A severe diagnosis

After doing my own post in response to the devastating diagnosis of atheist blogger Jonathan Pearce:

https://triablogue.blogspot.com/2018/11/using-heaven-to-balance-books.html

I listened to Craig's podcast: 

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/a-severe-diagnosis/

Craig is trying to take a pastoral approach, which is admirable. However, his treatment suffers from some fashionable theological errors. And they're not trivial:

1. In ancient folk Judaism, there was the belief that misfortune was necessarily a sign of divine punishment (cf. Jn 9:1-2; Lk 13:1-5). Some Christians, like Craig, overcorrect for that belief by committing the opposite error. On the one hand there are Bible passages that warn us against the presumption that personal calamity reflects divine judgment. The misfortunes of Joseph and Job are classic examples. 

On the other hand, there are many biblical passage which indicate that illness and calamity are sometimes a mark of God's disfavor (e.g. Exod 32:35; Num 11:33; 14:36; 16:46-48; 25:9; 1 Sam 5; Acts 5:1-11; 12:20-23; 1 Cor 11:30). And that's not a natural consequence of sin, but a supernatural consequence of sin. As an act of direct retribution, it's clearly something God wills. 

So that should be an occasion for spiritual self-examination. Not how an outsider views the afflicted, but some people live in disobedience to God, and personal misfortune may be a warning to change course before it's too late. 

2. By the same token, I'm struck by how Craig trivializes the culpability of Pearce's occupation as an atheist apologist. But in God's eyes, that's a very evil thing to do. Not only his own rebellion, but inciting spiritual rebellion. 

This doesn't entail that his medical condition is retribution. But Craig seems to have a rather frivolous view of sin–at least in this case. 

3. There are different ways to view God's relation to calamity and ill-health:

i) Some theologians (e.g. Roger Olson, Greg Boyd, Rabbi Kushner) act as though God has nothing to do with natural evil. He is, at best, a first responder. 

But that's not an intellectually serious position. Any God worth his salt can't be that clueless or impotent. That reduces God to a feeble, near-sighted heathen deity like Zeus or Odin. If you think that is what God is like, why pray? Why worship? 

ii) Some theologians say God permits it rather than wills it. There are, however, many biblical cases in which God wills affliction as a penalty for sin (see above). 

iii) There are, however, other cases in which God wills affliction, not for punitive reasons, but for a higher good (e.g. Jn 9:1-3; 11:4).