Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| That God is not the cause of evils.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XIX.—That God2607
| 2607 Against
Platonists, Gnostics, and Manicheans. | is not the cause of
evils.
It is to be observed2608
| 2608 Damasc. Dial.
cont. Manich. |
that it is the custom in the Holy Scripture to speak of God’s
permission as His energy, as when the apostle says in the Epistle to
the Romans, Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto
dishonour2609
? And
for this reason, that He Himself makes this or that. For He is
Himself alone the Maker of all things; yet it is not He Himself that
fashions noble or ignoble things, but the personal choice of
each one2610
| 2610 Basil, Homil.
Quod Deus non sit auct. malorum. | . And this is manifest from what the
same Apostle says in the Second Epistle to Timothy, In a great house
there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
of earth: and some to honour and some to dishonour. If a
man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto
honour sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared
unto every good work2611
. And it is
evident that the purification must be voluntary: for if a
man, he saith, purge himself. And the consequent
antistrophe responds, “If a man purge not himself he will be a
vessel to dishonour, unmeet for the master’s use and fit only to
be broken in pieces.” Wherefore this passage that we have
quoted and this, God hath concluded them all in
unbelief2612
, and this,
God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not
see, and ears that they should not hear2613
, all these must be understood not as
though God Himself were energising, but as though God were permitting,
both because of free-will and because goodness knows no
compulsion.
His permission, therefore, is usually spoken of in
the Holy Scripture as His energy and work. Nay, even when He says
that God creates evil things, and that there is no evil in a
city that the Lord hath not done, he does not mean by these
words2614
that the Lord is the cause of evil, but
the word ‘evil2615
| 2615 Text, δισέμφατον.
Variant, δυσέμφατον. | ’ is used
in two ways, with two meanings. For sometimes it means what is
evil by nature, and this is the opposite of virtue and the will of
God: and sometimes it means that which is evil and oppressive to
our sensation, that is to say, afflictions and calamities. Now
these are seemingly evil because they are painful, but in reality are
good. For to those who understand they became ambassadors of
conversion and salvation. The Scripture says that of these God is
the Author.
It is, moreover, to be observed that of these,
too, we are the cause: for involuntary evils are the offspring of
voluntary ones2616
| 2616 Text, τῶν γὰρ
ἑκουσίων
κακῶν τὰ
ἀκούσια, &c. R.
2930 has τῶν
ἀκουσίων τὰ
ἑκούσια | .
This also should be recognised, that it is usual
in the Scriptures for some things that ought to be considered as
effects to be stated in a causal sense2617
, as, Against Thee, Thee only, have I
sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified
when Thou speakest, and prevail when Thou judgest2618
. For the sinner did not sin in
order that God might prevail, nor again did God require our sin in
order that He might by it be revealed as victor2619
| 2619 νικητής is
sometimes absent. | . For above comparison He wins the
victor’s prize against all, even against those who are sinless,
being Maker, incomprehensible, uncreated, and possessing natural and
not adventitious glory. But it is because when we sin God is not
unjust in His anger against us; and when He pardons the penitent He is
shewn victor over our wickedness. But it is not for this that we
sin, but because the thing so turns out. It is just as if one
were sitting at work and a friend stood near by, and one said, My
friend came in order that I might do no work that day. The
friend, however, was not present in order that the man should do no
work, but such was the result. For being occupied with receiving
his friend he did not work. These things, too, are spoken of as
effects because affairs so turned out. Moreover, God does not
wish that He alone should be just, but that all should, so far as
possible, be made like unto Him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
