Hello folks. This is Princess. You are. Listening to the Millennial Mustard. See Podcast. Thanks for listening. Don't forget. To share with your friends, that's tough. We're in a very tough spot. I think that what we're doing right now is a great. Benefit in virtue because it's an end around between this whole corrupt informational system, media system we claim to believe. In a God who spoke the universe into existence. And literally raised himself from the dead.
And yet, we're not going to. Believe that? Anything else exists in the spirit realm, even though his word tells. Us that they do. Their bodies weren't permitted to go to sleep like humans do, and they weren't permitted to go to heaven. So they wander the earth, you know, I've seen the eyes turn black to unknown tongues being spoken. These giants were way up in the island. The young Braves, the young men would hide have been the trees.
I wait for one of these 12 footers to come walking down the bath and they would jump on them. And kill them and drag them back to the village, and the village would feast on the body. Then people start to get weapons. They start to get armor. They start to build cities. They start to fortify their cities. Now God looks down and there's violence everywhere. The battle, this war that we are at is not against each other. It's against these principalities and these rulers and these archons.
In the high places, it's really worthwhile to read the Bible yourself. Fear is one of the primary drivers of mind control, because we have to take every thought captive and resist fear. You're going to have a testimony that is a justice case against the Kingdom of Darkness. Hey Rod from The Millennial Mustard Seed. This is Pete from the days of NOAA podcast. How are you, Sir? Doing Well, man, we're going to get this thing recorded because somebody in the airwaves does
not like this topic. So I'm actually excited for a round two here. Yeah, we had an unprecedented Internet flash outage there, right? And then my local backup disappeared as well. So my local backup is missing. So this has never happened before in this unique manner. In five years of podcasting, this is the first time I've had this unique literally wipe out, made-up recording back. I have a local backup going right now too. It's just unbelievable.
But yeah, so let's jump into it, man, because we were, we were getting ready to move in the spirit and get some things lined up here that's going to be edifying and tackle this huge question. So I'm going to go back and reread this question, Pete, and then let's just get back into it. And let me just say this real quick right before you do that. We'll let the audience be the
judge as far as if that. If you guys think there was some spiritual opposition just now once you hear kind of what we're going to discuss, not to talk it up too much, but it's an Angel question challenging the the authority of who God is, which is where Satan loves to attack. So yeah, won't you jump in? This was a a Twitter post that I saw and I sent screenshots to Rod, so he's going to read this. All right, I'll start with this first screenshot Here the paradox goes as follows.
If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to, then he is not all powerful. If he is able to prevent evil but is not willing to, then he is not all good. If he is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why is there evil and suffering in the world? So Pete, this is a paraphrase of a very ancient age-old question you want to fill us in on. Who asked this question
originally from the old times? Yeah, I was looking up just if it had a particular, you know, title to this this question or series of questions, and it actually did. It comes from the 3rd century BC from a guy named Epicurus or Epicurious and he posed this question if if God is willing to prevent evil. But doesn't is he actually good? Or if he doesn't want to but he's able to, you know, it's it's. So it's basically this conundrum of if he's incapable but unwilling, what does that say
about him? Or if he's willing but incapable, what does that say about him? And if he's neither, well, maybe he's not really God. And so, so this has been a challenge that apparently to this day, a month ago, I saw a Twitter post. An atheist had posted this, and he posted it under a caption. You guys can Google this picture looks like out on the African Prairie, a poor little starving child. Just by the, you know, the frailty of the child, you could
kind of come to that conclusion. And here's this vulture. You know, 10 or so yards. In the background looking for an easy lunch, it appears. And so just kind of throwing this at God's face saying look at the suffering, that here is just one snapshot of suffering in the world. So God, either you don't care and but you could do something but you don't care, or you care but you just can't do anything
and either way. They seem to have a point against God, but the reason I brought this up to Rod, I wanted to do a mini episode on this is because, you know, I've done a fair bit of of study on the topic of just how deterministic God is and how free will works. And there's a lot of theological systems that go back and forth between those things and try to wrestle with those questions that I won't get into, but.
