The Verdict
The Problem of Evil
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” — Genesis 1:26
Who is “us”?
Christianity is not really monotheistic. I’ve written about that here. It’s sort of become monotheistic because, over time, we’ve decided that the word “god” is only rightly applied to the highest being. The God of all gods. Sky Daddy. The “All-Father”. The other gods well… it’s not like they were poofed out of existence or anything (although probably 95% of Christians act like they were), they simply got demoted. “Angels” we call them. Heavenly beings. Whereas the ancient Greeks would’ve just called any supernatural non-human entity a “god”, no matter how powerful, how good, nor how evil, Christianity decided to make a bunch of distinctions. To Christians (and Jews before them) “God” is only the ultimate Creator. The One from whom all else flows. Everything else, at least at the popular level, is some sort of angel (if good) or demon (if bad).
[aside: In actuality, technically speaking, the fallen angels and the demons are different things, the latter being the disembodied spirits of slain nephilim and the former being heavenly creatures who transgressed.]
It was not always so.
The ancient Israelites had far more in common with their polytheistic neighbors than we like to admit and, in the story of Genesis, you see this quite clearly. Obscured in the English, the word above translated as “God” is, in Hebrew, “Elohim”. A plural noun.
It means “gods”.
The more literal, accurate translation of Genesis 1:26 is “‘Then the gods said to one another, “Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness…’”
…
Makes more sense doesn’t it.
People don’t like it.
You know, “Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one.”
Upsetting.
I mean, what are we? Pagans?
Actually though I don’t think there’s much of a contradiction here. Ancient Judaism was and (to a lesser extent) modern Judaism and many forms of Christianity are, in practice, actually henotheistic religions that got confused. Monotheism is the belief that only one god exists. Henotheism is, on the contrary, the belief that only one god ought be worshiped. To the extent that Christianity and Judaism proclaim a belief in (and sometimes prayers to) various angels like Michael and Gabriel or think they’re at war with various demons like Satan and Beelzebub (maybe not the same guy!) they are (or at least would be to an ancient Greek or Hebrew) polytheists.
Just, you know, polytheists who only worship the top God.
Fine and fine.
But… our image.
…
Our likeness.
What if you have more than one nature?
What if…. possibly, you have more than one “father”?
…
Bear with me. I promise this won’t be as heretical as it sounds.
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” — Jesus, Gospel of John 8:44
“Our Father, who art in Heaven…” — Also Jesus.
The Book of Job is a peak behind the curtain. People ask all the time, “What’s Reality on about?” “What’s the point of it all?” “All this suffering and pain, why doesn’t God do anything?” “What are the angels up to in Heaven?”
Well, they’re having a wager.
More technically…
They’re holding court. Heaven is litigating an issue.
The name “Satan” means “The Accuser”. He is the prosecution, the one trying to get a Guilty Verdict. Jesus plays the role of the Defense, the advocate. God The Father? The Judge. And what are we?
We’re the evidence.
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” — Bible, 1 John 2:1
You my friend.
You’re the evidence.
“In the beginning the Universe was created.
This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” — Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of The Universe.
God is Just.
Every wrong must, in the end, be righted. All debts paid. Each given their due.
But what if God himself were the one under scrutiny? The one accused? How could God, in a Just and Fair way, weigh that case? What, I ask you, could He do?
You see…
In the beginning, The All-Father stood alone. And then, surveying the void of the endless sea, he brought forth from it all manner of things. With this we are familiar. Genesis chapter one. Sun and Moon. Day and night. Bird, beast, and every creeping thing that creepeth.
But.
Implied…
Before that…
He made the angels.
The other gods.
Before the material world was made Apollo had a father. Zeus had a father. Baal and Quetzalcoatl had a father. It is not covered in the story, perhaps because mortals simply cannot comprehend it, but the scriptures imply, heavily, that The Elohim, the gods, are themselves created beings and that they stem from the same source that we all do. Somewhere, in the vast recesses of eternity past, long before the foundation of the material world, Michael, Gabriel, Satan, and the other gods were all brought into being. They were not. And then, somehow, they were.
…
And what if they didn’t like that?
What if some of the gods regarded their creation as “a bad move”?
Who knows why.
Not sure it really matters.
People grow tired of living for a multitude of reasons and perhaps, maybe, angels are no different. What if, after a long time, aeons and aeons, some of the gods decided that it would have been better if they’d never been born? I mean, people feel like that sometimes.
Why not angels?
What if (and again, who knows the reason), in the vast echoes of eternity before the Earth was drawn forth from the sea, one of the gods levied a charge against The All-Father. Stood up in the midst of Heaven and said, simply, “This was a mistake.”
…
“You shouldn’t have made me.”
“You are all-powerful and all-knowing and all-wise but nonetheless I reject existence. It’s not worth it. You were wrong.”
…
How is God to judge that?
“Let us make man in our image…”
I submit to you that we have, in a way, gotten it backwards. That you and I, Mankind, are judged, yes, but that, cosmically, we are not the ones ultimately on trial.
God is on trial.
I submit to you that, fairly and judiciously, God is weighing a claim against Himself.
What else can you do when the work of your hands stands up and says…
“Wish you hadn’t.”
See… Satan’s claim is not without teeth.
Afterall, in a very real sense, God is responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened.
Yeah?
His choice after all, bringing the Cosmos into existence. You and I didn’t consent to being made. Every child that ever died would not have had he not made them. Had he not created the panthers that mauled them or the diseases which took their lives. Every stubbed toe or broken neck could, reasonably, be likewise chalked up to his bad design. When you think about it, why create creatures with such fragile hearts? Beings who are so sensitive to Love and Loss. Why not step in and fix everything? Freewill? Poor solace that is. Tell a grieving mother that her child died because of God’s philosophical choice.
