Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
The speaker quoted Mark Talbot claiming God “brings about” atrocities like Auschwitz and child sexual abuse; what picture of God is being defended or rejected in that moment, and how does that picture affect whether worship, prayer, and trust are even morally possible?
Another way to ask: When Talbot says God “brings about” horrors like Auschwitz and child abuse, what kind of God is that view defending or rejecting? How does that view affect whether it feels right to worship, pray, or trust God at all?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The speaker is rejecting a picture of God who actively causes atrocities and moral evil, then receives glory for them. Based on his comments, if God “brings about” evil like abuse and genocide, then worship and trust become morally distorted because God would be the author of the very wickedness He condemns.
- He quotes Talbot: God “Himself brings about these evil aspects… Nazis’ brutality… sexual abuse of a young child,” and reacts, “wow… someone needs to defend” against that teaching.
- He later calls this conclusion “very perverted teaching” and “horrible… wicked,” because it implies “God is the author of sin.”
- He quotes Gordon H. Clark approving the logic Calvinists use: “it was the will of God” when someone “shoots his family,” then notes this “certainly makes God the cause of sin.”
- He argues this view drives people away: many hear “God who makes people evil and then he punishes them forever,” and conclude, “I don’t need anything to do with Christianity.”
- He contrasts it with God’s desire: God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”