I think when someone asks this question, and it's a good question, it it deserves an answer. Unfortunately, I think a lot of Christians don't have a good answer. I think we need to understand the nature of God in order to answer this question. And one of the things about him is that he has chosen. In his sovereignty, he's the one deciding. In his sovereignty, to limit himself to a degree. And he does this for a variety of reasons.
He set up the world and the the, the, the creatures that He made the creation He made, He set up in a certain way, with certain rules, their spiritual realm rules. There's, you know, giving mankind dominion over the Earth rules. And so when I see suffering in the world, in large part I say to myself, well, as much as we are willing to follow God's ways and let him in, then we see more of him because we are his ambassadors on Earth.
That's how, by and large, that's how he's chosen to represent himself in this world. Not that he doesn't intervene on his own. I'm sure he does on a daily basis. In many ways we don't even realize. But by and large, they are his ambassadors. And so if the world doesn't see God, it's because of his children not acting how we're supposed to act. And if we let, if we decide that we want to live our own way and we don't want to let God into the equation, well then evil gets a leg up.
It's really this back and forth of what are you going to feed? What are you going to give power? And so I think this self limiting nature that God has chosen to act upon in this way is he is going to let a free will play out to to a certain degree as far as he has determined. And once he sets up those rules, since the Bible says he does not change, he is not going to go back on the way he set out to. Accomplish things.
Now to me that just makes him a bigger, more more impressive God, because if he had to play both sides of the chess board and he won, no one would be impressed. But he if he can let the you know, most powerful grandmaster you know an A, I, you know supercomputer. Compete against him and chess and he can still win. That's what makes him God is the fact that he allows evil and free will to exist and he will still accomplish what he wants
to accomplish. So it's basically this this question is answered this age-old question from 2300 years ago. In my opinion. The way I answer it is we need to understand that God is self limiting because he has given dominion of this earth to
mankind. He's self limiting in part because he wants genuine obedience and genuine love, just like we don't want our child to. You know, if we could give our child a pill, that forever would make them love and be obedient to us. Sure, it might be peaceful in the house every day, but deep down we know that that that love and that obedience is fake. It's robotic. And and I think God is an idealist.
He he wants the highest level possible good and he's willing to risk a lot to get it. So that's that's my answer to to that question is we need to understand it's not that God isn't omniscient. It's not that he doesn't care. It's that, in general, he's given dominion to us. And it's what we do with it. And he is self limiting in that way. Not that he can't, but because he set it up in his sovereignty. Yeah. And this is a big question, it's obviously an age-old question.
So the way that I'm going to enter into this one is I'm going to lean towards the focus that that God shows us in his word, which is the power of storytelling. There's plenty of examples of good stories in the Bible, but Joseph comes to mind. The thing about Joseph is he was he was guiltless before his brothers who betrayed him. He was brutally betrayed and sold into slavery and he works his way from the bottom, finally becoming the head of the household of one of the the generals.
Or it's somebody important in Egypt and is betrayed again by I think his Potter for his wife and he was rolling Potter for his house. And after spending some time in prison for something he didn't do wrong, God is webbing and weaving behind the scenes. In my opinion, this very long range, limitless filtered plan because of the willingness of what Joseph's heart looked like before God. You see, God doesn't see the outward appearance, he sees the
heart. So when he knew he's seen Joseph, he's like, I can bring what I want to pass into succession because of a child like Joseph goes through this betrayal, becomes a slave. Most of us complain about just these simple things in life that, heck, we probably brought it on herself. But here's a guy who's just not not perfect, not guiltless, not blameless, but in the things he was betrayed on, the word shows us that he was blameless in this
betrayal. He did nothing to invoke it, and by the time he finds himself interpreting 2 dreams of two other, let's just say laborers for Pharaoh in a jail cell, he still dishes out grace. The same measure honestly depicting the dreams of the guy who was Ferris Baker and the guy
who was Ferris Cup holder. They both had drastically different outcomes, but Joseph once again, genuinely, honestly used a gift that God gave him in the lowest position possible without mumbling, without complaining. And eventually this leads the cup bearer to remind Pharaoh in one of his hardest seasons as to not understanding how to interpret this dream. The wise men of the land, the
mages of the land. Nobody could interpret this dream for Pharaoh. But the cup bearer remembered being in that dark and low and that damp in that dirty place where a servant of the one true God had accurately and faithfully depicted his dream and gave him resolve. And he mentions Joseph's name, De Pharaoh. And now this lands Joseph from the lowest pit into the courts of the highest power in the land.
