Lent Talks by Rev'd Jon Swales

1. Why the Hell do Bad Things Happen?
Suffering, Satan and the Problem of Evil

2. Specific
Divine
Reason
EVENTS
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology

3. “The dark threads are as needed
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.”
–Benjamin Malachi Franklin
“Lord, You see a grand design
that You imagined when You
breathed me into life. And all
the chaos comes together in
Your hands like a masterpiece of
Your picture perfect plan.”
–Casting Crowns
Q. 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds,
as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures,
and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful
and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and
poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly
hand. –Heildelburg Catechism

4. “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are
not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the
Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6, ESV)
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is
from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33, ESV)
“I form light and create darkness, I make
well-being and create calamity, I am the
Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7,
ESV)
“And we know that for those who love
God all things work together for good, for
those who are called according to his
purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV)
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but
God meant it for good, to bring it about that
many people should be kept alive, as they
are today.” (Genesis 50:20, ESV)
“this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men.” (Acts 2:23, ESV)
Blueprint Theology

5. • “Everything happens for a reason,”
• “God has his reasons,”
• “God’s ways are not our ways,”
• “Nothing happens by accident,”
• “God knows what he is doing,”
• ‘Jesus wanted to call her home.’
• “God’s timing is the right timing,”
• “This tumour will not grow 1mm
beyond what God ordains/allows”
Blueprint Theology

6. Specific
Divine
Reason
EVENTS
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology
God has a reason for
everything
If God is good then God has a
good reason for everything.

7. Specific
Divine
Reason
SUFFERING
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology
God has a reason for
everything
If God is good then God has a
good reason for everything.

8. If one falls among robbers, or ravenous
beasts; if a sudden gust of wind at sea
causes shipwreck; if one is struck down by
the fall of a house or a tree; if another,
when wandering through desert paths,
meets with deliverance; or, after being
tossed by the waves, arrives in port, and
makes some wondrous hair—breadth
escape from death — all these
occurrences, prosperous as well as
adverse, carnal sense will attribute to
fortune. But those who have learned from
the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his
head are numbered (Matthew 10:30), will
look farther for the cause, and hold that
all events whatsoever are governed by the
secret counsel of God
John Calvin, Institues 1.16.2

9. Specific
Divine
Reason
EVIL
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology
God has a reason for
everything
If God is good then God has a
good reason for everything.

10. Specific
Divine
Reason
TORTURE
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology
God has a reason for
everything
If God is good then God has a
good reason for everything.

11. Specific
Divine
Reason
FAMINE
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology
God has a reason for
everything
If God is good then God has a
good reason for everything.

12. Specific
Divine
Reason
GENOCIDE
ORDAINS
Strong
Sovereignty
ALLOWS
Weak
Sovereignty
Humans
Spiritual Beings
Natural Phenomena
Micro/Macro
Blueprint Theology
God has a reason for
everything
If God is good then God has a
good reason for everything.

13. Specific
Divine
Reason
EVILORDAINS
ALLOWS
Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility

14. Specific
Divine
Reason
EVILORDAINS
ALLOWS
Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character

15. Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
Genesis 6:6 (ESV)
6 And the Lord regretted
that he had made man
on the earth, and it
grieved him to his heart.
Matthew 23:37 (ESV)
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city
that kills the prophets and stones
those who are sent to it! How often
would I have gathered your children
together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you were not
willing!
See also Exod. 34:9; 33:3,5; Deut. 9:6, 13; 10:16; 31:27; Judges 2:19; 2
Kings 17:14; 2 Chron. 30:8; 36:13; Ne 9:16; Isa. 46:12; 48:4; Jer. 7:26;
Hos. 4:16
• God’s will is frustrated

16. Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
1 Samuel 15:35 (ESV)
35 And Samuel did not see
Saul again until the day of his
death, but Samuel grieved
over Saul. And the Lord
regretted that he had made
Saul king over Israel.
See also Gen 6:6, Ex 32:14, Judges 2:18, 2 Samuel 24:16, 1 Chron
21:15; Jon 3:10
Jonah 3:10 (ESV)
10 When God saw what they did, how
they turned from their evil way, God
relented of the disaster that he had said
he would do to them, and he did not do
it.
• God’s will is frustrated
• God changes his mind

17. Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
• God’s will is
frustrated
• God changes his
mind
• Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:9–10 (ESV)
9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

