THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

44SUFFERING AND SIN: REPENT OR PERISHLuke 13:1-5This is the question with which most people grapple. When Thomas Aquinas, who had one of thegreatest philosophical/theological minds ever, wrote his great Summa Theologica, he could find only twoobjections to the existence of God that were challenging, even though he tried to list at least threeobjections to every one of the thousands of theses he tried to prove in that monumental work. One of thetwo objections is the apparent ability of natural science to explain everything in our experience withoutGod; and the other is the problem of evil. 1When George Barna, the public opinion pollster, conducted a nationwide survey which includedthe question, "If you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, whatwould you ask?" The most common response, offered by 17% of those who could think of a question was"Why is there pain and suffering in the world?" 2HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEIn the early Christian centuries and in the medieval period, this issue was as acute as it is today.In the fifth century, Augustine was intensely concerned with the problem and worked out a systematicChristian response that has proved very influential. (Even today we speak of the “Augustinian type” ofsolution to the problem of evil.) As mentioned earlier, in the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas listedthe reality of evil as one of the chief intellectual obstacles to Christian theism. The problem of evil forthe Christian has been equally challenging and unavoidable in all historical periods.This issue arises only for a religion which insists that the object of its worship is at onceperfectly good and unlimitedly powerful. The challenge is thus inescapable for Christianity.It was Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) who formulated the classic theodicy dilemma, which in theeighteenth century David Hume (1711-76), the Scottish philosopher, attempted to impale Christiantheology upon one or both horns of his famous dilemma:“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able,but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whencethen is evil?” 3More simply put:“Either God is all-good, but He is not powerful enough to eliminate diseaseand disaster; or He is all-powerful, but He is not all-good and therefore Hedoes not end all evil.”