And the reason I bring this story up and obviously I paraphrase and I just was wanted to hit a couple climaxes. I'm hoping majority of you know what this story actually entails. I hope you've read it.
If you haven't, well now's the time but the power of this story that God is showing us and the outcome of Joseph's climactical line as the brothers who sold him into slavery returned to the very land that God has lifted him out of the pit from and given him the position as Co ruler of the land. Joseph says this to his brothers though. You have intended this for evil against me. The Lord my God has used it for good. And this is like a heartwrecking story really.
I mean if if you guys get into it and just be like a child again, just be like a little kid and open up the Bible and read this story about Joseph. Because God uses the the this amazing power of storytelling throughout the word to show us his long range reach as well as how he limits himself.
But through that limitation, the filtration of that that I would agree with is through the dominion and Kingdom of men that he has clearly made in his likeness and his image and established here on this earth with dominion. And there's only a couple Joseph's for many other citizens of Egypt, right? It's not many men of great moral and great character. Now why, That's another podcast episode. But what I would say to the audience is I love Pete's response.
I agree with almost everything you said to an extent, but I wanted to use the power of storytelling that stirred up inside of me because that is how God responds to the age-old questions like this. Because Joseph probably asked himself that question a dozen or more times every month that went by as he found himself in the pit knowing he did nothing
wrong. There was no bad ill will or or conniving this to any of the deals he found that fell short on to the extent of him being imprisoned, enslaved. I'm sure he pondered God. Are you really just are you really righteous? Are you really in control? I'm sure he doesn't confront God like that according to what the word shows us. But he's a man.
He this is a shadowing of what Christ would be like but Joseph isn't Christ. Typology possibly could be argued, but let let's get it back to the childlike perspective here. One story that God shares with us through His word to help us understand these big questions. Because they're spiritual questions, they're emotional questions and and we shouldn't always have a perfect response for some of these questions. There is going to be some wonder
and mystery to it all. But God, we cannot forget, has a long range plan that he works out through the least willing candidates. To the outside eye. People would look upon the lowly things and and they would never imagine what God is intending to accomplish to that which has been rejected and abandoned and forgotten. And that's the power of storytelling. So in a nutshell, Pete, the way I view a question like is God good? Is God just? I think his contention is beyond comprehension.
I think the love that he depicts to us in the word is beyond our grasp. Hence the reason he says I work in and through you to cause my will to come about. These are big questions and it's going to take some time for even me to just bask in that a little bit more like more and and I would expect you guys as listeners to have a secret conversation with God if this is a troubling topic for you and yeah. And and let me add one last little thing to kind of cap off what you said about God using
things for good. That doesn't mean that the event itself is good, is that he's able to bring something good out of anything. And there's been something like 20 billion people that have. That have lived the last you know 6000 or so years, something like that. And we have no idea all of the stories of pain and suffering. We hear a lot about them today because of the age of information but there's a lot of stories we haven't heard. But that I bring that up to say I think that in every dark
situation whether it's. Nazi Germany concentration camp or an SRA satanic ritual abuse survivor, you know or what was the guy that that lost like half his family that wrote it is well with my soul. I think God has someone who has experienced every suffering possible out there. And he has someone who is a believer in him, who has gone through that so that we can speak to the world and have a witness to the same, to a person with the same type of background
who isn't a believer. And we can say how God has brought us through it and what he has taught us. So I think that's one of the reasons he allows things to play out with suffering and pain and free will is so that he can show the world how he can redeem situations that seem impossible.
And if he gave Christians a special bit of protection that the world noticeably saw, if we had 20% less, you know, marriages fall apart or 20% less, or untimely deaths because we were Christians or something, the world would get a chip on their shoulder. And rightly so. Oh, God doesn't care about us. You're the special ones. No, we go through the same stuff. And that doesn't mean we don't have blessings and protection. It doesn't mean we don't have eternal life.