18. Specific
Divine
Reason
EVILORDAINS
ALLOWS
Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
(4) Resignation rather than
Revolt

19. WARFARE WORLDVIEW
“The warfare worldview is based on
the conviction that our world is
engaged in a cosmic war between a
myriad of agents, both human and
angelic, that have aligned
themselves with either God or
Satan.”-Greg Boyd

20. HUMANS
DO NOT LOVE
GOD
DO NOT LOVE
NEIGHBOUR
YHWH EVIL
LOVE GOD
LOVE NEIGHBOUR

21. Rebuking Hostile Waters
“You covered it with the deep as with a
garment; the waters stood above the
mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the
sound of your thunder they took to flight. The
mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the
place that you appointed for them. You set a
boundary that they may not pass, so that they
might not again cover the earth.” (Psalm 104:6–
9, ESV) See also Psalm 29:3, 77:16, Prov 8:29

22. Rebuking Hostile Waters
Job 38:8–11 (ESV)
8 “Or who shut in the sea with
doors when it burst out from
the womb, 9 when I made
clouds its garment and thick
darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors, 11 and
said, ‘Thus far shall you come,
and no farther, and here shall
your proud waves be stayed’?
Tthe sea “as a somewhat sinister
force that, left to its own, would
submerge the world and forestall the
ordered reality we call creation.” And
then he adds: “What prevents this
frightening possibility is the mastery
of YHWH, whose blast and thunder …
force the sea into its proper place.”
Levonson ‘Creation and the
Persistence of Evil’

23. Rebuking Hostile Waters
Psalm 69:14–15 (ESV)
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from
my enemies and from the deep waters. 15 Let not the flood
sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its
mouth over me.
Psalm 144:7 (ESV)
7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me
from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,
Psalm 93:3–4 (ESV)
3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their
voice; the floods lift up their roaring. 4 Mightier than the
thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the
Lord on high is mighty!

24. Defeating Cosmic Monsters
Psalm 74:10–17 (TNIV)
10How long will the enemy mock you,
God? Will the foe revile your name
forever?
11Why do you hold back your hand,
your right hand? Take it from the folds
of your garment and destroy them!….
13It was you who split open the sea by
your power; you broke the heads of
the monster in the waters. 14It was
you who crushed the heads of
Leviathan and gave it as food to the
creatures of the desert.
Leviathan and Behemoth by William Blake

25. Defeating Cosmic Monsters
“In that day the Lord with his hard
and great and strong sword will
punish Leviathan the fleeing
serpent, Leviathan the twisting
serpent, and he will slay the dragon
that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1, ESV)
War in Heaven, M.S Douce 1270 A.D
JOb 40: Leviathan Job 41: Behemoth
Job 41:33–34 (ESV)
33 On earth there is not his like, a creature
without fear. 34 He sees everything that is
high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
c.f. Revelation 13, Dragon, Beast & Sea

26. Conflict with Heavenly Beings
“God has taken his place in the divine
council; in the midst of the gods he
holds judgment: “How long will you
judge unjustly and show partiality to
the wicked? Give justice to the weak
and the fatherless; maintain the right
of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the
wicked.””… “I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.” Arise, O God,
judge the earth; for you shall inherit all
the nations!” (Psalm 82:6–8, ESV)
Angel by William Blake

27. Conflict with Heavenly Beings
Daniel 10:12 (ESV)
.12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the
first day that you set your heart to understand and
humbled yourself before your God, your words have
been heard, and I have come because of your words.
13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me
twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief
princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the
kings of Persia,…20 Then he said, “Do you know why I
have come to you? But now I will return to fight
against the prince of Persia; and when I go out,
behold, the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell
you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is
none who contends by my side against these except
Michael, your prince.

28. Warfare Worldview
Rebuking Hostile Waters
Defeating Cosmic Monsters
Conflict with Heavenly Beings

29. • YHWH tolerates honest questions
• Traditional Answers are not always adequate.
• YHWH is not a Mechanistic God
• Suffering is a Mystery (The Problem of Evil cannot be
answered)
• Divine Beings Effect Earthly Events
• Evil Forces Exist
How does the Book of Job contribute towards our
understanding of suffering?

30. Why the Hell do Bad Things Happen?
Suffering, Satan and the Problem of Evil