WEBVTT 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:20.079 God does not say Adam was perfect. It says that 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:23.079 he was very good. Now we need to ask the harder 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:26.280 question. What happens if we insist that he was 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:29.440 perfect? Because once you assume perfection at 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:32.140 the beginning, certain pressures begin to build 00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:35.100 and they don't stay small. They reach all the 00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:37.759 way up into how we talk about God himself. If 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:40.859 Adam was created perfect, fully mature, spiritually 00:00:40.859 --> 00:00:44.219 complete, confirmed in righteousness, then his 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:47.399 fall is catastrophic collapse. And once you say 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:49.759 that collapse occurs under divine providence, 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.939 you must answer something uncomfortable. Why 00:00:52.939 --> 00:00:56.380 create a perfect being who will fall? If history 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:59.920 unfolds exactly as God eternally knew it would, 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:04.459 then was the fall avoidable? Or was it somehow 00:01:04.459 --> 00:01:06.959 necessary? You can feel the pressure building 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:09.760 already. If the fall was necessary for redemption, 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.379 and redemption was necessary for election, and 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:16.209 election... displays the maximal glory of God, 00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:20.569 then evil begins to look instrumental. Not tragic. 00:01:21.310 --> 00:01:24.390 Instrumental. And that's where people instinctively 00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:28.370 recoil. When I embraced Calvinism, we were attending 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:31.989 a Calvary Chapel church, a church committed strongly 00:01:31.989 --> 00:01:35.010 to free will. I told the pastor about my shifting 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:37.870 views. He listened, and then he said something 00:01:37.870 --> 00:01:41.010 simple. I could never embrace that, because it 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:43.650 makes God the author of evil. At the time, I 00:01:43.650 --> 00:01:46.370 thought he misunderstood Reformed theology. Reformed 00:01:46.370 --> 00:01:48.670 theologians do not say that God authors evil. 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:51.870 They draw careful distinctions between decree 00:01:51.870 --> 00:01:56.170 and cause, causation. But I understood his instinct. 00:01:56.469 --> 00:01:59.450 Because once everything falls under exhaustive 00:01:59.450 --> 00:02:02.549 divine decree, once nothing happens outside what 00:02:02.549 --> 00:02:05.370 God knowingly and willingly ordains, people ask, 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:09.069 if it could not have unfolded otherwise, how 00:02:09.069 --> 00:02:12.120 is God not responsible? That question doesn't 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.240 come from rebellion. It comes from moral intuition. 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:18.139 To be honest, I could have heard my five -year 00:02:18.139 --> 00:02:20.460 -old son ask me a question like that. But Arminians 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:22.860 are not off the hook. Here's what took me longer 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:26.439 to see. Arminians often accuse Augustinians and 00:02:26.439 --> 00:02:28.680 Calvinists of making God the author of evil. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.460 But historically, they are wrestling with the 00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:34.039 same dilemma. Because even in Arminian theology, 00:02:34.539 --> 00:02:37.879 God creates knowing Adam will fall. God could 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:40.300 have refrained from creating. God could have 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:43.599 created differently. Yet this world comes into 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:46.879 being. So the question remains, why create a 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:50.120 world you know will collapse? At that point, 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:53.599 both systems appeal to mystery. Calvinists say, 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:58.360 God decrees, yet is not morally culpable. How 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:01.379 does that work? It's a mystery. Arminians say, 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:04.819 God foreknows, yet does not determine. And again, 00:03:04.979 --> 00:03:08.199 how does that work? It's a mystery. Because in 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:13.310 both cases, God knew, Adam fell, history unfolds 00:03:13.310 --> 00:03:18.110 as it does, permission begins to feel like inevitability. 