The Problem of Evil

-Nate Archer

The Problem

The only good argument that someone could really come up with to PROVE that God DOESN'T exist is the problem of evil.  This argument says that the Christian God can not exist because there are three things that condradict each other.   They can not all be true.  Christians say that:

All three of these can not be true.  If God was all-good He would not want to let evil exist.  If He was all-powerful, He would be able to make sure that evil and pain did NOT exist.  But the fact that there IS pain and evil in the world proves that there is not an all-powerful, all-good God.  Or so they say.

Now, it is impossible to give every reason why God would allow evil into the world.  Even if we could, do we really think that limited and sinful humans like us could truly understand and appreciate all the reasons why God does what He does?  However, I do think there are a lot of things that we should consider that make evil less of a problem.  Here are eight things to consider.  I think that if we are willing to accept some of these statements as true, the problem of evil softens and disappears.

 

1. God does not think like us!

God is above and beyond us.  We should not expect to be able to understand everything that He does.  His is infinite.  We are finite.   He is all-knowing.  We are ignorant of most things.  God has different values that we do.  His values are perfect.  Our values are messed-up because of sin and ignorance. 

Do you really think that YOU know better than God?  We CAN not and SHOULD not think that WE can judge GOD!

 

2. Evil is the result of the fallen world we live in.  The world is fallen because of human sin.

When God created the world, there was no sickness, pain, or death.   "God saw all that He had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31.)   God created the world as good, but WE messed it up.  When our first parents, Adam and Eve rebelled against God and sinned against Him, the innocent world that God created was corrupted by sin.  Human death is the result of sin.   "Therefore just and sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned..." (Romans 5:12.)   Along with death came pain and sickness.  Adam and Eve sinned first and now we ourselves add to the pollution every day.

Suffering and pain is something that humanity has brought on itself.  Sometimes we experience the consequences of our own sins (ex. crashing your car because you were drunk; getting aids because you were sleeping around.)  Many times we experience the consequences of other people's sin (ex. someone steals from your, or someone murders you.)  Many times we experience the consequences of sin in general (ex. cancer, disease, natural disasters.)  The important thing is that we can not blame God for this, but instead can only blame ourselves.

(Satan fell before Adam and Eve, but our world became corrupted when Adam chose to sin.)

 

3. We shouldn't blame God for our bad choices.   We sin because we WANT to sin.

Someone might still say, "But if God is in control, isn't He making people sin.  If He is in control, He is responsible." 

This has to do with "free will."  Most people assume that free will exists and is taught in the Bible.  However, there really is no passage that teaches, "Man has free will."  I do believe that we have free will, but only if you are careful about what you mean by "free will."  I don't believe that we have the type of free will that says that God is not in control of what we do.  The Bible teaches that God knows what we are going to do, and the Bible teaches that God is in sovereign control over EVERYTHING, including what we do (Proverbs 19:21; 21:1.)  BUT... that does not make us robots.  God is in control, but we do the things that we do because we honestly WANT to do them.  We sin WILLINGLY, not because God is using some sort of mind control on us. 

Therefore, God is in control, but we are responsible for our sins because we WANTED to do them.  (Yes, maybe there was a part of us that wanted to NOT sin.  However, when we sin it is because we wanted to sin more than we didn't want to sin.)

 skull.gif (13494 bytes)

4. As sinners, we always get exactly WHAT we deserve or BETTER than we deserve!

This is what made the problem of evil go away completely and for me forever.  It's not something that people can easily accept, but once you accept this, you will never have a logical problem with pain and evil ever again.  Once you accept this, your whole view of life will completely change.

I have come to grips with the fact that I am a sinner.  By nature, I am a rebel against God.  I have rebelled against an INFINITELY HOLY GOD.   Because of that, the only thing I deserve is to go to hell, right now, forever.   If God split open the earth and sent me to hell right now, there is nothing I could say about God being unfair.  Romans 3:10-11 reads, "There is no one righteous, not even one.  There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God."   Romans 3:23 reads, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Romans 6:23 reads, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  When I compare myself against the standard of God's law, I am forced to admit that I am not even close!  Even as a believer in Christ, I still find myself sinning against God.  Surely, if God gave me what I deserve, it wouldn't be heaven, it would be hell.

