The Problem of Evil

;

We have a problem. This world has evil in it!

Joanne told me other week about a person she has known her whole life who has done wrong thing after wrong thing and taken advantage of everyone around her, including her own family, and seems to be getting away with it. Why does God let that happen? Well, that question didn’t originate with Joanne. Eve probably asked that question when Able died.

As a matter of fact, the Psalmist in says, "have I kept myself pure for no reason? Is there any benefit in keeping myself pure? Surely God is good to the pure, but I look around me and it looks like everyone who is doing evil is living healthy, happy lives, and getting away with murder!"

As a matter of fact, the Psalmist in says, "have I kept myself pure for no reason? Is there any benefit in keeping myself pure? Surely God is good to the pure, but I look around me and it looks like everyone who is doing evil is living healthy, happy lives, and getting away with murder!"

Speaking of murder, we just had the crazy shooting in Las Vegas this week. Terrible. And you listen to the news, and how many times do you hear the word “evil” associated with what happened. This was a terrible act of evil.

We have been looking at the Apostles Creed for what we can gather about the basics of our faith. Evil isn’t explicitly stated in the Creed, but it is inferred. Let’s take a look, hymn 8 in the hymnal.

Look, here is says that Christ suffered! Why did he suffer? Everything looks nice until we get there. So then we realize that something is going on behind the basic outline of our faith that we are reading in the creed.

But we might ask the question, when we read, that if God created all things, did he create evil too? And that just opens up a whole series of questions and conclusions that humans have been asking since the first generation was on the earth.

Peter Kreeft and Ronold Tacelli in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics  helps us outline the various thoughts we might have, and their logical responses. Let’s hear what they have to say.

“There seems to be a logical contradiction built in to affirming all four of the following propositions:

(1) God exists.

(2) God is all-good.

(3) God is all-powerful.

(4) Evil exists.

Affirm any three and you must deny the fourth, it seems.

If God exists, wills all-good, and is powerful enough to get everything he wills, then there would be no evil.

If God exists and wills only good, but evil exists, then God does not get what he wills. Thus he is not all-powerful.

If God exists and is all-powerful and evil exists too, then God wills evil to exist. Thus he is not all-good.

Finally, if “God” means “a being who is both all-good and all-powerful,” and nevertheless evil exists, then such a God does not exist.”1

Atheism, Pantheism Idealism, etc. as responses to each of these.

or like Jim Carrey is saying these days:

“Give up! Surrender to the idea that things are bad and yet still, from 3,000 feet up, we don’t matter,” he continued. “Things are happening and we’re going to happen along with them whether we like it or not. But we don’t matter. … Once you lose yourself, you’re pretty okay. Just get you out of the way.”

So, is God bad because he allows evil? Or does he not care? Do we matter? Should we even care? Should we just give up, have no hope?

I think we should care, and I think there are good reasons for why we see evil in the world today.

Let's start with one reason: sin. Gina read for us in how it all started. 

Humans were presented with a different way of thinking, one that went against what God had provided, and by following that train of thought, set us off on a downward spiral.

The universe was built on principles of trust. If we stop trusting God, then things start falling apart. So that is how sin got introduced, and it got really bad really quick. In chapter 4, brother murders brother. It can't get much worse than that. So much of the suffering that we face in this world is really because of sin. Now, could God have kept us from sinning? I suppose, but free will isn't free will if we can't exercise it. Or, as Kreeft puts it, "the alternative to free will is not being a human being, but an animal or a machine."

We are humans, however, not animals or machines, and Adam and Eve chose to sin, and now we choose to sin right in line with them. And there are two ways that sin brings suffering in our lives. Maybe three.

