Plantinga Chapter Three

Because I was not raised in the Christian Reformed tradition (both my parents were and decided that it wasn't right for me and my brother), I had never heard of Total Depravity or Common Grace or Irresistable Grace. These are all fairly new concepts for me, and I admit that because I was raised in a different sect of Christianity, not all aspects of these subjects sit well with me. I do, however, believe in Original Sin and that we are all tainted with sin because Adam and Eve chose to disobey God.

What I had never thought about before, however, is that evil needs good in order to exist. It makes sense of course - God existed before evil and Lucifer's descent into Hell, and will continue to exist long after evil is destroyed - but I had never thought about that fact in terms of the present day here on earth. Evil cannot create, but can only distort, as was mentioned in class. That fact, to me, brings hope and shows very obviously the sovereignty of God and of His Goodness. Now I know why Satan is sometimes called The Destroyer.

Of course, this subject leads me to the fact that because God is Good he must be totally seperate from evil, and thus from us because we are sinful by nature because of the Fall. And as Plantinga quotes in his book, Augustine says: "Sin becomes the punishment of sin." If you doubt this, just look at the nature of familial relationships. If a mother and father divorce because one of them has committed adultery, their children are much more likely to divorce as well. The Bible clearly states "...and the sin of the fathers will follow down, even to the third and fourth generations." Thus, we perpetuate our own fallness. And once we are stuck, as individuals, in the pattern of corruption and sin and evil, it's a quick and slippery spiral downwards from whatever Good heights we had struggled to reach. Even as we live in the already-but-not-yet times betwee Christ's first and second comings, the Bible predicts for us that things will get worse before they get infinitely better.