On Guard for Students by William Lane Craig

Author:William Lane Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Does God Exist, Apologetics, Defending Christ, Talk Unbelievers, Atheism, Christian Defense, On Guard, Students, Edition, William Lane Craig, Bill
Publisher: David C Cook
Published: 2015-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

Why did God permit these children to suffer so? We’re in no position to know. Perhaps through the tragic death of this boy, God knew Mexican authorities would be shocked into requiring new construction standards for earthquake-proof buildings, thereby saving many future lives. Maybe he let it happen because the authorities should be so shocked. Maybe he permitted it so that some other person, facing death or illness in a hospital and seeing the reports on television, would be inspired by the boy’s courage to face his own challenge with faith and bravery. Maybe God permitted the Colombian girl to slowly drown because he knew that only then would her family—or somebody else—turn to him in faith for eternal life. Or perhaps he knew that only through such a terrible incident would her family move away to another place where they, or even their descendants, might in turn come to be influenced or to influence someone else for Christ. Given our inherent limitations, we can only guess. We’re not in a position to judge that it is either impossible or improbable that God had good reasons for permitting these events to occur.

Indeed, perhaps there wasn’t any earthly reason at all why God permitted those catastrophes. Maybe they served no earthly good whatsoever. Perhaps the catastrophes were simply the unfortunate by-product of natural geological and meteorological laws and the children their unlucky victims. But when that little girl and boy finally left this life and stepped into the next, Jesus enfolded them in his loving arms, wiped away their tears, and filled them with a glorious happiness beyond all expression, saying, “Well done, my child; enter into the joy of your Master.” In that eternity of joy, they will know a weight of glory beyond all comparison with what he asked them to suffer here.

RESPONSE TO THE EVIDENTIAL ARGUMENT

1. We’re not in a good position to say with confidence that it’s improbable that God lacks good reasons for permitting the suffering in the world.

2. Relative to the full scope of the evidence, God’s existence may well be probable.

3. Christianity entails doctrines that increase the probability of the coexistence of God and suffering.

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