Greater-Good Theodicy – Ep. 152 – What About Evil? – Working For The Greater Good – Part 1

Greater-Good Theodicy - Good From Evil
Looking at another explanation for why there is evil in the world, we turn to the Greater-Good Theodicy. With this, we see a focus on the good that is accomplished as a result of the evil that occurs. From the evil actions of people or evil in the natural world, God is able to produce an abundance of good.

Just as with other theodicies, there are a lot of good things the Greater-Good Theodicy produces and explains. There are also limitations to our creaturely aspect when it comes to always seeing the good from evil. There are several objections this brings up that proponents attempt to explain. Our desire from this idea is that we don't pursue evil nor do we pursue inaction. Ultimately, the biggest example we can put forward of this theory is the trial, torture, and death of the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.

Like the other theories, we'll look at the issues with this next episode but this explanation does have strengths to support its holding.
Timeline:
00:00 - Introduction
02:01 - The Greater-Good Theodicy
05:38 - Second-Order Goods Come From First-Order Evil
06:26 - Evil Actions Of People, Good Works Of God
07:31 - We Don't Always See The Good
10:36 - Did I Earn It?
13:38 - Objection 1 - God Becomes The Author Of Evil
14:47 - Objection 2 - Can We Know Enough Good Results?
16:16 - Objection 3 - Gratuitous Evil Exists
19:20 - The Skeptical Theism Defense
24:30 - We Won't Have All The Answers - So Trust God
26:01 - Why Fight Evil? Because God Uses Ends & Means
29:07 - We Are Not To Pursue Evil So Good May Come
30:12 - Trust In The Ultimate Evil & Good - The Death Of Christ
33:04 - Conclusion

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep152/

Books mentioned in this episode:

What about Evil? A Defense of God's Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen
Kindle - https://amzn.to/2UeV3tt
Hardcover - https://amzn.to/3xGsxP6
Logos Link
ChristianBook Link

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”

Greater-Good Theodicy – Good From Evil

Looking at another explanation for why there is evil in the world, we turn to the Greater-Good Theodicy. With this, we see a focus on the good that is accomplished as a result of the evil that occurs. From the evil actions of people or evil in the natural world, God is able to produce an abundance of good.

Just as with other theodicies, there are a lot of good things the Greater-Good Theodicy produces and explains. There are also limitations to our creaturely aspect when it comes to always seeing the good from evil. There are several objections this brings up that proponents attempt to explain. Our desire from this idea is that we don’t pursue evil nor do we pursue inaction. Ultimately, the biggest example we can put forward of this theory is the trial, torture, and death of the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.

Like the other theories, we’ll look at the issues with this next episode but this explanation does have strengths to support its holding.

Timeline:

00:00 – Introduction

02:01 – The Greater-Good Theodicy

05:38 – Second-Order Goods Come From First-Order Evil

06:26 – Evil Actions Of People, Good Works Of God

07:31 – We Don’t Always See The Good

10:36 – Did I Earn It?

13:38 – Objection 1 – God Becomes The Author Of Evil

14:47 – Objection 2 – Can We Know Enough Good Results?

16:16 – Objection 3 – Gratuitous Evil Exists

19:20 – The Skeptical Theism Defense

24:30 – We Won’t Have All The Answers – So Trust God

26:01 – Why Fight Evil? Because God Uses Ends & Means

29:07 – We Are Not To Pursue Evil So Good May Come

30:12 – Trust In The Ultimate Evil & Good – The Death Of Christ

33:04 – Conclusion

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep152/

Books mentioned in this episode:

What about Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen

Kindle – https://amzn.to/2UeV3tt

Hardcover – https://amzn.to/3xGsxP6

Logos Link

ChristianBook Link

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn income to support us from qualifying purchases.”