Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Liz,

> > Are not disasters evil??? What about the Tsunami, which killed over 300,000 
> > men, women, children, babies? You say that God as only good must have some
> > ulterior good motive for killing all those people? If God has free will,
> > acts, is a moral agent, and commits disaster, then he also does evil, as he 
> > is quoted as saying.
> >    



HH: Isaiah 45:7 says that God creates RA(, and that word can mean 
"disaster." We agree that God is responsible for disasters. But Abraham 
knew the following (Gen 18:25): "Will not the Judge of all the earth do 
right?" God does what is right, and what is right is not morally evil. 
Moral evil concerns what is morally wrong. This is the distinction being 
made. God does not do what is morally wrong because he is holy. When 
Adam and Eve sinned, their sin brought a series of divine judgments, 
including pain in childbirth, multiplied conception, toil in work, an 
unproductive earth, and physical death.  We believe other negative 
conditions came in the wake of these, such as disease, savageness in 
animals, and disordered climate patterns. The Lord altered the 
environemnt in which mankind would live as a result of its sin. This was 
a divine judgment, so we certainly cannot call it morally evil.  All 
these agencies are ultimately under  God's sovereignty, but they also 
operate according to various laws in a naturalistic way. We know the 
cause of the tsunami can be traced all the way back to the sin of Adam 
and Eve. While it may have been a disaster, it was a token of divine 
judgment on human sin, and was not ultimately a moral evil. However, 
these disorders in nature do not necessarily connect directly with 
particular sins or sinners. That is, there is a certain randomness about 
them so that they are a condition of human life, affecting the innocent 
as well as the guilty. 

Yours,
Harold Holmyard 


> >    
> >
> > > HH: God says that he creates evil, so of course you can say that. But
> > > clearly moral evil is due to moral agents, and God as a moral agent does
> > > not produce moral evil because he is holy. However, angels and men do
> > > produce moral evil by contravening God's good will.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > HH: Right, but I think Isa 45:7 is using the term "evil" in the sense of
> > > "disaster." I understand what you are saying about moral evil being a
> > > by-product of God's creation of the world. However, it was not a
> > > necessary by-product, since it is due to the free will choices of moral
> > > beings. He was not the direct Creator of moral evil, since it arose
> > > through angels and human beings.
> > >
> > > Yours,
> > > Harold Holmyard
> > >
> > >      
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