Now... no matter how bad this life is, it's better than being in hell!   Even if I had to live the rest of my life in a Turkish prison being having broken glass stuck in my eyes every day, it would still be WAY better than being in hell!  If God gives me ANYTHING good, it is only by His GRACE.  Furthermore, even before I was born, God knew that I was going to rebel against Him.  I believe that He could have even sent me to hell as a baby and I still couldn't complain that He is unfair. 

You might think that realizing all of this would only make me depressed and full of "low self-esteem."  No way!  Coming to grips with this CURES me of all depression!  I realize that God doesn't owe me ANYTHING!   Anything He gives me is something to be thankful for.  Being alive and breathing is something to be thankful for.  EVEN MORE, Jesus died in my place so that I can have the promise of eternity in heaven with God who loves me!  To quote an old Newsboys song written by Steve Taylor, "When we don't get what we deserve, it's a real good thing.  When we get what we don't deserve, it's a real good thing."

Any day I'm not in hell is a good day.

 

5. God allows pain and evil because it leads to greater good.

Q. What kind of sick twisted parent would have their frightened baby painfully stabbed with a sharp metal spear?

A. Loving parents who take their baby to the doctor to get shots.

God allows pain and suffering because He uses it for greater good.   We can't know ALL that God's plan entails, but there are a few things we can know.

First, God allows pain and suffering in our lives because it build character.  Suffering makes us into better people.  James 1:2-4 reads, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."   God wants to make us more like Christ.  (Romans 8:29)  No pain.  No gain. 

Second, evil exists to bring glory to God.  Just as a diamond looks brighter with a black backdrop, in the same way the evil of the world brings out the glory of God's holiness and goodness.  The glory of God is not the only reason why God allows evil, but it is an important one.  You might think that this is not a good reason, but remember... you do not think like God.  We are self-centered and think the world should revolve around us.  But if God is GOD, He truly is the most appropriate thing for glory and worship.  He's not being vain.   He's being realistic.  ...And remember, he still humbled himself coming to earth and dying on the cross for you!  (Philippians 2:1-11)  

And further, if John Piper is right and "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" then finding our joy in God's glory is also the ultimate best thing for us as well!

 

6. If evil did not exist, YOU would not exist!

Sometimes we ask, "Why doesn't God just eliminate all evil right now?"  "Why didn't God just make Adam and Eve disappear so they wouldn't sin?" 

But think about this, if God blew away all evil right now, where would you be?  God needs to tolerate evil in order to tolerate YOU AND ME!  Also, think about all the things that had to happen in order to cause YOU (not someone else) to be born?  Maybe, your parents or great-great-great-great  grandparents weren't married when you were conceived.  If God hadn't allowed that sin, you wouldn't be here.  If God hadn't allowed some bloody war in the distant past, the flow of history would have been different and your parents probably would not have been born, much less gotten married.  If "you" had been born as someone else, it wouldn't really be YOU, it would be someone else.

God had to allow THIS EXACT world to exist in order for YOU to exist.  God wants to have a relationship with YOU and there was no other way to make that happen other than letting this exact world exist.

 

7. God suffers with us.  The ultimate example of this is Jesus dying on the cross.

God is not a cold impersonal being.  God is a caring God who hurts with us when we hurt.  Even if a loving father knows there are good reasons for his child to have a painful operation, it still hurts the father to see his child in pain.  

The ultimate example is Jesus Christ dying on the cross.   When Jesus died on the cross, he was experiencing more suffering than anyone.   He was absorbing the wrath of God for everyone that will trust Him as savior.   Sometimes we ask why bad things happen to good people.  That's the wrong question.  There has only ever been one good man. and we nailed Him to a cross.

We don't suffer alone.  God cares for us and enters into our pain with us.  The shortest verse in the English Bible is John 11:35, "Jesus wept."

 

8. God WILL overcome and eliminate evil in the end!

Even though the world is full of pain, evil, and suffering now, it will not always be this way.  In the end, Jesus Christ will utterly triumph over Satan, evil, sickness, and death.  Read the book of Revelation, especially the last four chapters.  It is the prophecy telling how everything will end.  Bottom line: God wins.

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Revelation 21:4.)

 

 

 

go to main page