Plantinga Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 of "Engaging God's World", Plantinga discussed how all humans are broken and distorted by sin. Plantinga states that "evil is what's wrong in the world, and it includes trouble in nature as well as in human nature... We might define evil as any spoiling of shalom, any deviation from the way God wants things to be." I thought that Plantinga made a good analogy of how evil is a deviation from God's path. God's Will for His children was for us to follow His perfect path and bask in His goodness and love. When sin entered the world, humans began to step away from God's intentions and created a gap between ourselves and God.

Plantinga also talked about the idea of corruption. A corrupted person does not use God's gifts for his or her intended purpose. We need to address what God has blessed us with and be sure to understand what God's purpose is for us. I believe that God has blesses each individual person with different abilities for His intended purpose. When we misuse those God-given abilities, we begin to corrupt something beautiful into something selfish and evil. It is extremely important to understand and pray about what God calls each of us to do with the gifts that He has given us.

There are many controversial subjects in this chapter about the Fall of Creation. I believe it is extremely important to understand where we stand on different issues regarding faith, but we also need to remember that we are not going to be right about everything. If there are people who are correct about everything concerning their beliefs in God and theology, then I would love to meet them! We need to understand that although some people may believe differently on certain subjects, this does not mean that they are necessarily wrong. As Christians, we need to have a united front when discussing such confusing topics (in reference to Lewis' "Mere Christianity"). It is extremely important to remember that we are unified in the belief of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our only way to ever lasting life. That is what defines us as Christians.