Passerby,
I am pleased that you have taken up the enterprise of digging into Tom Wright’s work, and “Evil and the Justice of God” is as good a place to start as any. While Tom is much more traditionally Christian in his convictions than I am, help yourself to a healthy portion of his wisdom, and we will have the grist for many productive conversations.

• • •

Pass, Here are some of my thoughts on your questions of the problem of evil…

The obvious existence of evil in the midst of Our Blessed Lady’s good creation has been the object of much speculation since the beginning of all things and raises some challenging questions, theologically, morally, and ethically. If you subscribe to the Priestly narrative (as I do) of Genesis One, you might assume She could not have created evil since, in the end of the story, she saw that all She created was very good, with no mention of evil as a part of Her plan.

Subscribing to the earlier Yahwist mythology of Genesis 2-3, you might conclude that by the time god got around to humans, evil was already in the garden in the form of a talking snake, and believing that YHWH created all things, he would have had to have created, or at least permitted evil, but then, that opens a whole bag of worms, doesn’t it? Not the least of which has to be, if god created evil by which we are abused, can God be good? Or, if god didn’t create evil, who or what did?

Evil is not creation at all, but an un-create…

While evil is a tangible and very real reality in our world, She would not and did not create it, and evil, of itself, is not capable of creating anything. Evil is not a creation at all but an un-create, the perversion of the good work of Her hands recorded in Genesis One.

• • •

So…where did evil come from?

The Human-Kind were not created to be subjects but partners.

And that…would seem to be the source of the problem. Genesis 1:26-28 describes perhaps Her greatest gift to the human-kind, the partnership with Her in the management, protection, care, and responsibility for and to, Her ongoing work of creation. The work She describes as ‘Very Good.’ Then making all possible, She anointed humans with Dominion Authority (1:28), a derived authority, not absolute (only She can be that), never apart from, but flowing from Her, through us, to creation. And, She, despite our abuses, never took it back. To this very day, we are entrusted with guarding, caring for, and protecting Her created order, including every other human being, from the ravages of evil we see in the world today. This spiritual authority is ours to use or to abuse.

The greatest potential
good in this world
once perverted,
is always the source of
the greatest potential evil.

Humans are simultaneously the greatest potential good in and for creation and the source of the greatest potential evil. As Paul noted in Romans 8, the whole of creation is groaning as if it were in childbirth as it waits for us to come to our senses, to grow up, to turn from the abuse we have inflicted in our lust for more than our share, and finally turn and, with compassion, heal those creatures we have harmed.

Poverty, privilege, entitlement, wealth, famine, war, persecutions, genocide, homelessness, sexism, refugees, hopelessness, despair, desperate loneliness, hatred, religiosity, secularism, fear, exclusivity, arrogance, debt, immorality, judgment, moralism, patriarchy, complementarianism, anti-environmentalism, political, economic, and religious domination systems, on and on…are evils ‘created’ by the human-kind to serve the selfish purposes of the privileged few.

Our lovely Lady is not going to come riding in on a white horse or waving some sort of magic wand, clean up the mess we have made of things, and make ‘all things new’ without us. That isn’t how partnerships work. She has already supplied the tools and abundant resources; we are to supply the sweat, repentance, and hard work of establishing Her reign in the earth. Her grace supplies us with the means; we must supply the will.

• • •

Now…regarding your concern about your friend who is engaged in deliverance ministry, or ‘casting out demons.’ This work is akin to cleaning sewers and is not to be desired as some do. While it occasionally needs to be done, don’t be enamored with deliverance work as some are. It is spiritual work that is low-hanging fruit. When someone comes to a right understanding of spiritual authority through a relationship with Holiness, the demonic is defeated.

The demonic needs the Lovers of the Great Spirit to believe that spiritual outcomes are determined by the spiritually powerful. Not true. Power has never been the question; spiritual authority always is.

“The seventy-two men came back in great joy. “Lord,” they said, “even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a command in your name!” Jesus answered them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Listen! I have given you authority so that you can walk on snakes [even the serpent in the garden] and scorpions and overcome all the power of the Enemy, and nothing will hurt you. But don’t be glad because the evil spirits obey you; rather, be glad because your names are written in heaven.”
At that time, Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen.”—Luke 10:17-21.
The authority Jesus prophetically gives us, as recorded above, is the restoration of the authority established in all humans in the garden narrative (Genesis 1:26) by the Lord of heaven and earth [the seen and the unseen of the Nicene creed], which humans gave away when they came into agreement with evil and out of agreement with Her goodness (Genesis 2:16, 3:4). The sin of the garden was about changing gods, not disobedience. (Sorry, Aquinas, the so-called ‘original sin’ did not result from having sex.)

Jesus prophetically restored to all human-kind the authority in heaven and on earth that we were created with. That authority had been missing for a long time. The question, Passerby, isn’t whether you have the authority to confront evil as the 72 of Luke 10 did, but whether you accept you do. When I walk into a room, I expect the demonic to flee, which should also become your expectation.

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Answered Prayer

You might think it should be Her will that all disease be healed, but not so. It is Her will that all should be whole (free from those things that keep us from the fullness of our relationship with Her and with all She created), which is quite another thing.

Suffering is not contrary to Her will, and neither is death. She much prefers we suffer if the result is that we are spiritual adults. There is nothing more unattractive spiritually—and metaphorically—than a 50-year-old in diapers. Again, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to form us—whatever it takes—into the likeness of Jesus (Eph 4:15).

Many I prayed for were not healed because I didn’t ask in Her will. Those healed are Her business, accomplishing Her purposes, not mine. Healing happens only when it is according to Her purposes; if not, I know we are better off without it. There is no standard, right prayer, or formula—as the charismatics like to think—to induce Her to heal on demand.

“I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me….If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it.”

—Prophet Jesus, John 15

Some religious folks hear only the last few words of the above—ignoring the context—and come away believing they can have whatever they ask for from the Spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth. This statement is valid only because we have a relationship with Her that is intimate enough to know Her will. As we, over time, grow to abide in Her, our will becomes one with Hers. This melding of wills is typical to all Love relationships to the degree we are able. As Lovers and followers, we must want nothing that is not Her best for us and others. And, if you are uncertain what Her will is, don’t pray. Wait. Trust.