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Sunday, May 08, 2011

Resisting evil


On the one hand:

In other words, Calvinism may be God-centered, but the God at the center is morally ambiguous and unworthy of worship.

Theologian David Bentley Hart expresses it thus: One should consider the price of this God-centeredness:  It is a strange thing indeed to seek [God-centered theology]…at the cost of a God rendered morally loathsome. (The Doors of the Sea [Eerdmans, 2005], p. 99)
 
In this theology, the God at the center is the ultimate narcissist, the greatest egoist who finds glory in displaying his naked power even to the point of consigning millions to hell just to manifest his attribute of justice.
 
Better a man-centered theology than one that revolves around a being hardly distinguishable from the devil.


On the other hand:

I don’t see Jesus giving us that “out.” The Sermon on the Mount is clear. We are to love all people equally and never resist evil.


Roger Olson clearly thinks the God of Calvinism is evil (viz. “morally ambiguous,” “morally loathsome,” “unworthy of worship,” “hardly distinguishable from the devil”). So why is Olson resisting Reformed theism if the Sermon on the Mount is clear: we are never to resist evil? Where's the out?

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