Better Than "Ex Lex"
Posted by Vincent Cheung on December 23, 2005Someone sent me a passage from John Frame's Apologetics to the Glory of God in which he argues against a point made in Gordon Clark's God and Evil. I read Frame's book a long time ago, and if I remember correctly, I am not sure if Frame fully understood Clark in the first place or whether he represented him correctly. In any case, it is unimportant whether or not this has anything to do with Clark.
According to Frame, to argue that God is "outside the law" is not a biblical response to the problem of evil, because to argue this way would be to ignore or deny the premise that God's laws come from and are consistent with his own immutable nature.
The following is my response:
I have time to give you only a short answer. I certainly cannot come at it from every possible angle or qualify everything that I say about it. But you should be able to take it further and apply it as needed.
The argument, whether used against ex lex or not, is just plain irrelevant. For the sake of discussion, let us first agree that the moral laws that God has imposed upon humanity come from his immutable nature. From this, let us suppose further, whether it is true or not, that God is actually bound by these moral laws. As is so often the case, the matter is closed when we ask, "So what? What does one thing have to do with another?"
From the above, it follows that "You shall not murder" applies to God. But so what? Frame would say that therefore God is not ex lex. What he fails to note is that this is a command with definite content, and not just some undefined X. What is murder? In the Bible, murder is a deliberate termination of a human life without divine sanction. We may add that this must be done by a human, or at least by a rational mind, since animals cannot really "murder" in the same sense, even if the killing is deliberate. Now, unless God can ever kill someone without his own approval, in which case he would be schizophrenic (so that our problem would be much greater than ex lex), the command will never actually apply. The same goes with "You shall not steal." There is nothing for God to steal, because he has made everything, and he owns everything.
Frame is considering the problem of evil, or how God can cause or "allow" evil and still remain holy, just, and righteous. But given the above, so what if God even directly causes evil? What moral law is there that says he must not? Where is it in the Bible? And if found, does it really apply, even if we say that God is "bound" by it?
So my position is not exactly ex lex, but that the greatness and transcendence of God is such that he does not even need to be ex lex.
The passage in question comes from a large section in John Frame's book on the so-called problem of evil. He goes through a number of options but is dissatisfied with each, and must finally conclude that the issue is a "mystery" to some extent. In the same book, Frame includes a response from Jay Adams in which he rebukes Frame for both rejecting the Bible's clear answer on the issue and for wanting more than what the Bible reveals. The problem is not that Clark is unbiblical (whether he is or not), but that Frame rejects the biblical answer.
You can also read my own answer to the problem of evil. Briefly, in addition to what I have stated above, my position is that there is no problem of evil for Christianity. The argument can never be formulated in a way that is logically intelligible. If we pretend to understand the objection, then we can say something about the subject, but there really is no objection to answer at all. The objector never knows what he is asking when he raises the problem of evil, and no one can logically understand him. So the "problem of evil" is defeated on several levels at the same time. Again, you can read my article for further explanation.
Recommended:
Gordon Clark, God and Evil
Gordon Clark, Predestination
Jay Adams, The Grand Demonstration
Vincent Cheung, The Problem of EvilVincent Cheung, Systematic Theology
Vincent Cheung, Commentary on Ephesians
Vincent Cheung, The Author of Sin
Vincent Cheung, Ultimate Questions
Vincent Cheung, Presuppositional Confrontations