Journal: Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Volume: JIRBS 06:1 (NA 2019)
Article: Agency, Concurrence, And Evil: A Study In Divine Providence
Author: James E. Dolezal

JIRBS 6 (2019) p. 61

Agency, Concurrence, And Evil:
A Study In Divine Providence

James E. Dolezal^*

^* James E. Dolezal is associate professor of theology in the School of Divinity at Cairn University, Langhorne, PA. This article is adapted from lectures originally delivered at the 2018 Southern California Reformed Baptist Pastors’ Conference in La Mirada, CA. The author is grateful to Paul Helm for his remarks on a previous draft.

Every Christian faces the perennial challenge of accounting for God’s providence in the face of evil. Both realities are attested by Holy Scripture. Psalm 103:19 declares, “The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” In Ephesians 1:11 we are informed that God “works all things after the counsel of His will.” Yet Genesis 6:5 speaks of widespread moral evil among mankind: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” In Matthew 5:19 Jesus speaks of the depth of human depravity: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”

How can God be the all-good and all-wise universal sovereign and yet evil still abound in the world? And concerning moral evil in particular, would not God’s universal providence somehow implicate him in the wickedness of fallen angels and men? This dilemma has been met with widely divergent answers. Some restrict the extent and efficacy of God’s providential operation in order to make space for angelic and human free agency to function independently of God. This alone, it is claimed, can account for evil among God’s creatures while leaving God himself innocent. Others resolve the question by denying altogether the genuine causal agency of creatures, arguing that every causal operation in the universe is exclusively the will of God. There is no such thing as true creaturely causal agency.

Neither of these approaches can be satisfactorily squared with the witness of Scripture or nature. But then what are we to say? Surely God is not the author of evil. Yet nothing happens apart from his purpose and operation. It may be tempting to abandon all hope of

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giving an answer and simply declare the dilemma to be an insoluble paradox. After describing the paradox we have nothing to do but remain silent. There is undeniably some validity in such silence insomuch as God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our though...