I heard a speaker, his name was Gregory Khoakl, and though his name is a mouth full, at the end of speaking he leaves your mouth wide open. He has an amazing way of conveying his ideas into a way that both scholars and 3rd graders would pick up on and definitely not be bored. So, in my next few paragraphs I’d like to abbreviate what I heard, and please know that what I say does not justify what he said. P.S. This is about God; I thought I’d warn you.
Greg’s talk was about evil, suffering, and the goodness of God. That was in fact the title of his presentation. He goes into great depth defining these topics, and relating them to different theological (or non-theological) beliefs, showing how they produce invalidity in the other beliefs when questioned on these. The most amazing thing is that he does not bring Satan in once, and also, he doesn’t really bring God into it until the end.
He first starts with a demonstration, he refers to the movie Sophie’s Choice, which is the story of a women who, when brought to a concentration camp during WWII, is forced to choose one of her two children who will live and who will be sent off to the gas chambers. She picks, but the story is based on the effects of this choice, and a popular topic is brought up: “Why would God allow this evil to happen?”
Greg does get to an answer for this, but first, he found it necessary to define what evil was. He writes on the white board: “Evil Is Something. Evil Exists. It’s Real.” His point in this was to address the recent fad belief called relativism, which is the wide spread belief that morals are relative, that right and wrong are different for everybody. He says that if this is true, that morals are relative, then further discussion on evil is impossible. Why? “You have to have a way to keep score, or a standard, to make the judgment that something is evil.” He says, “If there is no real scoring system for right and wrong, then there is no real evil, and how can we hold God responsible for something that doesn’t exist?” At this point, most relativists would be stumped because they would either have to admit that there was a moral standard, which would contradict their beliefs, or they would have to say that God does not allow evil to happen. They can’t complain about evil being a problem, because in their world, evil does not exist.
He humorously demonstrates that you can steal from a relativist and see what their reaction is. If they express their disapproval, by their own beliefs, why should YOU care? It’s fine in your own beliefs and you are getting what you want. But most people are considerate and care because that is what is good and if there is good, then there must be a standard people are following.
Greg brings up another point, about how many believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. He finds this statement very false; beauty comes from God. He presents a scene where he was at a conference for a theological debate against a relativist and the nature of beauty was brought up. Outside where the Canadian mountains and Greg asks, “Are those mountains beautiful because when you look at them you get a good emotion? Do your feelings make it beautiful? Or is it that those mountains are beautiful that make you feel the way you do?” His opponent was stuck. He chuckles as he says, “I wish I had thought of this at the time, but what I would have asked next was, ‘Have you ever called your wife beautiful? If it’s your emotion that makes her beautiful, then I would probably leave that part out.” Greg shows how not only do these beliefs make the individual seem selfish, but they moreover they are contradictory to themselves.
He then moves on to atheistic beliefs and says, “However, if you can complain about evil existing, you cannot be an atheist. Real evil must mean there’s a real God.” He adds that this is the only viable argument that atheists hold, and it is a handy argument because everyone experiences evil. “But if there is no God, how does evil occur in the materialistic world where everything is physical? EVERYONE experiences it.” He proves his point by stating that if there is no God, there’s no perfect standard, no absolute wrong or right, and therefore no departure from that standard. If we follow that track, we find ourselves relativists again.
Greg then goes to explain that even though evil is something; it is not just some thing. He says, “Evil is a word that describes something that is missing, a privation, like donut holes and shadows. If evil isn’t some thing, then it wasn’t created, and therefore didn’t need a creator, making possible an alternate explanation for its existence.” Greg talks about a guy who went on his radio show who asks him, “How do you kneel at the bed of a dying child and tell them there is a God?” Greg tells the audience, “Well, I would much rather give them that hope, whereas an atheist is going to say what? ‘Tough luck’?”
This suggestion that evil is the missing of something, refers to the missing of good. In the bible it says that God made the world perfect, and he created humans with free will. So, when Adam and Eve sinned and ate the forbidden fruit they didn’t bring evil into the world, but they took away the perfect good. If God is light, then wherever there is not light or perfect good, there is shadow.
“Evil is an intruder, brought by man, not God. He didn’t create it. Evil is just the description of what happened when man refused God’s leadership. We live in a crippled world, and in a crippled world produces crippled people and crippled circumstances.” Greg brings up a common argument that without freedom, we couldn’t love. “This is false. God loves, but cannot be bad, so sin and love are two separate entities. And because of love, God gave us the free will. That free will is what allows sin.”
So, what is God doing about evil then? Greg lists a few ways God has given us resources to cope with evil. First, he gave us the institutions of family, church, and government. These are helps for us, but when they don’t do their job the way God wants them to, things go wrong. Currently, this is very apparent, both in the government and even churches and families. Lives are corrupted by evil, and its so hard to find help because the help is corrupted so often. Greg has more ways God helps us though; second, God gives us His Holy Spirit to all who ask for it so that He can help them overpower the evil in their personal individual lives. Greg says, “He will help you, but He is not the bridge over troubled waters, He is the tow through it and you have to hold on to Him. It requires true faith that even though it’s rough right now, He is leading you the right way.”
Third, Greg quotes the bible in saying that there will be a time when God will remove every remnant of evil from His creation and will restore the goodness. This is in reference to the second coming of Christ, when He will take all the true believers to His kingdom, and then the world will be destroyed and recreated to perfection and be the new kingdom. It will be heaven on earth, and life will be perfect.
Most importantly, the fourth way God helps us is through His son’s death on the cross for all of our sins. “He sent him to die for evil men offering mercy instead of justice, so they can be forgiven rather than condemned,” Greg says. “All you have to do is believe this happened and you’ve got it.” God says, “You want to talk about the innocent suffering? Fine. Let’s talk about my son.”
Thanks for reading, and sorry I haven't written in forever! This isn't even my normal style at all, but this guy was amazing! Until next time Journal, BELIEVE IN GOD!!! :)
