Let's Talk About the Problem of Evil

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

But according to a lot of people, that can't be true. Because if God really knew about the evil that happens in the world every day, and if he was able to stop it, he would—or he wouldn't be a good God.

Today we're going to talk about a common objection to the Christian faith called the problem of evil.

I'm going to be perfectly honest: this post has been a difficult one to write. Because this problem doesn't really have a satisfying answer. And I'm not some master theologian, I haven't even graduated from high school, so what do I know? People have been trying to solve this problem for hundreds of years. 

But we have to think about the problem of evil. Sooner or later, everyone wonders, "why would God let so much evil happen?" And we don't want to shy away from the hard questions.

So let's talk about it. 

 

Evil exists.

This, at least, is something that nobody argues about.

Millions of lives were lost in the short half-decade of 1939–1945. 6 million Jews suffered horrible deaths in Nazi concentration camps. Countless "undesirables" other than Jews were brutalized as well, and no one truly knows the extent of the atrocities committed in the war.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, over 12 million Africans were taken from their homeland and brought to the New World to be enslaved. Conditions were awful. They were treated as sub-human, beaten, and worked to death—the average lifespan of a slave in the Caribbean was only two years. Half of all enslaved infants died before their first birthday. 

But you don't have to look back into history to see examples of evil in the world. No matter where you live, there is death. Cancer, heart disease, car accidents, murder, or depression and suicide—these steal the lives of people we know and love. Someone dies every second. 

If God is sovereign, then why is there so much pain? 

Every Christian has to come to grips with this. Sin is a reality. And the effects of sin are heartrendingly far-reaching. 

Wouldn't it glorify God better if all the pain and suffering never had to happen?

 

God is just.

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." (Romans 3:10–11)

You and I are not righteous.

This is a difficult truth to swallow. We tend to consider ourselves "good people"—we're not murderers, and sure, we lie on occasion, and we disrespect our parents, and we're selfish, but we could be so much worse! Surely we don't deserve to die.

Nope. We definitely do.

We have no excuse for our sin. We were created to glorify God, and each and every one of us has failed in that goal. We have rebelled against the will of our creator.

The more you see of your sin, the more you will realize that you do, in fact, deserve to die.
God is just. Any evil we experience is just. If we were only happy for one second of our entire lives, that would be a mercy far beyond what we deserve. 

God also loves us, and that's why he sent Jesus to take our punishment on himself. And that should cause us to worship him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

 

The light shines in the darkness.

Another reason God allows evil is that it works for his glory.

If we except that God is sovereign, it stands to reason that he's in control of everything that goes on in this world. 

The Bible supports this, and God's sovereign control is shown in passages like Isaiah 14:24–27, where God pronounces judgement on the nation of Assyria. "For the Lord of hosts has purposed," Isaiah declares, "and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?'

God's sovereign plan is, ultimately, to glorify himself. This isn't out of arrogance or selfishness—he deserves far more than all the praise and glory we can give him. He is God.

Evil is part of his sovereign plan. It's sometimes hard to understand why, but perhaps we can get close by considering the interaction of light and darkness.

Light and darkness are funny things. If your eyes are used to a dark room, then even a tiny light (like an alarm clock, for instance) shines out brightly. But if you've just been outside in the blazing sunlight, the same exact light is barely visible.

In the same way, the light and darkness of the world bring a sharp contrast to each other.

The imperfection we see now highlights the perfection of God. The suffering we experience now leads us to long for a perfect heaven that we know will someday come. The depths of the sin into which we often fall only show us the magnitude of God's mercy—because who would give such grace to someone so undeserving?

Without evil, the story of the Gospel would be less sweet.

 

Some things remain mysteries.

At some point, all these explanations fail.

We can't explain everything. No easy answer or platitude will satisfy everyone, and some things are too difficult for us to comprehend.

Isaiah 55:8–9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

We shouldn't expect to be able to understand everything God is doing. He knows better than we do—he's our Lord—and some things will always remain a mystery.

And that's okay.

We don't have to know everything. We don't have to have all the answers.

We can have faith that God is good, because all the evidence points to that. He's never left us before.

And someday, in the words of Revelation 21:4, "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."