This is why protastant christians have no answer from the atheist who ask, "If God is so loving, why did he creat evil, death and destruction." Everything created is to glorify God and and so obvios in nature. However, our free will/intention on Gods perfect creation, is usually self centered and we end up further away from God; IE Sin. Also, the word coperate(verb/action), which means, I have to try and practice to be sinless. Not just by faith alone. The West has lost the concept of works and strifes not to participate with God.
The basic idea is that because Christ has descended into every abyss that sin leads to, all sin ultimately serves the will of God, even if God did not will the sin itself. God takes the consequences of sin (ultimately, death) and provides a new end (eternal life).
Lord of the Rings:) There are probably infinitely many stories and images in there showing how evil - by its very lack of purpose- always ends up destroying itself, and in the process will serve as a pointer back to the good - a crown around the Good.
Almost all classic medieval style fairy tales. Watch how it is actually the deviations from the aim/the good of the story that end up providing the missing links. And the intentions of who acted them out cannot change this.
It is surely be useful to analyze this abstractly: that because evil is only defined as a negative relation to some good - it is still pointing to that good- to a purpose and so towards the Source of all purposes/goods - God. ex: by stating that you dont like apples, you only acknowledge the existence of apples while the "I" remains in paradoxical non-existence. "I am not like that" only leaves you with a question: and what ARE you like?
However ultimately what (at least for me) reveals this eternal victory of God best is a marriage of the abstract words to a beautiful bodies of stories. We need to see this in concrete instantiations and fairy tales show us complete distilled versions of the patterns. So simply surround yourself with beautiful tales and observe how Christ is orchestrating the whole story regardless of how people choose to act. I love to see over and over again how the seemingly last become first and the apparent first revealed as last over and over again. Start with the kitsch obvious ones like the king and the outcast switching places and then look for more subtle ones. It just never gets old (at least until you learn to see it around you in every day and that becomes even better than the fairytales).
A good stark recent example that comes to me is from the story of Stardust. with two witches who by their very selfish "un-intention" and mutual rivalry end up facilitating the way for the Good and prevent themselves from the very thing they (think they) want to do. It is a nice example of how everything inevitably serves God because this happens outside the town and any other direct relations with the "honest-aiming" characters and shows how even the very "intentions" of evil,not only acts of sin, are destined to serve some good.
Have you seen that film so as not to spoil it for you?
It may resonate most deeply during the Christmas season :) It came to me right on the Feast of Theophany this year which was very beautiful. I would condemn it as shallow modern film before, and I couldnt have misjudged more. It is so rich in symbolism and shows us in such a beautiful explicit way how only the truly clean intentions last till the end and all others gradually fall away into nothing. (Which every good tale is about but some tellings trace it better.) Definitely worth seeing.
This is why protastant christians have no answer from the atheist who ask, "If God is so loving, why did he creat evil, death and destruction." Everything created is to glorify God and and so obvios in nature. However, our free will/intention on Gods perfect creation, is usually self centered and we end up further away from God; IE Sin. Also, the word coperate(verb/action), which means, I have to try and practice to be sinless. Not just by faith alone. The West has lost the concept of works and strifes not to participate with God.
Great article.
"All evil acts will ultimately serve the will of God, no matter their intention."
This is a hard saying. I'm struggling with this. Could you recommend resources to follow up with on helping me understand better?
Jordan Wood is pretty good here. He may talk about this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7-aUIfboA
The basic idea is that because Christ has descended into every abyss that sin leads to, all sin ultimately serves the will of God, even if God did not will the sin itself. God takes the consequences of sin (ultimately, death) and provides a new end (eternal life).
Thanks so much!
Lord of the Rings:) There are probably infinitely many stories and images in there showing how evil - by its very lack of purpose- always ends up destroying itself, and in the process will serve as a pointer back to the good - a crown around the Good.
Almost all classic medieval style fairy tales. Watch how it is actually the deviations from the aim/the good of the story that end up providing the missing links. And the intentions of who acted them out cannot change this.
It is surely be useful to analyze this abstractly: that because evil is only defined as a negative relation to some good - it is still pointing to that good- to a purpose and so towards the Source of all purposes/goods - God. ex: by stating that you dont like apples, you only acknowledge the existence of apples while the "I" remains in paradoxical non-existence. "I am not like that" only leaves you with a question: and what ARE you like?
However ultimately what (at least for me) reveals this eternal victory of God best is a marriage of the abstract words to a beautiful bodies of stories. We need to see this in concrete instantiations and fairy tales show us complete distilled versions of the patterns. So simply surround yourself with beautiful tales and observe how Christ is orchestrating the whole story regardless of how people choose to act. I love to see over and over again how the seemingly last become first and the apparent first revealed as last over and over again. Start with the kitsch obvious ones like the king and the outcast switching places and then look for more subtle ones. It just never gets old (at least until you learn to see it around you in every day and that becomes even better than the fairytales).
A good stark recent example that comes to me is from the story of Stardust. with two witches who by their very selfish "un-intention" and mutual rivalry end up facilitating the way for the Good and prevent themselves from the very thing they (think they) want to do. It is a nice example of how everything inevitably serves God because this happens outside the town and any other direct relations with the "honest-aiming" characters and shows how even the very "intentions" of evil,not only acts of sin, are destined to serve some good.
Have you seen that film so as not to spoil it for you?
I haven't seen Stardust, but it sounds like it's going on my list :)
It may resonate most deeply during the Christmas season :) It came to me right on the Feast of Theophany this year which was very beautiful. I would condemn it as shallow modern film before, and I couldnt have misjudged more. It is so rich in symbolism and shows us in such a beautiful explicit way how only the truly clean intentions last till the end and all others gradually fall away into nothing. (Which every good tale is about but some tellings trace it better.) Definitely worth seeing.