, my present, and my future. God, this world, it feels so confusing and frustrating at times. Would you remind me? Today that nothing is hidden from your sight. I confess that I've often tried to work out the future as if you do not know it. As if I cannot trust you with this future. And so God, I, I entrust to you today, my future. I will live each day as though. You know what's coming, and as though you are good. And as though you care for me, because it is true. And so I hand over my worries to you now, God.

  And God's omnipresence. God, you are everywhere. There's nowhere that I can hide from your presence. I confess that I've often tried to hide from you, that there are things in my life that I am trying to hide from you now, that I act like if I don't get caught by someone here that you do not know. There are dark corners of my soul that are closed off to you, God. But you're there. I have often felt alone, but you've promised not to leave me alone. And now God, I am asking that you would fill me with your presence. I know that you are here, but I pray that you would fill me in a special kind of way. That the Holy Spirit would give me life and joy, that I would have the ability to trust in you, especially as I'm preparing to eat this really bad sandwich. And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.

  All right. So, it's time for our syllogism sandwich, OK? A syllogism is a logical argument, and so the syllogism goes like this. 1, the problem of evil goes like this. 1, God is good. 2, God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. 3, evil exists in the world. Therefore, God must not be one good or too omnipotent. That's quite a problem. In fact, that's probably the most common objection to Christianity or religion in general that you hear, is it not? For example, the astrophysicist Neil Neil deGrasse Tyson, he said that he could believe in a creator, he could actually believe in a God, which is kind of an amazing thing that you think that science has disproved God, not so whatsoever. But what he has a problem with is thinking about anything benevolent going on, thinking about a good God. He says, the more I look at the universe, the less convinced I am that there's something benevolent going on.

  Another the person that has something to say about this would be the agnostic New Testament scholar, Bart Ehrman, who says, it was the problem of suffering, not the historical approach to the Bible that led me to agnosticism. And so how do we answer this question of the problem of evil? Well, it is a complicated question, but before we dive into how we might solve it, I just want to say that Christians and non-Christians, atheists all have a problem with evil. The Christian has to say, how can God exist when we have this evil thing. But the non-Christian has to even define what evil is. As CS Lewis so eloquently described, he said, my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust, but how had I gotten the idea of just and uncruel? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.

  And so, it's not just a problem that we have to answer. It's a problem even the atheists have to answer. We might be able to say, OK, there is a problem with evil, something that we have to describe, but an atheist has to say, what is evil? Why is this thing evil? Why would I call something evil? Someone else might call it good. And so we're not without Company on this. Gavin Ortland says the Christian can weep over crooked lines. The skeptic must explain what makes them crooked.

  So we all have this problem with evil, but how does a Christian handle this problem with evil? So I think that we need to take this multifaceted approach. I got this from, an article on the Gospel Coalition by actually a friend of mine named Patrick Schreiner. He, we went to seminary together. He's now a seminary professor, so he moved on. And so what he's said, and he moved on to bigger and better things, should I say, but what he says is that you need a multifaceted solution to the problem of evil that. What we really have to avoid with the problem of evil is an overly simplistic approach to the problem of evil. And so let me, let me just kind of address each one of these things and then I'll try to tie it together in a bow as I get to the end of it.

  First, it's human freedom that God created us not to be robots, that while he is all powerful, that does not mean that we are powerless. God created humans to be good, but we did choose to rebel. In fact, God made everything good and evil didn't enter the world. There was no pain and suffering. There were no natural disasters causing millions of damage and heartbreak and death until after humans chose to rebel against him and. An evil way and this is the beginning of the answer to evil, but it doesn't answer everything. I have all kinds of questions when we just talk about the the human, the human power part of things like I would just want to pose in response to that one. OK, well why didn't God just make the world to stay perfect? Why didn't God make us to where we wouldn't choose evil? Didn't he, if he's omniscient, didn't he know that we would rebel? And so therefore, why did he do it like he did? There's still questions to be asked when you look at the problem of evil from the human freedom angle.

  Now another angle that we might take is the dark spiritual forces angle. I hear this one all the time. And it's true. The Bible teaches that there are evil spiritual beings that are at work in the world. That are causing wreaking havoc around the world. And we have experienced some of those attacks. We are under the oppression of the evil one in this present world. But I also, I agree with that, OK? I agree that there are evil spirits that that Satan is a real being and that he causes evil, but at the same time I find this to be quite a cop out because what ends up happening, and I've heard lots of people, for some reason I have a mother in my mind who's saying this, you know, maybe your mother might have said this, where anything good that happens, they give credit to God. And anything bad that happens, that's the devil's fault and it's just an overly simplistic way of viewing the world of saying good stuff belongs to God, bad stuff belongs to the devil, and then we don't deal with the problem of evil. I have all kinds of questions after this one too. I have questions like, OK. Well, why did he create evil spiritual beings if he's all powerful? Why did he allow them to rebel against him? There's all kinds of things to ask in response to this one, but again, I think it is a piece of the puzzle as we think about the problem with evil, and not one of these is going to solve the whole thing.

