RE104; Lecture 5 – September 27, 2022

Conquering Evil

Job’s Theodicy
- Job 1-3
- Job, a good man; does good things; faithful to his God
- Suffering comes suddenly upon him: flock, herd, children, wife
- Job does not “sin”: curse God
- Accepts God’s omnipotence
- Job accuses God of injustice: punishing a righteous man without a justified cause

- Job believes in retribution theology as demonstrated in Deuteronomistic history

- God rewards the good and punishes evil
- A kind of karmic understanding: you get what you deserve
- Good always reward good and evil is always punished
- Cosmic justice is certain
- This seems upended because Job is certain of his innocence

- Job’s friends believe in retribution theology; they are certain job is guilty of some
heinous sin
- Job brings a rib against God
- Job challenges God to answer to the charge: punishing a just man without cause
- God does not answer until the final chapters
- God does not answer Job’s challenge directly (i.e., why are you punishing me, a just
person)

- Conclusion: if Job is ignorant of the ‘goings on’ in the material world and cosmos, how
could he dare to pontificate about things in the spiritual world of which he knows not?
- His task is to trust God’s goodness and endure suffering
- God vindicates faithfulness: Job is blessed with more children, wealth, and long-life
because despite his charge against God’s justice, he does not “curse” (i.e., repudiate) God

- Suffering can be evidence of guilt but not always

- Suffering can be redemptive
- In God’s greater purposes, even the “innocent” suffers
- While not always evident, their suffering is part of a greater cosmic plan
- The sufferer needs comfort and hope not judgment and condemnation
- One overcomes suffering through patience, forbearance, and trust in Divine wisdom

Ancient Babylonian Theology

- Babylonian theodicy: similar to the Book of Job
- Suffering is the result of wrongdoing
- The gods are innocent, humans suffer because of their own sins
Suffering in Islam
- Suffering as punishment for wrongdoing has a place in Islamic thought
- God has given to human beings freewill to obey or disobey
- Human are moral agents created with a dual nature: good and evil inheres in the human
faculty
- Islam stresses the moral law code, a prescription for right living known as shariah
- Suffering may come a disobedience

- Suffering as a test of faith is very important in Islam

- Quran, 11.150ff “We shall test your steadfastness with fear and famine, with loss of life
and property and crops. Give good news to those who endure with fortitude, who in
adversity say: ‘We belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return”
- Enduring trial and suffering are therefore a way to please God
- Quran, 64.11 “No misfortune befalls except by the will of Allah”
- Submission to Allah’s omnipotent will is the key to enduring suffering

The “Suffering” God: Christianity and Evil

- God takes responsibility for suffering by becoming a sufferer
- The example of Jesus as God-incarnate, who takes on human suffering and dying an
ignominious death as a malefactor encourages Christians to “endure suffering as good
soldiers.”
- Christ’s suffering and death becomes the means by which sin, suffering, and death is to
be conquered forever

Personified Evil: Satan and Fallen and Angles

- Serpent in Genesis 3
- The ‘fallen ones’ in Genesis 6
- Chaos monsters: Rahab, Leviathan, etc.
- The ‘Satan’ in Job, Zechariah & Numbers
- The ‘Satan’ as part of the heavenly court
- The ‘Satan’ as accuser, prosecutor, instigator, and tempter

- The ‘Satan’ in Christianity

- Satan as a liar, deceiver, murderer, lion,
and archenemy of God
- Satan’s kingdom
- Satan’s objectives
- Satan’s destructive force
- Satan’s opposition to Christ

Personified Evil
Heb. 2:14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the
same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is,
the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.
1 John 3:8 Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from
the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

The Ultimate Conquest of Evil

Rev. 12:7 And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The
dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place
for them in heaven. 9 The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the
Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him.

Rev. 20:10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur,
where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and
ever.

Matt 25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into
the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

- Evil to be destroyed forever

- Satan and all evil doers are to be destroyed (or consigned to hell?)
- Restoration of Eden
- Rev 21:1-5 “Then I saw a new heaven and new earth. . . and I heard a great voice from
the throne saying, ‘Behold the dwelling of God is with mankind. He will dwell with
them; they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning
nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And he who sat
upon the throne said, ‘Behold I am making all things new.’”

Overcoming Evil in Islam

- Islamic theology also features personified evil: the angel Iblis (Satan), resented the place
of Adam in creation.
- Thrown out of heaven; enemy of God
- Iblis and his demons permitted by God to tempt mankind.
- Islamic eschatology (doctrine of last things) involves a resurrection and reward for both
right- and wrong-doing
- Ultimate justice is meted out by Allah at the final judgment
- Iblis and his minions will face hell fire
- Evil also is finally remedied: eternal bliss awaits the believer free from suffering, pain,
and evil.