In Jack Cottrell’s The Faith Once for All: Bible Doctrine for Today, the author delves into the topic of angels. First, Cottrell addresses something that I had never considered before: Satan is a created being, under God’s rule. The author makes the distinction that Satan, “is not an evil divine being who is independent from God and God’s eternal antagonist in a kind of dualistic universe” (128). I had never thought Satan to be a deity, but never realized how miniscule he truly is compared to God. Another aspect of the chapter that I found to be interesting was the correction of the popular view of a cherub. Oddly enough, my home church has cherub wallpaper in all the bathrooms; however, it does not depict the magnificent, fierce creatures
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This cosmic curse is referring to the curse put on mankind when they first sinned against God. One aspect of the curse that I had not yet considered, was that when mankind fell, all of creation fell. It is easy to see the effect that mankind has directly had in the world, particularly in regards to dwindling natural resources, destroyed ecosystems, and the amount of air pollution produced by our use of fossil fuels. However, I had never considered the affects that the fall of man would have on the environment, other than the things directly done by humans. Moving forward to the problem of evil, I was fascinated by the natural evils; this list is mostly biological processes, and includes, “genetic defects, diseases, and insanity” (218), among many other things. This concept is noteworthy to me, because it addresses that sometimes evil is not caused by human sin, or temptations of the devil, but are products of a fallen world. Finally, I found one view of the problem of evil to be completely absurd. The view holds that, “God deliberately caused evil to be present in the world because it is necessary for man’s spiritual wealth” (220). With this view in mind, I struggle to even piece together an argument, because I know that the thought-process behind it it not biblically based
This cosmic curse is referring to the curse put on mankind when they first sinned against God. One aspect of the curse that I had not yet considered, was that when mankind fell, all of creation fell. It is easy to see the effect that mankind has directly had in the world, particularly in regards to dwindling natural resources, destroyed ecosystems, and the amount of air pollution produced by our use of fossil fuels. However, I had never considered the affects that the fall of man would have on the environment, other than the things directly done by humans. Moving forward to the problem of evil, I was fascinated by the natural evils; this list is mostly biological processes, and includes, “genetic defects, diseases, and insanity” (218), among many other things. This concept is noteworthy to me, because it addresses that sometimes evil is not caused by human sin, or temptations of the devil, but are products of a fallen world. Finally, I found one view of the problem of evil to be completely absurd. The view holds that, “God deliberately caused evil to be present in the world because it is necessary for man’s spiritual wealth” (220). With this view in mind, I struggle to even piece together an argument, because I know that the thought-process behind it it not biblically based