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:20.990 Because both begin with the same anthropology. 00:03:21.389 --> 00:03:25.789 Perfect Adam, catastrophic fall, divine foreknowledge. 00:03:25.949 --> 00:03:29.789 This disagreement is about mechanics, not the 00:03:29.789 --> 00:03:32.789 starting point. Let's simplify free will. For 00:03:32.789 --> 00:03:35.750 clarity, here are the broad categories. Libertarian 00:03:35.750 --> 00:03:38.719 free will. You could genuinely... have chosen 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:42.699 otherwise. Determinism. All events are ultimately 00:03:42.699 --> 00:03:46.360 fixed by prior causes. It's like the domino effect. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:50.340 Then there's compatibilism. God determines all 00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:54.180 things, yet humans act according to their desires 00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:57.680 and are responsible. With compatibilism, original 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:01.099 sin and guilt are already assumed. And here's 00:04:01.099 --> 00:04:03.860 why. Again, I'll repeat. God determines all things, 00:04:03.979 --> 00:04:07.330 yet humans act according to their desires. and 00:04:07.330 --> 00:04:09.610 are responsible. Well, how are you responsible? 00:04:10.229 --> 00:04:12.509 You're responsible because you sinned with Adam 00:04:12.509 --> 00:04:15.110 when he sinned. He's your federal head. He's 00:04:15.110 --> 00:04:18.709 your representative. You're present, inevitably, 00:04:18.990 --> 00:04:22.389 in Adam. And you act according to your desires. 00:04:22.589 --> 00:04:24.389 Well, what are your desires now that you're fallen? 00:04:24.529 --> 00:04:28.550 They're all evil. God doesn't let you do all 00:04:28.550 --> 00:04:31.430 the evil you would like to do. So he restrains 00:04:31.430 --> 00:04:35.610 you with what they call common grace. Common 00:04:35.610 --> 00:04:39.089 grace is both a restrictive sort of idea and 00:04:39.089 --> 00:04:43.129 the rain falls on the just and the unjust. There's 00:04:43.129 --> 00:04:46.850 also a blessing element. God shows kindness to 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:52.069 sinners who will never be redeemed. But he also 00:04:52.069 --> 00:04:55.170 keeps them from doing as much wickedness as they 00:04:55.170 --> 00:04:58.389 would like to do. Otherwise, the whole world 00:04:58.389 --> 00:05:01.069 would be on fire. Compatibilism tries to preserve 00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:03.649 sovereignty and responsibility simultaneously. 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:07.579 Jonathan Edwards is famous for this. But if Adam 00:05:07.579 --> 00:05:11.839 was perfect, and God decreed the fall, and Adam's 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:15.279 desires unfold exactly as decreed, was there 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:18.579 ever a real possibility of not falling? If not, 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:22.120 probation becomes performance. And again, probation 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:26.519 as this waiting period in Eden that would eventually 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:31.040 perpetuate ongoing existence in communion with 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:35.680 God. And then... evil begins to look and to function 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:39.759 structurally. So what does permission mean? Because 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:44.360 both Western Christianity and Orthodoxy say God 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:46.860 permitted the fall. But that word does not always 00:05:46.860 --> 00:05:49.699 mean the same thing. In a decree -based system, 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.879 permission is encompassed within the eternal 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:56.240 divine design. Nothing could have unfolded otherwise. 00:05:56.819 --> 00:06:01.040 Permission functions inside inevitability. This 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:03.970 tension between responsibility, and freedom, 00:06:04.069 --> 00:06:07.850 that people are really blameworthy, and yet, 00:06:07.870 --> 00:06:10.750 could they have chosen otherwise? In Orthodox 00:06:10.750 --> 00:06:14.410 theology, permission functions differently. God 00:06:14.410 --> 00:06:17.850 permits the fall because love cannot be coerced, 00:06:17.949 --> 00:06:21.930 because communion must be free, not because catastrophe 00:06:21.930 --> 00:06:25.449 is required for greater glory, not because evil 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:29.089 is architecturally necessary, but because freedom 00:06:29.089 --> 00:06:32.829 is real. That is a different metaphysical posture. 