God As Good P203-207

Question 1

How is Gods goodness revealed through creation

Answer 1

• god describes everything he created in genesis as good.
• on the 7th day when everything had been created, god described the world as very good.

God provided everything that the world needs to be sustained

Question 2

How is gods goodness revealed through his provision of law

Answer 2

• god gives humanity rules about how to live a good life so that they can act in a way that is morally good.
• because god is good his rules are good and show the best way for humans to live
• god still allows humans to choose what they do through free will and so he doesn’t force people to abide by his rules

Question 3

How is gods goodness revealed through judgement

Answer 3

• god knows and sees everything so he can judge fairly.

“He rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity “

Question 4

How is Gods goodness revealed through salvation

Answer 4

• god offers humans forgiveness through salvation

- John 3:16 explains that out of gods love for humanity he sent Jesus to earth to die for human sin.

Question 5

Challenges to gods goodness

Answer 5

• some people turn to events in the Old Testament to challenge gods goodness such as when the world flooded during the time of Noah. They think that these actions show him to be angry and to lack justice

“Go in and take possession of the land the Lord your god is giving you for your own” - here god allows his people to destroy other nations to take land

Question 6

What do Christians think about the idea of evil as a result of human sin

Answer 6

• in Genesis, Adam and Eve disobey god and bring evil into a perfect world. In this way, humans are responsible for evil as they make wrong choices

Question 7

What do Christians think about the idea of evil as a lesson

Answer 7

• irenaeus suggested that people were created imperfect so that they can grow and learn to become perfect
• some people believe that evil is necessary in order to understand goodness.

Question 8

What do Christians think about the idea of evil as a test

Answer 8

Some Christians believe that evil and suffering are a test for believers. E.g god allows suffering upon Job to see if he remains faithful and he does and gets a reward from god