But we go through the same stuff, and I think God lets us go through it so we can speak his truth to someone on the other side who's felt that same thing. Wise words, Pete. That's deep. Deep stuff, man. Deep stuff. Thanks brother. Yeah, and this is definitely the kind of question that needs to come up. It needs to be a heartfelt conversation that really we digest and bite sizes because it can trigger pain and trauma or remembrance of difficult things. And we're all going through this
healing process. We're all going through this together. So being a little bit more vulnerable, you know, I think Carly said this recently. She said vulnerability is also a major tool that God uses too. So the enemy a lot of the times wants to make you feel this is a
vulnerable question. This is going to expose the fact that Rod didn't have the best answer and he just wanted to go use a Bible story, whatever, right, Whatever people are thinking because I'm thinking in the confidence of what God showed me in the moment. And it was the comfort of
knowing that in his word. He has brought a a peace and a comfort that through this power of storytelling that he's delivered to me. It has given me the confidence to to speak this way in front of one person or a million in front of Princess Kings, judges or the God down the street. It doesn't matter to me. I'm not discriminating. God is good. But we all have a vulnerability.
And I think that if we took anything away from what Pete told us here tonight and the story that I reminded you guys of, of Joseph, God's a long range plan. Can really surprise us if we continue to follow him, regardless of what it looks like on the outside, regardless of what they say about us, what happens? He's good and faithful, and I believe that. And Pete, it's always an honor to chop it up with you. I know that this is more heartfelt.
There's not as much laughter or any fun, spontaneous kind of questions that came out of this. But these this needs to take place. This is important.
This is why I agreed to do it. This is why I believe that we can lead by example and bring, you know, stir up the fact that, hey, we're going to, we're going to charger places that most people aren't willing to go. And it doesn't mean we live in the space, but it does mean that we're man enough and confident enough in in who God is creating us to be to enter into this kind of space. So hopefully that's helpful and the word tells us, let us have an answer for the hope that we
have right? So when you, when you hear those hard questions, those good questions in a lot of cases that atheists have, let's not be afraid to engage those, even if we don't know off the top of our head what to say. Because there are good answers out there exactly. And the and the wonderful thing about truth is it can stand up to scrutiny. It will all on its own. So so do the work because that because when you're defending God's truth, you can't fail that.
You just need more. You might need more knowledge to know how to answer that, but go get that knowledge because it's out there. Truth will stand up to scrutiny. I want to leave one last thing, Rod, because kind of you brought it home with people that are probably feeling a lot of personal things where they don't want to talk philosophical, you know, they want to sit in silence like Job and say don't speak to me. I just need to sit.
A book that I went through last year that I would recommend is called Dark Clouds Deep Mercy, Discovering the Grace of Lament. It's by Mark Vrogue up VROEGOP, and it's all about understanding how lament and learning how to do so. Especially in the Psalms where David is crying out in all of his struggle and you see him over and over turning it back towards faith and praise. So it's not just a rant or a venting, it's doing that, but then turning it into a faith
building. So I highly recommend that book. First, John 4/19. We love him because he first loved us. Well, that's it for this little mini episode here. It's deep. It's an emotional roller coaster. Pete, I love the fact that you are a driving force to cover the chasm on these deeper and harder questions. A lot of the times, because we weep, we cry, we're up, we're down is just like the Psalms. A lot of the times is just like David's story, so I'm hoping this mini episode is helpful.
Pete, some final words as we close out here. Yeah, just echo that. Good to be with you Rod. And yeah, just pray. A blessing over everyone listening, man. Sometimes God's answers take years and as we've had Tim Bentz on the show a few times he'll he says got off and answers in actions and things that play out
not in words. And so it's not just a yes or no or it's it's it's how he'll show you the answer and stick with it. Because the more the more general revelation that you accept from God, the more specific and Debri he will take you. But you got to you got to open yourself up. If you're at that point where you're just accepting the very slightest little consideration of God, he will reveal more to you if you if you keep that open.
And that's the echo of what a relationship looks like when you start to relate with your creator and have an intimate relationship, because that's key. And that's it for this mini episode. We cover your prayers and we ask you guys to leave us that five star rating and review. That helps us reach one more thirsty soul. That helps us reach one more person who has questions who they want to feel like they they fit in somewhere well that might be with us.
So share this episode coming to you from southeastern Pennsylvania. Goodbye.