Trilemma Rebuttal 4

Last week we were discussing this bit of idiocy:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent.
Is He able but not willing?  Then He is malevolent.
Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?

We started with the inherent flaw in denying God and yet defining Evil. Then we tried expanding our view of what actually allows evil, since we’re talking about preventing it. And then we discussed why God does not do what He is both willing and able to do, and why you don’t really want Him to anyway.

And I know that some will say, after our last discussion, that in practice it seems God is neither willing nor able.

Is He neither willing nor able? Then why call Him God?

Short answer: Because He is God.

Here again, human beings have this amazing arrogance that would point a finger at the One who, moment to moment, sustains the life He gave us for no reason other than love, and say, “Because You do not behave the way I want (in this case, preventing what I determine – and only what I determine – is evil), You are not God.”

Can a child decide that his mother is not his mother if she doesn’t let him have ice cream for dinner? If he falls while he’s playing and gets a splinter, is she no longer his mother because she should have known he may hurt himself outside and kept him away from the possibility of pain?

The arrogance in the question is nauseating.

God has no responsibility to our expectations of Him. He is not required to be what we decide we want Him to be. The Christian God defines Himself in scripture, and that is what is required of Him.

In Genesis, He introduces Himself as ELOHIM, which means “God Our Creator.” Throughout the Old Testament, He gives us different names for Himself that describe His character, but they all start with “Jehovah,” which indicates covenant. He reveals Himself as the God who provides for His people, the God who heals His people, etc. But you can’t get to the “Jehovah” revelations – the promises of God – without going through “God Our Creator.”

A lot of people don’t believe in God Our Creator, yet they want the God who will perform tricks and make their lives comfortable. Maybe it’s because someone doesn’t understand “God My Creator” that he expects his life belongs to himself, and God should facilitate it.

He is willing and He is able, and there is a day coming when He will. Jesus Christ will tear open the sky and come back to His creation to right all the wrongs, ease all the pain, judge all the evil, and erase darkness. In the meantime, we call Him God because He is. Because His thoughts are higher than ours, and all of our pain and misunderstandings don’t change who He is.