The Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-270 B.C.) is said to have first formalized the argument that “proves” there cannot be a God who is both all-powerful and supremely good.  According to this argument, if there were a God who is supremely good, he would not want suffering to occur.  If he were all-powerful, he would use his power to eradicate suffering.
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Since the world in which we live clearly has much unmitigated suffering, Epicurus contended that God must either not care –  in which case he cannot be good; or else he is unable to stop the suffering –  in which case he cannot be all powerful.   In either case, Epicurus rationalized, such a being would not be God as we envision him, and such a being could not logically exist.

But there is a fatal flaw with this argument that Epicurus and many who have followed him did not take into account.  Although God has revealed himself as being all-powerful (Jeremiah 32:17, etc.), he has also revealed that he chooses to limit his power as he sees fit.  Put another way, God limits the application of his supreme power by the exercise of his other attributes.  The Bible unequivocally tells us that, despite his ultimate power, there are things God cannot do.  

For example, the apostle James tells us that “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13). Because evil is contrary to God’s nature, he will not allow himself to be tempted to do that which is not right.  The apostle Paul also tells us that “God cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). This does not mean God cannot deny his own existence, but that he cannot deny what he states –  in other words, he will always fulfill his promises (see, for example, Titus 1:2). Finally, the author of the book of Hebrews confirms that “it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).  Because truth is just as much an attribute of God’s nature as his goodness and power, he will not allow himself to lie. 

We cannot isolate one of God’s attributes from the others which are equally true.  The Bible itself gives us frequent confirmation of this fact.  When Job 37:23 states “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress” we have direct confirmation that God is all-powerful, but he limits the use of that power for the purposes of good. God balances his power with his goodness.

Epicurus’ argument also fails to take into account the fact that suffering and goodness are not always antithetical.  Because God is good, he grants us the freedom to make choices – and to suffer the inevitable consequences of those choices (1 Peter 2:20). He also allows us to live in a world where suffering can sometimes occur accidentally (Luke 13:4–5). This suffering does not contradict the goodness of God if there is a purpose for it and good will eventually come from it –  as we see in the fact that God allowed his own Son to suffer for a great purpose (Hebrews 5:8). While we may not know what good will come from a specific cause of suffering that we endure, God does promise us that there is a purpose for all of the suffering in the training ground we call life (Romans 5:3-4; 8:28; etc.).  Eventually we will see that our temporary suffering was a small price to pay for eternal happiness (Romans 8:10; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Revelation 21:4; etc.).   

Epicurus and those who have followed his argument did not take these things into account –  even as possibilities to be considered. This is why, although he did not condemn philosophy per se, the apostle Paul does warn against the kind of argumentation that is “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (Colossians 2:8). Philosophy and physical science are alike in that they can only reach accurate conclusions regarding those things for which they have all the necessary propositions or data.  That is why Epicurus was wrong, and why he did not prove that an all-powerful God cannot also be perfectly good.
 
* Also see our article “Does the Existence of Evil Prove There Is No God?”  

Two of our three websites (this one and TacticalChristianity.org) have blogs, and we usually publish a post on each of these two sites every week.  But in order to concentrate on production of new free e-books, we will be rotating the blogs for a while – a new post will appear on this site one week and on our other site the following week.  As a result, our latest blog post ("Biblical Body Language") appears today on our sister site.  There are, of course, hundreds of past posts that you can select from on this site (see the "Categories" links on the right side of this page).  But if you are looking for something new, our other site with today's blog is only a click away, here.

In his book, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis makes an interesting observation about the things we  enjoy:
 
“I have tried ... to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don’t mean simply by giving thanks for it. One must of course give thanks, but I mean something different …  We can’t – or I can’t – hear the song of a bird simply as a sound. Its meaning or message (‘That’s a bird’) comes with it inevitably—just as one can’t see a familiar word in print as a merely visual pattern. The reading is as involuntary as the seeing. When the wind roars I don’t just hear the roar; I ‘hear the wind.’ In the same way it is possible to ‘read’ as well as to ‘have’ a pleasure.”
 
This “reading” of things we enjoy, in addition to simply experiencing them at a neurological level, is what enables us to move beyond simply appreciating them, and even giving thanks for them, to actually seeing them as expressions of the kindness of the God who gave them as gifts to us.  That, in turn, allows us to appreciate God all the more, and our appreciation becomes praise – or, as Lewis, puts it, adoration.  The difference between gratitude and praise, between appreciation and adoration, is clear:
 
“Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.”
 
