Sunday, September 1, 2024

Divine Shame - Another problem with the divine glory theodicy

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-3/s3-doctrine-of-the-last-things/doctrine-of-the-last-things-part-20

Here Craig says the damned do not praise or worship God.

Philippians 2:9-11 says:

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (ESV)

This might be read as all humans, saved and damned, will glorify God and Jesus in the end.

Regardless of the interpretation of the Philippians passage, it seems plausible that the members of heaven will glorify God on a daily basis while the inhabitants of hell will not. If God wants glory, then that means God wants to be praised and worshiped – for us to be in awe of God and to acknowledge his greatness and majesty. But if only the inhabitants of heaven will worship God, and God wants to maximize how much he is worshiped, then God wants to maximize the number of inhabitants of heaven. This is true whether the goodness of God’s glory is found in God’s enjoyment or in the betterment of those who worship God, or both.

But arguably most people end up in hell. This is because only regenerate Christians go to heaven. But the large majority of humans have always been non-Christians. Plus, Jesus says that the path that leads to destruction is wide, while the path that leads to salvation is narrow. (Matthew 7:13)

Even if God is glorified by demonstrating his authority and justice through judgment, this burst of glory on judgment day is short-lived. You still end up with a majority in hell where God is cursed on a daily basis far more than he is worshiped. For an eternity, most of creation curses God! If God aims to maximize divine glory, then having a majority in hell is a failure of God's desires. God wants all to be saved anyway (1 Timothy 2:3-4; Ezekiel 33:11).

So if most people end in hell, then God is not successful, both in his desire for all to be saved and in his desire to maximize divine glory. This failure generates divine shame.

So the divine glory theodicy fits best with a universal reconciliation account of hell where hell is temporary; each individual eventually is redeemed.

But this conflicts with the above reasons for thinking a majority end up in hell (perhaps a majority end up in hell initially but are reconciled over time?) It also conflicts with passages that imply punishment is eternal or that some individuals are never reconciled. (The rich man is separated by a chasm in Luke 16:19; Jesus says it was better for Judas to have never been in Matthew 26:24; Revelation says Satan and his demons are thrown in hell forever in 20:10.) Finally, it conflicts with Christian tradition which has taken hell to be an eternal punishment.

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