00:06:33.089 --> 00:06:36.730 One integrates evil into the structure. The other 00:06:36.730 --> 00:06:40.870 allows evil as tragic rupture. Gottfried Leibniz 00:06:40.870 --> 00:06:43.829 argued that this is the best of all possible 00:06:43.829 --> 00:06:47.050 worlds. I'll give a short explanation. If God 00:06:47.050 --> 00:06:49.910 is perfectly good and rational, he would only 00:06:49.910 --> 00:06:53.069 create the best possible reality. I only mention 00:06:53.069 --> 00:06:56.209 this because his best of all worlds theodicy, 00:06:56.310 --> 00:07:00.089 the explanation for how evil can coexist with 00:07:00.089 --> 00:07:03.000 a good God who's all -knowing, all -loving, etc., 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.639 is extremely influential. Many Calvinists hold 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:10.579 to it. He's also a famous mathematician. If God 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:12.680 is perfectly good and rational, he would only 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:15.560 create the best possible reality. Which implies, 00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:19.519 if this world contains evil, then evil must somehow 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:22.860 be necessary for the greatest good. This logic 00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:26.480 has shaped centuries of thought. It even anticipates 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.620 modern multiverse speculation. The idea that 00:07:29.620 --> 00:07:32.259 perhaps countless worlds are possible, but this 00:07:32.259 --> 00:07:35.279 one is optimal. But notice what happens if that's 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.139 true. The fall was not tragic in the deepest 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:42.079 sense. It was optimal. It had to happen. And 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:45.480 if it had to happen, evil is no longer parasitic 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.600 and becomes necessary. At this point, theology 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.899 often appeals to mystery. And mystery is real. 00:07:52.139 --> 00:07:54.439 But sometimes mystery becomes a way of holding 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:58.019 together claims that strain coherence. God ordains 00:07:58.019 --> 00:08:01.800 all things. God is not the author of evil. The 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.699 fall was necessary for glory. Adam could have 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:08.160 done otherwise. Tension becomes normal, but tension 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:11.079 is not always depth. Sometimes tension signals 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:14.220 that the starting point needs reexamining. The 00:08:14.220 --> 00:08:16.720 Eastern tradition avoids this trap by framing 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.319 evil differently. Evil is not a created thing. 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:23.079 It has no independent substance. It is parasitic, 00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:26.779 like darkness is the absence of light. Like rot 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:30.259 is the corruption of something good. Evil does 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:33.879 not need to be willed. It emerges when communion 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.279 is severed. And this connects directly to Christ's 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:41.059 words. I am the vine, you are the branches. Branches 00:08:41.059 --> 00:08:44.399 wither when cut off. They do not need to be legally 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:47.200 condemned to die. They die because they are severed 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.679 from life. That's an organic model, not primarily 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:54.000 forensic. Now, if Adam was perfect, then his 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:57.679 fall requires explanation at the level of divine 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:00.879 design. I'll repeat that. If Adam was perfect, 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:07.080 then his fall requires explanation at the level 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:11.519 of divine design. But if Adam was very good, 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:16.080 immature, called to grow, then the fall is tragic 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:21.940 derailment, not optimal architecture, not necessary 00:09:21.940 --> 00:09:26.110 stage setting. It's tragic. Evil remains parasitic, 00:09:26.269 --> 00:09:31.190 not instrumental. Permission retains allowance 00:09:31.190 --> 00:09:35.029 of freedom, not inevitability. God does not need 00:09:35.029 --> 00:09:39.090 evil. God does not require catastrophe. Communion 00:09:39.090 --> 00:09:42.669 was the goal and rupture is the distortion of 00:09:42.669 --> 00:09:47.250 communion. If evil must exist for the best possible 00:09:47.250 --> 00:09:51.070 world to exist, then it is no longer parasitic. 00:09:51.230 --> 00:09:54.600 But if evil is parasitic, If it is distortion 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:57.779 of communion, then it need not be willed for 00:09:57.779 --> 00:10:00.820 glory. It need only be permitted because love 00:10:00.820 --> 00:10:06.200 is real. Very good. Not perfect. Communion. Not 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.919 inevitability. And that difference changes how 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:11.480 we speak about God. Join me next time for part 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:14.460 three. A very good is a long way from perfect.