No.
This is God’s fault.
Existence is God’s FAULT.
…
He agrees.
So much so that he let himself hang for it.
God needed a champion.
The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” — Job 1:7
Satan had been down on Earth building his case. Accusing, agitating, needling for confessions.
“Look at this war!” He screamed up to Heaven. “This plague!" “See here the horrors thinly veiled behind the beauty of your jungles, nature red in tooth and claw!” “A barren woman. See her tears?” “A man eaten alive with parasitic worms? Is this, as you claimed in Genesis, “good”? Is it “very good”? “Behold this dead baby!” “Look with your divine eyes upon this tortured cat!” “See here this man in the throes of depression, this woman tearing her eyes out from grief!” “Look at it! Look at it Father!”
He stops to breathe.
“I am right…” he says slowly. “Existence isn’t worth it. I am right.”
…
… …
“Have you considered my servant Job?”
“Job… What of it?”
“He is righteous and upstanding.”
“Course he is. You’ve given him everything. Money. Children. Status. Health. A beautiful wife… Anybody can be happy under those conditions. But…”
A boney finger raises shakily in Heaven’s court.
“Take that away. Take it all away. Then see what he thinks. Then see what he shall say.”
God consents.
He’s fair. The evidence must be weighed.
Everything is taken from Job and Satan, through the mouth of his wife and (in a less direct way) his friends, tries to draw out Job’s confession.
“Curse God and die.” “Reject existence.” “Say it’s not worth it.” “Agree all this is a mistake.”
… …
…
And Job comes close.
Why didn’t I die when I was born?
Why didn’t I die as I came out of my mother’s body?
Why was I placed on her knees?
Why did her breasts give me milk?
If all of that hadn’t happened,
I would be lying down in peace.
I’d be asleep and at rest in the grave.— Bible, Job 3: 11-13
Job doesn’t sugar coat it. He doesn’t try to cope. He doesn’t go along with his friends’ elaborate reasoning or theologizing about why what happened to him was “for a reason”.
No.
Job maintains his innocence. Declares boldly that he does not deserve it and that his suffering has no broader meaning.
…
Yet he won’t curse God.
Job will not join The Accuser in his case.
For this God does something extraordinary.
God explains the universe.
Chesterton was the first to note the marvelousness of God’s response to Job. For pages and pages now, chapter after chapter, Job and his friends have been arguing about the reason for Job’s suffering, searching out an answer, trying to understand it. “It’s unjust,” Job says repeatedly. “No! No I don’t deserve this! It doesn’t make sense! Would that God would come down and explain himself and why this is happening!”
Then God does.
And what God says, effectively, is, “Hey, you think you got problems…”
For the next five chapters God goes on a rant about the Chaos of existence. “The stars Job. Do you know how much trouble those are? How many times a day do you think oxen give birth and it has to go just right. Do you know what lions have to do to feed themselves? The monsters of The Deep Job. How about the sea? Can you hold back the sea? Torrents of rain, heat, cold, wind and ice… the earth abounds in contradictions. The trees, the ostrich, the horse, endless squabbles and battles happening everywhere at once, do you know how hard this is? How chaotic? Who will find fault with the me? Which of you could do it better? Try if you can. Adorn yourself with glory and majesty and you step up here and try to hang The Pleiades off Orion’s belt. This is a living cosmos I’ve created here. Chock-full sentient entities and forces all capable of making their own choices and following their own conflicting dreams. Your life is a mess? Your life? Look around buddy…
This whole place is a madhouse.”
…
And Job, righteous Job, accepts this.
“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but I will proceed no further.”— Bible, Job 40:3-5
Feeling the full weight of Existence…
Job says “Okay.”
Job sides with the Defense.
Q: Why did God let the snake into the garden?
A: To create a creature who could see both sides.
A being made in the image of God but, also… kinda in the image of Satan. Tainted. Fallen.
“Let us make Man.”
“Let us.”
A creature of quasi-divine status who would exist right in the thick of the Cosmos, with ALL that that entails, who would at last be fit to judge. A neutral party. One equal parts righteousness and sin. Creatures who have felt all The Good and all The Bad that comes with existence and who can at last make the call.
“Do you not know that we are to judge angels (gods)?” — Bible, 1 Corinthians 6:3
“Is existence worth it?”
…
You get to decide that.
You, personally, are actually of cosmic importance because you, by your life, are the evidence for or against God.
I think it is tempting to believe that Jesus was crucified because people didn't know who he was. But I think people probably did it, or would have done it, BECAUSE they knew he was God, and believed God deserved to die.
It is rare to see someone else express this, though. Hats off :)
Exquisite, Uncomfortable, unquestionable Provoking, puts me in mind of the multitude of author's of the “Bible’ trying to figure it all out. To my complicated mind its much simpler and less complicated, The Creator had grown bored with perfection albeit a extendable perfection and surmised that if he rendered his Spirit into infinite mini-creations, pure in their perfection however lacking the fulness of The Perfect “Perfection” (humans call GOD), and create a most intimate and challenging environment that required innovation, creativity and various, deep aspects of perfection, individual perfections could/would evolve and a Devine gestalt would evolve. We are that ‘plan’, we are godlets each and every one of us, let all this conflict/confusion/blame go, and be one with The Plan. Unfortunately each one must discover "The Mission, if you choose to accept it", and until we do the floggings will continue until the moral improves.…...