The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Richard La Croix's Deductive Argument From Evil

Steve, I don’t see how that implies that God is “outside of time.” Indeed I see no meaning whatever to someone existing “outside of time.”

Yes, I do see why it is difficult or impossible for us finite human beings to understand how God could bring about His first act of begetting His Son. But it makes less sense to think of Him having done it “outside of time.” Time is not some ethereal substance outside of which there is no existence. Rather time is a way of measuring the temporal “distance” between events. There was no “before” that first act of God’s, and thus there was no time. The very word “before” indicates a time. The question as to whether God existed “before” the beginning of time is meaningless. The question as to whether God exists “outside of time” is also meaningless.

Paidion it’s only meaningless in a temporal sense. He is before in the sense that one is before two. Not temporally “prior”. The Bible says He’s the beginning and the end. (Alpha and Omega). He therefore experiences all events at once.

I also wanted to add that the argument assumes that the greatest possible good will no longer be with us since God created the universe. But this is true if hell goes on forever. Since all will be reconciled then in the end we will have nothing but the greatest possible good. The fact that God had holy justifiable reasons in creating a world that now contains suffering shows that He does nothing wrong in creating. Since He does nothing wrong in creating then His holiness remains in tact and He will be motivated to create. In the end there will be nothing but the greatest possible good.