Defeating Evil Quotes

“When God penetrates the black fog of adversity with his presence, a profound and mysterious joy is the result (Ps. 16:11). Jesus promises all believers that his joy will be made full in them (John 17:13). God does not always remove us from the storms, but he does promise to infuse his children with an inscrutable calm that bypasses our need to make sense of the chaos surrounding us (Phil. 4:6–7).”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“Once again, World War II—the most lethal conflict in history—represents how abysmally low the world can descend into darkness. This is especially true when it comes to the Holocaust. We naturally assume that the destruction of six million Jews could have never come from the hand of God. Now, if we mean that God is somehow morally culpable for the evil that the human architects of the Holocaust perpetrated, then we would be correct. Nonetheless, God’s sovereign will ordained what his moral will despises in order to bring about countless greater goods that we may never fully comprehend”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“But then Paul puts forth a marvelous truth at the end of Romans 5:20: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” What does the apostle mean by this? The more that sin and death reigned on the earth, the more that “grace” had an opportunity to “reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21). This is astonishing. Paul is saying that the more that murder, lies, theft, rape, cruelty, carnage, death, and calamity proliferate, the more that God’s undeserved mercy is extended to the perpetrators of these evils. Consequently, his glory and grace are unleashed in ways in which they could not be otherwise.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“The endgame of God’s salvation of sinners is the maximization of his own glory. Thus, in contemplating his own rescue from evil, Paul humbly declares a few verses later: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17).”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“The self-deception of the human soul is endemic to our fallen state (Jer. 17:9). We tend to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. And our self-deception goes hand in hand with self-righteousness. Isaiah pours a lethal dose of sober and startling truth on our moral delusions when he says that even the nicest deeds we perform are like a bloody “menstrual rag” (Isa. 64:6 NET). Not a pleasant image. Yet there is something that makes the problem of internal evil more acute. Personal sin is not something that merely affects others. Our moral evil is, as the late R. C. Sproul often said, cosmic treason.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“Human beings are the focus of God’s greater displays of glory—not animals, not angels. Thus, it follows that humans reside in a unique position by which to behold this greater glory. Their special relationship with the Creator means that they become recipients of his actions in unique ways that no other creature experiences. But the greatest glory of God is reserved for the work he does in those humans he chooses to redeem, as we will see. Even the angels long to fully grasp this glorious work of God reserved for the elect few (1 Peter 1:12).”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“God has manifold purposes in creating the world that are known only to him, but what was his ultimate purpose? That question has been posed by every generation of theologians in history, and the uniform answer has been largely undisputed. God created the universe, and particularly the world, to serve as a theater for his glory.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“There is no way to measure the radical contrast between the blackness of the cursed cosmos and the refulgent glory of the triune God’s work of redemptive grace that shatters the dark grip of evil.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“The earth is a microscopic speck compared to the rest of the cosmos, but already Genesis 1:1 alludes to the central place it has in the story. According to Genesis 1, this otherwise piddling planet will be the primary stage for God to display the riches of his glory. Then the lens of the narrative narrowly focuses on one special object of God’s creation called adam, the Hebrew word for “man.” God created both “male and female,” uniquely in his own image (vv. 26–27). No other creatures possess such dignity (Ps. 8:4–5). God is the center of the story, but man is central to his unfolding plan. He is a supporting character, designed to live in perfect harmony and fellowship with his Creator, serving and honoring him in the establishment of a holy kingdom on earth (Gen. 1:28).”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“This is known as compatibilism, the idea that God’s meticulous sovereignty is compatible with human freedom and responsibility.16 God is the remote but primary (ultimate) cause of all human actions as the transcendent Author of those actions. Conversely, we are the immediate but secondary cause of all our actions. Examples from Scripture could be multiplied, but statements from the book of Proverbs will suffice: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (19:21). “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (21:1).”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“Likewise, we would never see Christ’s defeat of evil as so compelling without despicable villains such as Satan and the utter sinfulness of the enemy of our souls called sin. Evil must be part of the storyline if we are ever to appreciate the triumph of good in the end. And for this reason, we don’t so much praise the protagonists in stories such as those of Tolkien, Dickens, and Dostoevsky as much as we praise the authors themselves.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“In the real world, since God is the source of all that is good and right and beautiful and true, this means that anything that is evil and wrong and ugly and false can be rightfully judged by this divine standard and thereby despised and rejected. Evil can be evil only if there is a perfect standard of goodness and righteousness by which to make that evaluation. God is that standard. And anything that deviates from his perfect righteousness is, by definition, poisoned by evil.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“But because God is incomparably holy and transcendent, residing independently on a wholly different plane from his creation or creatures, and because he is supremely in control of all things, then we must be able to say that God is the author of evil in an entirely different sense. God has an asymmetrical relationship to good and evil.5 Since he is the fountain of all goodness as the all-encompassing good God, then all good in the world directly proceeds from him.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22). Job is correct to assign sovereign responsibility to God for this calamity, but he has not charged God with moral responsibility.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“The most serious objection to the greater-good defense is that no matter how you cut it, God cannot be exonerated from being the author of evil. This is an important matter, and we will address it in more detail later (see chapter 4). But in the meantime, simply note that there is a certain paradox in saying that an unimpeachably good God has nothing but good purposes for evil. His sovereign will often ordains that which his moral will detests.”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“Divine providence says that our freely, voluntarily, willingly made choices are the instruments by which God providentially executes his eternal plans for history and our lives. Divine sovereignty never negates human freedom and responsibility (as properly defined). In Calvinism, the two come together in what is known as compatibilism (see chapter 4).”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World

“Consequently, the greatest place in all of creation and history will contain no hint of the kind of free will that Arminians argue is so valuable in this present world. Nonetheless, the future world will be marked by perfect freedom for the sake of perfect goodness, love, and joy. If the freedom of contrary choice is such a valuable and necessary treasure —indispensable for generating genuine good—then why doesn’t heaven have this treasure?”
― Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil: How God Glorifies Himself in a Dark World