Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T11:29:43.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Divine Omniscience and the Soteriological Problem of Evil: Is the Type of Knowledge God Possesses Relevant?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

David Basinger
Affiliation:
Roberts Wesleyan College, 2301 Westside Drive, Rochester, NY 14624–1997

Extract

The problem of evil normally discussed in philosophical theology is concerned with the pain and suffering experienced in this life. Why do so many innocent children die slow, torturous deaths as the result of disease, famine or earthquakes? Why do so many seemingly innocent adults suffer as the result of the greed, indifference or perversity of others? If God is all-good, then he certainly does not want such suffering. If God is all-powerful, he should be able to do away with such evils. Thus, must we not conclude that the existence of such evil counts against belief in the existence of an all-loving, all-powerful God?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kuiper, R. B. in The Voice of Authority, ed. by Marston, G. W. (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing House, 1960), p. 16.Google Scholar

2 Process theist Charles Hartshorne, for instance, considers belief in immortality to be a ‘tall story’ concocted by those who have not yet realized that ‘the world is not a kindergarten’ in which all our wishes are granted. See Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes (SUNY Press, 1984), pp. 36–7.Google Scholar For a good discussion of the annihilation theory, see Edwards, David L. and Stott, John, Evangelical Essentials (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1988), pp. 287329.Google Scholar

3 For a good discussion of the history of Universalism in the United States, see Universalism in America, ed. Cassara, Ernest (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971).Google Scholar

4 See Leibniz, Gottfried, excerpts from Theodicy in Rowe, William and Wainwright, William, Philosophy and Religion: Selected Readings, 2nd ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1987), especially pp. 203–5.Google Scholar

5 See, for instance, Geisler, Norman, The Christian Ethic of Love(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1973), pp. 21–5.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. p. 22.

7 See Barrows, Samuel J., The Doom of the Majority of Mankind (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1883), pp. 2638 for an interesting presentation of these perspectives.Google Scholar

8 Even Samuel Barrows, writing a century ago, could write that, ‘Modern Calvinists, repudiating the doctrine of infant damnation, would like to believe that all dying in infancy are elect’. [Barrows, p. 37]. See Punt, Neal, What's So Good About the Good News? (Chicago: Northland Press, 1988), pp. 65–9 for a thoughtful current defence of the claim that all young children who die enter heaven.Google Scholar

9 See, for example, Dowsett, Dick, God, That's Not Fair! (Kent, UK: OMF Books, 1982), pp. 3152; Punt, pp. 13–19.Google Scholar

10 See Paternoster, Michael, Thou Art There Also: God, Death and Hell (London: SPCK, 1967)Google Scholar for a good historical survey of this doctrine. Also see Punt, pp. 19–25. Not all Traditionalists, however, accept this contention. One current Evangelical manifesto declares that ‘all men have some knowledge of God through his general revelation, [but] we deny this can save’, Edwards and Stott, p. 287. 11 See, for instance, Punt, pp. 93–101.

12 Ibid. p. 95.

13 See, for instance Punt, p. 66; Edwards and Stott, p. 326.Google Scholar

14 For a more in-depth discussion of the models of omniscience to follow, see Hasker, William, God, Time and Knowledge (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989), pp. 1963.Google Scholar

15 Traditionalists, remember, are indeterminists.Google Scholar

16 Hunt, David P., Religious Studies, XXVII (03, 1991): pp. 326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Ibid. p. 18.

18 Ibid. p. 20.

19 Ibid. p. 22.

20 Ibid. p. 20.

21 Ibid. p. 20.

22 Ibid. p. 22.

23 Ibid. P. 19.

24 Ibid. p. 24.

25 Craig, William Lane, The Only Wise God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987), pp. 145–51;Google Scholar‘“No Other Name”: A Middle Knowledge Perspective on the Exclusivity of Salvation Through Christ’, Faith and Philosophy, vi (04, 1989), 172–88.Google Scholar

26 Craig, , The Only Wise God, p. 147.Google Scholar

27 Craig, , Faith and Philosophy, p. 184.Google Scholar

28 Ibid. pp. 184–5.

29 Ibid. p. 186.

30 Craig, , The Only Wise God, p. 148.Google Scholar

31 Hunt, , pp. 1218.Google Scholar

32 See, for example, Packer, J. I., Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter— Varsity Press, 1961).Google Scholar

33 Peterson, Michael, Evil and the Christian God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1982), p. 104; Hunt, p. 26.Google Scholar

34 Hunt, p. 26.Google Scholar