Post by tim on Jul 7, 2011 0:46:19 GMT -8
* I apologize in advance for such a long post! I didn't initially intend it to be, but if you are giving away this month's gift card based on words per post I could really have a chance!!! :-)
I was following links on Google to anything I could find written from or about William Harry Jellema, the founder of Calvin College's philosophy department, and considered by many to be a teacher of philosophy without equal. Evidently one of his strengths was in how he used his enormous knowledge of historical philosophy to give him a much larger perspective of the common philosophical problems of his era (which at the time were largely Wittgenstein and the Verification Principle). He was able to see through things that others saw as insurmountable problems and provided his students with a cool, clear perspective that wasn't bothered by trends in philosophy that seemed to refute theism as a logically possible worldview. I really appreciate how he thought with such a larger picture of the world, especially when it was so common for Christian philosophers of that day to be overwhelmed by popular views. I've even heard stories of philosophers that "jumped ship", so to speak, in the 50's and 60's as they saw the Verifiability Criterion of Meaning (Verificationism) as the final and insurmountable opposition to their beliefs, only to come back to the faith (with some amount of embarrassment) a decade or so later when Verificationism was finally shown to be quite unable to stand up to its own claims!
Anyway, having his former students speak so highly of Jellema really impressed me, considering they were people like Peter Kreeft, Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff and how humbled they were by Jelemma's intellectual powers. It was also said that he is probably the greatest Reformed philosopher to ever live! This is quite a claim when you consider that much of the best philosophical work of the last few hundred years has come from the Reformed camp.
So in my quest to find more about him I stumbled across this page - www.thebanner.org/news/article/?id=1727. It is Jacob D. Eppinga writing as he was essentially preparing to die, pondering the age-old question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" or more specifically in his case. "Why do I have to die of cancer?" It turns out that the Jellema reference that led me to that page was nothing that I'll probably remember a week from now (most unfortunately), but what did stick with me is what he says here: "As important as is the question about why God allows bad things to happen to good people, it is not the most important question in life. The most important question in life—in all the world and in all the universe, for that matter—is, rather, “Why does God allow a good thing to happen to bad people?”
I have to say that I am LOVING this simple phrase right now! I tend to think the way Greg Koukl does with his "Tactics In Defending The Faith" techniques when it comes to talking to others about matters of truth. I am actively looking for moments, for holes, for opportunities that naturally present themselves to talk about deeper things, and when nothing presents itself, I try to find non-threatening ways to open that door. The whole "Why do bad things happen to good people?" is so universally pondered that you can bring this up in just about any conversation and not seem like "you are just pushing your religion down someone's throat"! If you can get to the point where you have "Why do bad things...." going in a conversation, it's just a small step further to say "You know, I heard someone say 'Why do good things happen to bad people?'" It's so catchy that it seems like you're just repeating a cool phrase, but you really are in a position to dig into DEEP things from there!
So if you can get the door open to ponder why good things should happen to bad people, you are not out of place to also ask:
These things naturally segue into the Moral Argument and our need for cleansing.
Can you think of other things that one could say based on the statement "Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?"
I was following links on Google to anything I could find written from or about William Harry Jellema, the founder of Calvin College's philosophy department, and considered by many to be a teacher of philosophy without equal. Evidently one of his strengths was in how he used his enormous knowledge of historical philosophy to give him a much larger perspective of the common philosophical problems of his era (which at the time were largely Wittgenstein and the Verification Principle). He was able to see through things that others saw as insurmountable problems and provided his students with a cool, clear perspective that wasn't bothered by trends in philosophy that seemed to refute theism as a logically possible worldview. I really appreciate how he thought with such a larger picture of the world, especially when it was so common for Christian philosophers of that day to be overwhelmed by popular views. I've even heard stories of philosophers that "jumped ship", so to speak, in the 50's and 60's as they saw the Verifiability Criterion of Meaning (Verificationism) as the final and insurmountable opposition to their beliefs, only to come back to the faith (with some amount of embarrassment) a decade or so later when Verificationism was finally shown to be quite unable to stand up to its own claims!
Anyway, having his former students speak so highly of Jellema really impressed me, considering they were people like Peter Kreeft, Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff and how humbled they were by Jelemma's intellectual powers. It was also said that he is probably the greatest Reformed philosopher to ever live! This is quite a claim when you consider that much of the best philosophical work of the last few hundred years has come from the Reformed camp.
So in my quest to find more about him I stumbled across this page - www.thebanner.org/news/article/?id=1727. It is Jacob D. Eppinga writing as he was essentially preparing to die, pondering the age-old question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" or more specifically in his case. "Why do I have to die of cancer?" It turns out that the Jellema reference that led me to that page was nothing that I'll probably remember a week from now (most unfortunately), but what did stick with me is what he says here: "As important as is the question about why God allows bad things to happen to good people, it is not the most important question in life. The most important question in life—in all the world and in all the universe, for that matter—is, rather, “Why does God allow a good thing to happen to bad people?”
I have to say that I am LOVING this simple phrase right now! I tend to think the way Greg Koukl does with his "Tactics In Defending The Faith" techniques when it comes to talking to others about matters of truth. I am actively looking for moments, for holes, for opportunities that naturally present themselves to talk about deeper things, and when nothing presents itself, I try to find non-threatening ways to open that door. The whole "Why do bad things happen to good people?" is so universally pondered that you can bring this up in just about any conversation and not seem like "you are just pushing your religion down someone's throat"! If you can get to the point where you have "Why do bad things...." going in a conversation, it's just a small step further to say "You know, I heard someone say 'Why do good things happen to bad people?'" It's so catchy that it seems like you're just repeating a cool phrase, but you really are in a position to dig into DEEP things from there!
So if you can get the door open to ponder why good things should happen to bad people, you are not out of place to also ask:
- How often are we really thankful for the good things that happen to us - all of them?
- How often do bad things happen compared to good things? What would the score be if we kept a tally? Do you think it would surprise you if you saw the tally?
- If we are willing to blame God for doing nothing during the bad times, we are essentially putting ourselves in the position of God's feedback provider. But if we do put ourselves in that position wouldn't it be logically consistent to say that we would therefore need to also praise or thank God for the good things he does to both good and bad people (in order to 'have the right' to complain about the bad?) I mean, either you're letting God know what you think about the 'fairness of life' or you're not - do you get to pick and choose if you want to be consistent?
- Is it unjust for God to let good things happen to bad people at all, or should he withhold good things from bad people in the name of justice? If it is not unjust to give good things to bad people, then God's kindness is so huge that it overflows beyond even those who do deserve it. And if God's kindness gives like that, do we consider ourselves good enough to be comfortable saying that God should not give good things to bad people? What are we basing our goodness on? What standards? How good is good enough?
These things naturally segue into the Moral Argument and our need for cleansing.
Can you think of other things that one could say based on the statement "Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?"