Lewis’ poetic expression “One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun” is an apt one. It certainly makes for a clear analogy. We do not simply see the sunbeam: our mind –  if we encourage it to do so –  runs back to the source of the beam, the sun itself.  If that is our outlook, we see the sunbeam, but trace it back in our minds to the sun that makes it, and from there it is a short mental step, of course, to the One who made the sun and who is himself light (1 John 1:5).  We might say that what begins in observation ends in adoration.

But, while running up sunbeams makes for a good word-picture of this concept, we must learn to widen the principle in our own minds in order to express it in other situations.  The chances are good that after reading Lewis’ words you may think of them –  and God –  next time you see a sunbeam.  But what about when you next taste a refreshing glass of clean water, when you next curl into a warm bed on a cold night, or when you experience any other pleasure – great or small?

The key to implementing what Lewis described so well is in learning to react to physical neurological stimuli with one’s mind and not just one’s nerve endings.  And many pleasures, of course, are ones of the heart and mind, rather than simply feelings that we experience neurologically. But in every case, we need to learn the same response of “reading” the pleasure rather than just letting it flow past us. 

Once we begin to make the transition from only experiencing to also thinking about the things that please us and how they were designed to do so, it soon becomes a habit.  But we must guard the habit or other things will override it.  We can lose the habit like any other by not practicing it for extended periods of time. We can also lose it, as Lewis himself observed, by thinking about the gifts we experience in a selfish and grasping manner. Instead of saying “amen” to the gift, we can become possessive of it, always wanting more with “the fatal word Encore.” 

But if we are careful to avoid these and other possible pitfalls, we can make and maintain the habit of seeing God in his gifts.  We simply need to begin the process (if we have not already done so).  Did you experience something today – from the  moment you woke until now – that was clearly a gift?  Even if you appreciated the gift, did you follow the thought to its logical conclusion – from gift to Giver?  If you did so, you probably realize that God desires us to do that for our own sake as much or more than for his own. You already doubtless know that the more we look to the Giver, the more we actually come to appreciate the gifts themselves.  There is nothing like running up sunbeams to develop one’s joy in the light.

Every year countless people make “New Year’s resolutions” – setting goals ranging from cleaning out closets to getting more exercise.  Many people make resolutions regarding character issues, too –  resolving to stop doing things they wish to stop, or to do better at things they want to do.

Many Christians also make resolutions, of course, and like other people they find varying degrees of success in reaching the goals for which they aim.  But some think that making resolutions is not a biblically sound idea for Christians as they feel God has already given us his “resolutions” in the form of biblical admonitions and commands and we should just concentrate on trying to follow them.  Others feel that making resolutions encourages us to focus on our own human ability to accomplish spiritual goals.
 
But the Bible shows a number of God’s servants making resolutions –  ranging from Daniel resolving not to partake of the food and wine of the Babylonian palace (Daniel 1:8) in the Old Testament, to Paul resolving to go through Macedonia and Greece to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21) in the New Testament.

In fact, making resolutions can be an extremely important aspect of biblical living. Consider an example of this in the Book of Malachi:  “If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me” (Malachi 2:2).

In cases like this the Bible shows we need to resolve to follow God’s will whenever we come to see it in a given circumstance.  Also, each and every time we make a mistake and repent of doing something we have come to see is wrong, we need to be making firm resolutions to overcome the problem in the future. This kind of resolution does not in any way lessen our understanding of our need for God’s help, and the same is true of many New Year’s resolutions that involve spiritual issues.

Now, it’s clear that the Bible does not mention resolutions in the context of a new year, but new beginnings are psychologically among the best times to make resolutions and are among the times when they are most likely to succeed.  The great Christian writer G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) doubtless understood this when he wrote: “Unless a … man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” Chesterton’s point is a good one –  humanly we often need the impetus of some event to resolve to do better in our lives – and the New Year provides just such an occasion with a “new beginning” to work from.

The main problem with resolutions, of course, is that so many of them do not last long enough. Humanly we so often begin with great dedication only to “lose steam” as we go along.  But as Christians that is exactly where we can ask for God’s help to continue to apply and to keep our resolutions. In fact, that is exactly what we find in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:11 ESV).

Notice that Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that God would help them fulfill every "resolve" or resolution for good. It’s a prayer we can pray for ourselves as we go into this coming year – and one that we can pray for each other, too. ​