Why Does God Allow Evil?
Notes
Transcript
Christian apologist Francis Beckwith once said that “the presence of evil is the single biggest obstacle for people when it comes to believing in Christ Jesus.”
And if we are all honest, that makes sense. When we open the pages of the Bible and we read of this God; this Jesus; this Holy Spirit; who are full of love, mercy, grace, and power; and we cast that against a world full of evil; pain; hatred; and strife it can seem like both cannot be true. Eventually all of us as Christians have to wrestle with this very thing; because evil is not just something out there; but evil is something that attacks us; it comes after us; it is not merely an idea anymore- it is personal and real.
Sure, we turn on our TV and see school shootings; rape; murder; and the like- those are easy to name as evil. But gossip, slander; greed; cancer; diabetes; those are all evil too. There is the evil that is manmade- like nuclear bombs, meth; and pornography; but there is evil that is unexplainable at some level- like medical emergencies; natural disasters; and the like.
Eventually, we must turn to the Bible for some answers to some tough questions about evil; and that is what we are going to do today. Let’s look at how the Bible answers these 3 questions:
Did God create evil?
Why doesn’t God stop evil?
Why does God not destroy evil?
Did God create evil? Throughout the creation story; the very story Aiden and Elijah recalled for us a few weeks ago; we read that God created all things and called them “good” and called man “very good.” However, by Genesis 6 we read that “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” So what happened? Did God make a mistake? What changed? Where did this evil come from?
Remember that tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? God wanted to give his creation freedom- a choice to love and be in fellowship with him. But in order to have freedom, mankind had to have an option, and that option first came in the form of a tree. When God placed the tree in the garden and placed man in the same garden evil was possible. However, it was the actions of Adam and Eve that made evil reality.
We must also keep in mind that evil is not a thing; evil is the absence of good. I once heard someone explain it like a hole in a piece of wood. Evil is an imperfection, the lack of goodness in something- like a whole in a piece of wood; the hole in and of itself is not a thing; it is the absence of what is supposed to be there- wood. This is also why evil situations can lead to good- because if we add goodness or we add God into an evil situation we are working to bring back what is missing.
Why doesn’t God stop evil? To be 100% honest with you all; this is the question about evil I wonder the most. This is the one that has the potential to keep me up all night tossing and turning. Can’t God cause the engine of the car of the drunk driver to not start before they take to the road and kill someone? Couldn’t God miraculously jam the handgun that is about to be used to commit murder? Sure, he could; but if he did it would cause a shift in the entire fabric of our world and our relationship with God.
If I told you that Jessica and I took wedding vows 17 years ago and we live those out everyday in care for one another; choosing each day to not do things to harm one another we would call that love- right? If I told you that I keep Jessica locked in our house with the doors chained shut with no ability to get out thus removing any possibility of her doing anything to leave me- we would call that abuse or slavery.
Love is based in the idea that it is a relationship that 2 people choose to participate in. Thus, no free will- no love.
God did not desire slaves; nor robots; nor pawns in his great cosmic game- God’s desire is a creation to love and be in relationship with.
James reminds us that many times the evil in our lives is not a result of God; but a result of our choices and decisions. Listen to James 1:14-15 “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Many times we ask ourselves “why did God allow this?” when what we need to ask is “Why did I allow this?” While this question does not settle the problem of natural disaster, mass murder; or senseless violence; it can begin to allow us to grapple with the evil in our lives we ourselves create.
It calls us back to the call of Moses to the Israelites in Deut 30:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.
In order to have God in our lives; in order to enter relationship with him we must choose. We must take hold of the things of God. He made his choice on the cross; now it is our responsibility to make our choice.
Also, we must also remember that the evil we see is the evil that God could not or did not prevent; we will never know the amount of evil that God HAS intervened in. I once heard a pastor share that he was willing to bet that God had saved his life or his livelihood more times than he really cared to know; but he did not know and thus he could sleep in peace. Think of all the hurricanes that have never reached the coast; the amount of people who have beaten cancer; the amount of lives miraculously saved from freak accidents. We cannot blame God for evil and at the same time not credit him for the good.
Why Doesn’t God Destroy Evil? Many have tried to disprove God with this kind of argument:
If God is all-good; he would destroy evil.
If God is all-powerful; he could destroy evil.
But evil is not destroyed; thus there is no God.
Seems like a rational argument; maybe even valid in some minds; until we stop and think that there is one important word missing from this argument- YET. Just because evil is not destroyed yet does not mean it will not be defeated one day. In fact, we should alter the argument to this declaration of truth-
Since God is all-good; he will destroy evil.
Since God is all-powerful; he can destroy evil
Evil is not yet destroyed; but God can, and will, destroy it one day.
Let’s be clear- Jesus has defeated death and evil. In his Resurrection he walked from the tomb in triumph over the powers of evil and death. Colossians 2 says it this way:
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Jesus has already won the war against sin and evil; now we are waiting until that victory is fully here.
In Revelation 21:3-4 we are told “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This is the promise- that there is a place and a time coming when there is no evil; no pain; no sin- but for now we live in the world in between Colossians 2 and Rev 21.
As believers we cannot ignore evil, but we can confront it. Remember, evils is the absence of good. There are many times when we can literally carry good- carry God into dark situations. We may not be able to destroy evil; or prevent evil; but we can bring the presence of God alongside it.
Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
