Following up on yesterday’s questions, I want to think about God’s obligation in terms of salvation. To what extent would it be a “character flaw” if God didn’t save the vast majority of people? Is it enough that God has given mankind life or must he also extend that life beyond the grave in order to be seen as just and loving?
Is Jesus’ act of atonement a failure if only a minority of people are saved? Does God have to save most if not all? Is the condemnation of some a sign that God’s design was imperfect?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these ideas or yesterday’s questions.
At this point in my reading and studying and praying, I still don’t believe there is a design FLAW. However, as with many systems or designs or inventions, what one person considers a flaw, another considers a feature.
I picked up Dallas Willard’s Divine Conspiracy again last night, and he quotes Uncle Screwtape in the very beginning:
“You must have often wondered why the enemy [God] does not make more use of his power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree he chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the irresistible and the indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of his scheme forbids him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as his felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For his ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve…”
In fact, from at least one perspective (the author/compiler of Job, I think, along with CS Lewis), this is precisely the argument between the Creator and the satan — whether or not love and free will — and God choosing to honor their consequences — are features or flaws in the Creator’s design.
My first reaction was to comment on human failure–and I think that Nick treats that point with clarity. Then I started to emphasize a different aspect that was, again, grounded in human failure. Which was changing the topic–or avoiding it. Instead of any one person being lost being a proof that God’s design failed, it seems that if there is any one person saved–it is proof of the marvelous success of God’s design. To be rescued from ourselves and from our limitations is proof that the design works. And is appropriate adjusted to all circumstances.