Abstract

NEL, Marius. Pentecostal hermeneutical models and the challenges posed by theodicy. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2025, vol.65, n.2, pp.693-709. ISSN 2224-7912.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2025/v65n2a7.

Theodicy refers to the challenge that difficult circumstances and suffering pose to people who believe in a God who is just, almighty, loving and good. How can belief in the existence of God, who can do anything and loves people, be reconciled with evil that causes people to suffer? Reflection on the Bible, determined by a specific hermeneutic angle, is a prologue to reflection on the challenges theodicy poses. This article examines the dilemma that theodicy poses to a Pentecostal hermeneutic, which traditionally subscribed to the teaching that divine healing continues in continuity with Jesus, the apostles, and early church practice. It also subscribed to prosperity theology, which teaches that prosperity is the inheritance of all believers. How do Pentecostals respond when believers are not healed after prayer or remain poor and unsuccessful? How do they tackle the challenges of theodicy questions if God promises that salvation includes deliverance from all struggles and suffering, but it does not materialise? When their theology is not realised in practice, they often attribute such suffering to God's retributive justice in response to human sin, to testing and discipline necessary for forming and developing believers ' character, or the result of a lack of faith, which places the blame on the shoulders of the believer. As a result, many believers struggle with guilt in addition to their suffering. This article offers an alternative based on the design of a hermeneutic that connects to early Pentecostal hermeneutics. The alternative hermeneutic concludes that believers cannot justify or explain what God does because God and the divine ways fall outside their frame of reference and will always remain a mystery as long as they are limited to the earthly dimension. The most that believers can do when they attempt to talk about God is to worship God as Creator and choose to selflessly and sacrificially become involved with the suffering of others. Believers are not called to gather information about God but to meet God through the Spirit, which necessarily leads to worship. The role of Christians is not to satisfactorily answer the challenges that theodicy poses to human logic, but to live out their vocation by reaching the lost world with God's love through tangible acts of love that help alleviate sufferers ' plight. Their primary response to evil, suffering and human sin is not to explain or justify the mysterious divine actions but to help bring about the kingdom through their acts of compassion for the needy and helpless. Instead of theorising about evil, Christians can spend their time wisely and add meaning to their lives by combating the roots of evil as far as they can do so effectively. Pentecostalist hermeneutics also offers the possibility that the Spirit can utilise Scripture to answer why a specific person suffers or bring an insight into the person's mind that comforts and encourages. It may also happen that the Spirit offers no answer. The theodicy remains an open question, and to survive with the open question of the theodicy means that believers are willing to suspend judgments until the dawn of the expected eschatological future. They keep themselves busy with realising the new age (kingdom) in the present reality; while praying for the new world to arrive, they spend all their energy to realise it in their world. Lastly, the puzzle of theodicy remains unsolved until the missing variables are inserted; this will only happen with the completion of the present world and the establishment of the new earth and heaven.

Keywords : Theodicy; hermeneutics; Pentecostalism; righteousness of God; omnipotence of God; God as love; suffering of innocents; evil; roots of evil; experientially.

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