You said the ability for one to choose to reject Christ (i.e. sin) comes from their deficiency. But you never answered the question, a deficiency of what?
So, you see, you define evil the exact same way that Luke is doing.
Exactly.
Skan doesn't see it yet, but you cannot account for the the origin of evil without calling it a deficiency- a privation.
Evil is what God is NOT.
NOT is privation. If I am NOT healthy I have a deficiency of health. NOT is privation or as Skandelon rightly put it a "deficiency".
Evil is the privation of the goodness of God.
Augustine, the greatest theological mind in history, argued this very thing. Evil as privation.
Evil is the absence of good.
Any INTENT that arises in a scenario where good is "deficient", as Skandelon himself recognizes, will be evil.
Endued fully with the goodness of God we cannot sin.
Sin is only possible when there is, as Skan put it, a DEFICIENCY of good.
This word "deficiency" that Skandelon employs proves that he cannot argue against the idea of evil as privation.
Aristotle noticed this fact even before Augustine. This should be no problem, for all truth is God's truth. Facts are facts and what God allows and enables man to discover is perfectly discoverable. Bad philosophy ought to be condemned but good philosophy is useful.
Here is part of an
article I found that deals rightly in this quote with the Augustinian theodicy:
Augustine adopted the distinction, made by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, that everything has its opposite, so that darkness is the absence of light, poverty is the absence of wealth and evil is the absence of good. Whereas goodness is completion (Latin habitus) evil is a lack (privatio) and, as such, is “ no substance, but the perversion of the will, turned aside from God.” As a result, “ There can be no evil where there is no good ... Nothing evil exists in itself, but only as an evil aspect of some actual entity.” From this he comes close to the view of Mrs Eddy. He asks, " What, after all, is anything we call evil except the privation of the good ( privatio boni.)? In animal bodies, for instance, sickness and wounds are nothing but the privation of health. When the cure is effected, the evils that were present (sickness and wounds) do not retreat and go elsewhere. Rather they simply do not exist any more."
(Augustine. Enchiridion. 3.11)
In fact he is not denying the reality of evil but saying that it is a defect. [As Skandelon rightly noted; "defect" is the root of Skandelon's word "deficiency"]
Thus blindness is a defect, the absence of sight, but this absence is real enough. What this account of evil does is to clear God of blame for evil. God is actively involved in good acts but not in evil acts, because in the latter he is withholding his goodness, whereas in the former he is performing it.
The Augustinian Theodicy.
The Augustinian model is based on the traditional interpretation of the Bible. God created a ‘very good’ world in which he placed the first human beings, who were made in the ‘image of God’. This is usually understood to mean that they had a spiritual as well as a physical nature. Adam and Eve were in harmony with God, the animal creation and one another. They were given freewill, which they used to disobey God and, as a result, the three harmonious relationships were broken. Although Augustine believed in the literal truth of the story its meaning is not affected if it is regarded as a parable about every man and every woman. It rightly reflects the common experience that human beings are responsible for a great deal of suffering in the world because they choose to do wrong. It also correctly observes that this, in turn, leads to disharmony within the human race and towards the animal world as well as damage to the environment. What it fails to explain is natural calamities and animal suffering, which most people believe existed long before man came into existence. Actually Augustine could explain this on the basis of a prior fall of angels, led by Lucifer (the Devil), who were
given charge of the world and have deliberately distorted nature in an attempt to hit back at God. Their rebellion consisted of causing animals to prey upon one another as well as upsetting the stability of the earth’s crust thus causing earthquakes and volcanoes. The view can be criticised on several counts. There is the problem, first raised by Friedrich Schleiermacher of why the first creatures, angels or humans, whose natures contained no
flaw and who lacked nothing, would have sinned, even if they were formally free to do so, when they were in the presence of God and enjoying his happiness. The Bible does not say that man was originally in the full presence of God. In a sense the first beings did not have everything, for they were limited in power. It only required the desire for something that cannot be obtained, like having total power to become like God, for sin to occur.
This accurately represents Augustine's theodicy (though it is too breif to encapsulate it). Man was created with free will (not libertarian free will mind you) and because there was a deficiency [as Skandelon put it] of good in them they were able with that free will to sin. Sin is the act that evil which is a deficiency of good causes. Ever since man has been in bondage to sin.
Evil exists.
Either God is not all powerful and cannot do anything about it though he would if he could...
OR...
God is all powerful and evil himself because he could stop it but allows it...
OR...
God is all powerful and perfectly good but good is not defined by human suffering or the lack thereof but rather by that which ultimately brings God the most glory.
The last statement is the biblical teaching.
Suffering of sinners brings God glory (vindicates his holiness).
Salvation of sinners brings God glory (magnifies his love).
Arminians believe the first statement. They state it this way "God RESTRICTS his omnipotence and Sovereignty by man's free will." This is philosophical madness. God cannot be all powerful and restrict his power at the same time. Restricted power is LIMITED power. Omnipotence is by definition the dead level OPPOSITE. It is UNLIMITED power.
And God can be completely Sovereign over all things and events- the biggest and smallest of them and all of them in between- and restrict that sovereignty at the same time.
Neither can God do evil or tempt man to do evil.
So who authored evil?
Skandelon says man did and offers NO explanation as to how.
Some determinists argue that God did and if you don't like it- TOO BAD!
But the RIGHT answer is NOBODY.
Only things that are THINGS have authors.
Darkness does not have an author.
Nobody made it in a lab and God did not create it. Why? Because darkness is nothing but privation.
It is just a word we use to describe a void of light.
And so is evil.
EVIL HAS NO DIRECT AUTHOR BECAUSE EVIL IS NOTHING BUT PRIVATION OF GOOD.
We say of things that they are good or not good.
Evil is simply the latter.
