Why did God make the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Can Christians smoke weed? Why does God allow natural disasters to happen?

John Dickson tackles your questions in one of our best Q&A episodes yet!

Links

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You can find a transcript for this episode here

Check out these helpful links below for more info on what was discussed in this episode.

LINKS

• Here’s President George Bush’s famous “Axis of Evil” speech from 2002
• The devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755 changed the course of European history. Here’s a video on it, courtesy of BBC
• If you’re keen to go down the Bible code rabbit hole, then this video is for you
• A huge thank you to John Walton for giving us a few minutes of his time! You can find his episode The Flood here
• Finally, if you want to keep an eye on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist’s Doomsday Clock – which predicts when humanity will probably destroy itself – you can find the details here

Here are the questions John answers in this episode:

1. For years, I’ve struggled with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the fact that it is a created thing. Since everything is created by God, in creating this tree—a living organism that has life in itself—does that mean evil is a created thing and that it is created by God? I understand that God is not evil, but being God, would He create evil as an aspect of man’s free will? Because how can something that exists—in this case, evil—not be a created thing? If evil was not created, does that mean goodness is not a created thing either?
2. Consider this. How would the world look and function any differently if there is no God? Would there still be earthquakes and tornadoes and hurricanes and volcanoes if there is no God? Yes of course there would be. So please explain, how an all-knowing, all-loving God created an earth that’s trying to kill us. Why did the Christian God (if he’s real), put in place natural disasters and all kinds of diseases that are trying to eliminate human life? Christians, please try to use your common sense. Your God is not responsible for this, because your God is not real! God is man-made. Religion is man-made. Christians cannot reconcile the problem of evil and natural disasters.
3. I have been thinking lately of the overt and visceral reactions exhibited by some people, including Christians I know, to the Ukraine and Russian war, though this is listening, or the present Gaza-Israel situation.  And they seemingly believe we live in the worst time ever. While there are many possible reasons, I am wondering if, particularly for Christians, some of the issue is related to a declining understanding of, or even interest in, eschatology. And this foundation of theological hope. My question, though, is how can we recover a biblical eschatology that will help Christians live and minister in the world today with real hope?
4. I’ve been taught that God speaks clearly through His word, not in riddles, and to seek such hidden codes or meanings is a form of Gnosticism and thus heresy. More recently I’ve come across a bible teacher called Chuck Missler who very much sees hidden ciphers in biblical texts, but he claims they are there not to ‘reveal’ the true meaning of the text, but rather to ‘verify’ the authenticity of the text. That is, they don’t impart any new meaning beyond the plain reading of scripture, but they do act to show that the bible must have supernatural origin. He gives the analogy of spies embedding a hidden cipher in their communications to verify they’re really from them and not the enemy. This seems a different angle from the classic ‘code cracking’ of Revelation to predict the future that I’ve always been wary of.  One example involves the Genealogy of Noah in Genesis 5 (genealogy is just the line of descendants) He claims the Hebrew meaning of the ten names from Adam to Noah run together as a sentence reads: “Man appointed mortal sorrow; the blessed God shall come down, teaching His death shall bring the despairing rest.” I guess my first question is “is this translation of the Hebrew names in Genesis 5 at all accurate?” And if so, what does one do with it? Missler’s take is that such insights validate the supernatural authorship of the bible, rather than reveal any new theology. My instinct is to still be very wary of such interpretations, but if the translation is accurate I would find it hard to simply dismiss it – it would be quite compelling. I would really value your help in navigating this stuff!
5. There are some Christians at my church from different backgrounds who believe believers should be responsible for preparing the world for Jesus’ return through not just evangelism, but reforming things like the education system, health system, etc. Some are homeschooling because they don’t trust the public system, and even buying farms and setting up “separatist” communities because they don’t trust non-Christian leaders who are leading the country. They eventually leave our church because the differences are so significant. Where is that strain coming from? It seems particularly prominent with American Evangelicalism (and QAnon seems to be wrapped up in it as well).
6. I’ve heard a criticism of Augustine that some of his views were too deeply influenced by Greek philosophy which has in turn embedded itself in certain views/interpretations of Scripture in Western thought up through today. This is of course a subjective area but would love to hear Dr. Dickson’s (to the best of his ability) unbiased reflection on this. Does it have no merit, some merit but overstated, or more merit than we like to think?
7. Were the Ten Commandments lifted/influenced by other ancient cultures?
8. Where did the desert fathers who perched on tall towers get the towers? Did they build them, or were they already there for some other reason?
9. How can we use the Bible when navigating the topic of smoking weed? Especially in places of the world where it’s legal, and when it comes to talking to kids about it?
10. What’s the difference between faith and hope?