The first is the easiest: Sin brings suffering in our lives through direct consequence of our sin. We reap the consequences of our sin. We may be sick as a direct result of our sin. We may be punished as a direct result of our sin, and all these things bring pain and suffering. However, that isn't the only reason we suffer. If we think that is the case, then we become like Job's friends, who kept telling him, you must have done something wrong to deserve this. But sometimes we don't. Sometimes we suffer as a result of someone else's sin, like all the families who lost loved ones in Las Vegas, or who lost their lives there. But sometimes we also suffer because of the system of sin. For example, it would seem that climate change is causing all these big storms. And, depending on how you look at it, climate change, global warming, is happening because of humans. Burning fossil fuels, etc., is causing the world to heat up, which in turn is causing the storms. Now burning fossil fuels isn't necessarily bad, but when you do too much of it, that is bad. And why do we do it? We need to get from here to there, so we drive, or fly, or take the train, and burn fuel in the process. We heat our homes, and burn fuel. Not saying this is bad, necessarily, but we start to think about why we are doing what we are doing, and often it is just to "get ahead," or for our pleasure, or so that we can be comfortable. And as soon as we realize that it isn't good for the environment and may have consequences we aren't aware of, then we don't just stop doing it or find an alternative, but we keep on doing it and do more of it, and just shrug our shoulders because our comfort is more important than working with the planet God gave us to come up with healthy ways to get from here to there, or heat our houses, or whatever we are doing. And we reap the consequences later with big storms and floods and all that, and it can be really all traced back to our sin. 

So what's our response, besides just figuring out that sin is really the root cause of it all. Well, for those who around us who are just sinning like crazy and don't seem to be reaping any immediate consequences, the Psalmist tells us in that he only figured out what was going on when he went to church one day and was in the presence of God, and God gave him a revelation that was beyond what we see in the world. He realized that the person who sins like crazy and doesn't follow God will get what is coming to them. Basically, they will receive their just reward. 

And Jesus came to deliver us. He healed many, delivered them from suffering. Others he didn't. That still happens. We don't know why, but we must pray with authority over sickness and disease, and trust that God has the big picture in mind that we can't see. So whether someone lives or dies, that is beyond us. But we must believe and trust through it all, and set our eyes on what is to come in the next life. 

Let's read in . I pick these verses because these verses really parallel the temptation that Adam and Eve faced in the garden. Let's read:

1 John 2:15–19 NIV

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

You can see here a parallel exactly to what the serpent told Eve. And these are the building blocks of sin, right here, and suffering and death is the result. But let's read farther... and the one who does the will of God will live forever. That is the answer we see in , too. The one who trusts in God isn't living for this life!

You can see here a parallel exactly to what the serpent told Eve. And these are the building blocks of sin, right here, and suffering and death is the result. But let's read farther... and the one who does the will of God will live forever. That is the answer we see in , too. The one who trusts in God isn't living for this life!

Consider it pure joy, when you face trials of many kinds,

James 1:2–4 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Tough to follow because the pain of the suffering we experience in this world can be overwhelming. 

Tough to follow because the pain of the suffering we experience in this world can be overwhelming. We can find some comfort in

Psalm 37:1–6 NIV

Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

Proverbs

Commit your way to the Lord and he will make your paths straight

Proverbs 3:6 NIV

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5–6 NIV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

So let's summarize what we have just said:

So let's summarize what we have just said:

So let's summarize what we have just said:

So let's summarize what we have just said:

God is all-powerful, all-good, and all-knowing

He allowed sin to come into the world because he created us as beings with a free will

All evil is a result of sin, and we reap the consequences

However, we should not be quick to judge others, because it is complicated.

In other words, we don't know if so-and-so is really reaping the results of their sin, but they may be!

Not everyone will get the consequences for their sins right away, but they will come unless they turn to God, confess, and repent

Also, don't be quick to just assume that if something bad happens to you, it is a direct result of your sin. It may be, but we won't know unless God tells us so, or there is a really clear corollary  

Finally, remember that as bad as the suffering that comes from evil can be, God can make something good come out of it. So, just know that whatever you face, if you face it with trust in God, God will help turn it into something positive. That is his promise through Christ. He will bring life out of death.

-------------------------

1 Kreeft, P., & Tacelli, R. K. (1994). Handbook of Christian apologetics: hundreds of answers to crucial questions (pp. 128–129). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.