Why Evil?

Questions about God and Evil

What is evil? How can we define and or explain evil?

This is impossible to do without the existence of God, or more specifically, the God of the Bible.

God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, a God of justice who describes Himself in many different ways… Including: God is Good and God is Love.

So the questions come up: If God exist, why does evil exist? He could stop it. Could He have not made a world without evil? Doesn’t this seem to contradict the God of the Bible?

Where is God when people are hurting? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why did God allow Hitler to exist?

But the existence of evil is not an issue or a question that the Christian must answer… The issue of evil must be answered by all worldviews.

*Here is a grid to use when forming a world-view. Every worldview must answer the questions of:

Origin (Where did all of this and all of us come from)

Meaning (What is the purpose of it all)

Morality (What is good and evil; what is right or wrong)

Destiny (Where is all of this going in the end)

*What is evil? It is the absence of good.

*What is good? Genesis 1-2 - God made everything in the beginning “good.” Sin came in and made everything “not good.” And the Scriptures teach us that “no one is good but God.” (Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19; Romans 3:23; Romans 8)

Everyone may have a standard for good… but where does that standard come from? Do we need an absolute standard?

Is it wrong to kill, steal, rape, abuse babies…? How do we know that is wrong? There is a moral law and code that is on the inside of us that testifies to the universal law that is on the inside of us.

The question is: Where does this come from?

If we can agree that there is a moral law, a standard for good, we must agree that there is a moral law Giver… Who has given us this law that we agree with.

James 4:11-12 - There is only One lawgiver and One Judge… And HE will judge us all one day… By what standards? His.

Are His standards good? Yes. Why? Because God is Good. Mark 10:18 - Only God is Good.

So if God alone is Good… God is the standard or makes the standards by which we look to and find what is good and what is right.

Once we have that point of reference… We now know what is wrong and evil.

What is that?

Anything that does not conform to the image of God is wrong and evil. Anything or anyone that does not imitate God, that does not conform to His character, nature, or will… Is wrong, bad, and or is evil.

Evil can only exist in something as a corruption of what ought to be there.

Origins: In the beginning, God created everything “good.” Sin, disobedience to God, made everything “not good.” But our Good God was and is merciful and gracious to mankind...

Meaning - God created all for His glory, for His pleasure and purposes, to reveal Himself and to show Himself off to His creation, to us.

Now, our first thoughts of evil are: If evil is pointless to me, then it must be pointless.

Now, remember: If evil exists, good exists… If good exists, God exists, because only God is Good, and without God there is no point of reference to what “good” is.

But does evil have another point? Does evil have meaning?

Does darkness have meaning, value, and purpose? Yes!

Night time maintains Circadian rhythms. What are these? They are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle.

Night time, darkness, helps us. It helps us sleep, recover. Trees grow almost all at night. It helps the environment.

Darkness is useful.

Now: I used the words “merciful” and “gracious” earlier and you didn’t even bat an eye about that truth claim about God. But the question to ponder is this: How can I know that God is merciful and gracious unless God is in a position to show off His mercy, love, and grace to His human creatures?

We have to do something wrong in order to experience God’s Mercy and Grace. We must be in need of mercy and grace in order to know and experience God as He is.

When do you show mercy and grace? When you experience evil, something bad, or wrong. How could we show mercy, grace and love without God as our reference? Instead of giving what mankind deserved… He gave mercy and grace...

When mankind did what? When mankind did evil. What is evil? The absence of good. What is good? The reflection of God and obedience to His will.

3. Morality - What is right and what is wrong? God is right. God is Good. His Word, His ways, His character and design is good. Anything outside of Him, His ways, His Words, and design is evil. Turning to Him, is to turn to Good and to do the right thing. Turning away from Him is to turn to evil and do the wrong thing.

Who does what is right and good all the time? Who thinks right and has right and good intentions and motivations all the time? Answer: No One but God.

Who is evil and who does evil? All of us.

Why does evil exist? Because people do not imitate or obey God.

Why doesn’t God eliminate evil? Because He would have to eliminate everybody on the face of the planet...

But what does God do instead?

He shows Himself off to us.

He comes to us. Dies for us. Calls us to believe and to follow Him, and imitate Him as we live out our lives...

And as we do so… We show off God’s goodness and restrain evil in this world, showing mercy, grace and kindness...

And we can only show this, live this way… when there is evil present.

Is there a purpose for bad things? Is there a purpose for evil?

Yes.

But one day...

4. Destiny: Jesus will come back and evil will be completely destroyed… And for those who have received God’s grace and mercy… They will have heaven...

For those who live and love the evil… They will be where they want to be… away from God… Away from His goodness forever in hell.

Origins. Meaning. Morality and Destiny.

God is Good.

Evil is not Good. It is not of God.

Evil exists because agents refuse to come to God and refuse to imitate God, obey God, conforming to His will.

Is there purpose in evil and suffering?

Remember John 3:16 - This is the extreme picture:

God the Son dies, is killed on a Cross. Evil.

What He does on the Cross: Good.

God allows evil for a time and reveals Himself through it. God calls you to never imitate it, but to come to Him and imitate the Goodness of God.

The greatest enemy of evil is goodness and love.