  Now, the third one is what I think to be the biggest piece of the puzzle and the one that I think is probably the most logically satisfying of them, and it is the greater good. The greater good. So we have our syllogism, you know, our sandwich, and it, it says, God is good. He's all powerful, all knowing, always present. There's evil. Therefore, God, because there is evil, God cannot be all knowing or all good, one or the other. He cannot be all powerful or all good. But the there's a hidden premise. In there. And it's one by nature, we assume. But that it is not specifically said usually, and it's this. That If suffering feels like it is pointless to me, it must be pointless. That God has no good purposes for the evil that occurs in the world. But almost all of us can recognize in our own lives, some way that God has used evil, has used hard times, suffering. To produce in us something that is in the end better.

  Last week I told you all about my relationship with my father and how my father left when I was a young child. I was 5 years old, my father. Headed out. I didn't see him very often except for when he would roll in in his Volkswagen bus and take me camping for a little while, or just living if it's my father, you know, in the Volkswagen bus, um. And so, That left me with a number of scars and things that I've had to work through in life, stuff that I've had to process and pray and really talk to God about. I mean, you can just start to imagine some of the traumas and by God's grace, I am. Like the person that he has made me and one of the things that it created in me, OK, would I ever choose, would I ever choose to grow up? I had a really weird childhood. OK, those of you who are my friends, ask me about it sometime if you haven't, OK? I can tell you some very funny stories about some very drunk rednecks if you would like to hear that type of thing, but not everyone does, and, and I tell, tell the stories less often these days because people are like that's sad. I'm like, yeah, but it's funny, you know. You just have to laugh. It's OK.

  I would not choose that way of growing up, but at the same time, I can see the way that I grew up has created in me a desire to be a spiritual father for as many people as possible. That I have I long. To be what my father wasn't. I don't know if I would be that way apart from this unique brokenness that I've experienced. But I think that as a result, and I don't mean to claim too much credit for anybody's spiritual maturity or anything like that, but I think that he's been able to use my life to pour into others, and I think that other people have benefited. That they wouldn't have had I not experienced what I experienced. And so there's all kinds of really terrible things that people deal with, and there's all kinds of things that I look at and I say I don't understand that one.

  And in fact this one, I don't know that I've ever even looked at my own story and thought about why did God do that? This this week was really kind of the first time I was like, OK, I shared that story. Now what, what would be a reason? And I'm not saying that's what it was even the reason. I'm saying that might have been a reason. I don't understand. I mean, God is like orchestrating all of this like all of our lives are intertwined and he's in charge of it all and somehow he's making things work out for better and for good for us and so I cannot explain and oftentimes you will live without answers to why did that happen?

  But the reality is that God does have good purposes, and I love the way that Tim Keller puts it. He says, with time and perspective. Most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life. Why couldn't it be possible that God that from God's vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them? I think that this is a huge piece. I don't know if it's ultimately satisfying. In fact, I know that many of you are probably walking through things that are more terrible than what you care to share. And I don't know if this will answer all of your questions that you have about God, but allow it to point you on a road that leads you there.

  These last two are actually, I think, the most satisfying of the five. And this next one, super important, is the fact that Jesus Christ suffered. Jesus Christ suffered. Christianity is unique in its approach to evil. Many religious movements such as Christian Scientists or forms of Hinduism would say that suffering is an illusion, that it's not a real thing, that evil isn't real. But Christianity takes evil very seriously, and Christianity is the only religion that deals with it quite like this. Because in our religion, God. Took on human flesh. And took on evil himself. He bore the full weight of evil on our behalf. So that we might know God and know truth and no goodness. God came in the person of Jesus, not just to suffer alongside us, but to ultimately destroy evil. And so while we might have some philosophical questions remaining, Jesus is the answer to evil. He is going to be, he is the punctuation mark at the end of the evil sentence, that one day God will return, Jesus will return. And he will eliminate evil and make all things good. We long for that day for Jesus to make all things new.

  And the final point in this circle that he created is mystery. And I think that that's a really important one. As as we walk down this problem with evil is mystery. We have an entire book of the Bible dedicated to what do you make of evil when it happens in your life and it's the book of Job. I preached a message on the book of Job, I'm not going to give you the entire message today, but I did it less than a year ago if you want to look at it online. And Job was a man who lived a good life, he was a good man. And yet he experienced really horrible things and the majority of the book is his friends, his 3 friends coming to him and saying, you did something wrong, Job, admit it, you deserve all of this evil. They were believing in kind of a form of karma, right? You deserve all of this evil, Job. Why don't you just meet it admit it and die? And Job would never admit it. He, he stood on his ground, he stood on business the entire time. He just said, no, I'm innocent.

