Problem of Evil

Satan and the Corruption of Nature: Seven Arguments

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Man…trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law – Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shrek’d against his creed” —Tennyson, In Memoriam Tennyson nailed it. We trust that God is…

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Why Can’t God Stop Evil? The Thomas J. Oord Interview (podcast)

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Greg and Thomas talk about Open Theism and how Greg’s views differ from Thomas’s. Theology nerds, get your compass and your flashlight and prepare to go DEEEEEP in the weeds!  Thomas’s book: God Can’t Episode…

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6 Things the Church Fathers Can Teach Us about Spiritual Warfare

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Image by Christina Saint Marche via Flickr Unlike our thinking today about the source of good and evil in the world, the early church fathers, including Irenaus, Athenagorus, Origen, and others before Augustine, possessed a warfare…

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Where is Human Free Will in the Bible?

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The Bible is emphatic on its teaching that humans possess free will and are capable of originating evil. Notice, for example, that in the very first chapter of the Bible God commands humans to be…

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The Point of the Book of Job

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The point of the book of Job is to teach us that the mystery of evil is a mystery of a war-torn and unfathomably complex creation, not the mystery of God’s all-controlling will. Given how…

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Podcast: Why Was Satan Allowed Into the Garden to Begin With?

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Greg considers why Satan was allowed into the Garden.  http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0372.mp3

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Podcast: Dear Greg: Does God Accommodate, or is God Simply Powerless?

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Greg wrestles with a really tough tragedy and offers theological insight. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0359.mp3

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Enduring an Evil-Infested World (6 Principles) —part two

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In the previous post, I introduced the first three principles that will help you find peace and even a sense of victory in the midst of the evil we face in this world. Here are…

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Enduring an Evil-Infested World (6 Principles) —part one

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We live in the midst of a spiritual battlefield where we face evil daily. Yet we are also in the midst of an ambiguity that hinders us from knowing why any given evil occurs as…

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Podcast: Does God Actively Discipline Those He Loves?

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Greg on God’s role in suffering.  http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0272.mp3

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Podcast: Is It God Withdrawing OR Is It a Scheme of Satan?

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Sometimes evil is attributed to God withdrawing. Sometimes it is attributed to a scheme of Satan. We are called to respond to each differently. So, must we be able to discern which is the case…

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Podcast: Does Evil Really Exist?

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Greg considers the idea that evil is simply the privation of good. He then offers a better explanation. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0116.mp3

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Why We Can’t Know Why

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Various fields of science have taught us that the slightest variation in a sufficiently complex process at one point may cause remarkable variations in that process at another point. The flap of a butterfly wing…

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Why Does God’s Activity Seem So Arbitrary?

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Why? It’s the question that never goes away. Why is one infant born sickly and deformed when at the same time another is born perfectly healthy? Why does tragedy repeatedly strike one family while another…

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When Prayers Go Unanswered

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Recently Frank Viola published a free e-book where 21 Christian leaders responded to the following question: Why is it that God doesn’t often answer the desperate prayers of His people for deliverance, protection, healing, etc.? You can download…

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Lord Willing? Part 3

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In this final segment of Greg’s discussion with Jessica Kelley about her book Lord Willing?, Jessica talks about how to respond to someone who is grieving or in crisis. You can find part 1 here…

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Lord Willing? Part 2

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In Part 2 of Greg’s interview of Jessica Kelley about her book Lord Willing?, they discuss the theology that helped Jessica through her son Henry’s illness and death. You can find Part 1 of the…

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Lord Willing? Part 1

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Greg sat down with Jessica Kelley recently to talk with her about her book Lord Willing?. We’re posting their conversation in three parts. Today, in part 1, Jessica shares the story of when her son Henry was…

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God of Sense and Traditions of Non-Sense

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As the title suggests, in his book, God’s Problem: How The Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer, Bart Ehrman argues that the Bible has nothing compelling to say about…

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Lord Willing?

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Lord Willing? Wrestling with God’s Role in My Child’s Death, by Jessica Kelley In November 2012, I received one of the most touching emails I have ever received. A young mother named Jessica Kelley explained…

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