  And at the end of the book, God shows up. But Job does question God often, he says, but why? Why is this happening? And God shows up and he starts asking questions of Job. And when God starts asking you questions, you know you might be in trouble, OK? And what God says, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? That is a diss. and that is a big one, OK? Like, that's, that's rough. Dress for action like a man. I, I will question you. And you make it known to me. Were you there? Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth, Job? Tell me if you have understanding. And at that point it's like he slips on a pair of VR glasses and takes Job on this tour of the creation of the universe and of how he holds everything together and he's like, you think you could do it better than me?

  And at the end, we see that God is basically saying, look, I'm not simple. I don't work purely off of this thing that you call the retribution principle, which is you do bad things, you get bad things. The world is too complicated for that, and I promise you, Job, you couldn't do better than me. And so as we approach the problem of evil and suffering, Sorry, I told you it's not the best sandwich of all time. We might feel disappointed at the end. Because at the end, we have to embrace living without answers. To every question. Sometimes God will give us some answers. But Job, the book of Job, it teaches us that there's some things that are just beyond our understanding, and so we have to approach life with humility and trust. We have enough proof to know that God is good. We have enough reason to believe that he is all powerful, and we also know that we are limited humans that we were not there when he created the foundations of the earth and so therefore we have to approach evil and suffering in our lives with humility and trust so.

  This is where I park my bus. This is where I'm at, I do not know. The best answer for the problem of evil, but hopefully these will help you as you walk that road, and here's where I land when I deal with evil in my own life. I believe in God. There's nothing that can change that for me, I guess irrefutable proof against God, but that would be very hard to make. But I believe in God. I've experienced him. I know him. I trust him. I don't fully understand why God allows evil. Maybe I can explain more than most. Maybe I can make a better argument at times, but I don't fully understand all of it. And I don't think anyone does.

  And, but here's the most important thing for me. Ultimately, I think that everything that happens in history is for God's glory. That I trust him. That he is acting in a way that is good and that I can trust in him. And I believe that everything. is for His glory. Whatever he wills for today is what will, what will in the end bring him the most glory. So could God have created an evil, a world without evil and shame and and harm and suffering? Yes, it could have. And he will, we, we can't miss this fact that his ultimate plan we're living in this time that's like going to be a dot in the speck of eternity and that his ultimate plan is to create that world without evil and shame like this is just kind of the how he's doing it.

  But if he had just done it from the get go, we never would have had a need for the restoration of the world we never would have had a need for Jesus to come and pay for our sins, and there we would have missed out on some of these things that are just so beautiful. And so God loves to take these ashes and turn them into something beautiful, and I hope and I pray that he will do it in your life today. Because while none of us can fully eat this problem with evil sandwich, we see that Jesus, he took it all. He was able to handle the problem with evil. And to live an upright life, but at the same time, he didn't understand at all, because in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's saying, Father, if there's any way, may this cup pass from me. And even for Jesus, he didn't have all of his prayers answered. Even for Jesus, God had destined for his own beloved son to experience all of the evil in the whole world on our behalf. And because he did that, we get life with Christ.

  And so if Jesus can trust God. Knowing what we know he faced. We also can trust God with whatever we're going through. Knowing that he will in the end, make all things new again. But for now, all we can say is not my will but your will be done. We seek answers, but we also live with humility and trust, just as Jesus did on the night that he was betrayed.

  And so each week we participate in a sacred meal, where we are reminded of the fact that Jesus drank the evil on our behalf. Down to the dregs. And that because of his work we get to have life with God today and forever. And so each week we we participate in the sacred meal. If you are a believer in Christ, if you're calling on him as your savior, you are invited to come and participate in this. And I would just encourage you to come and trust in humility, saying, God, you have the answers, and I will trust in you. And so we would invite you to, to stand and pray, and as we prepare ourselves to receive this meal.

  Father, we thank you for the good news of Jesus. We thank you for this meal, for being present with us. We know that you were present at all times. You are omnipresent, but you are especially present during this meal. Help us to trust in that presence, trust in your goodness, trust in your knowledge, trust in your power. God, we submit our lives to you today, that we are weak, frail. But God, you are powerful and you hold all things together. And so Christ, we pray that Whatever we're going through that we would be able to trust you with it, that you would give us answers in your due time, but also you give us humility at all times. And so God I thank you for this meal and pray that we would receive the good news as we take it. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.