Psalm 135
Is God responsible for human evil
Over the last few weeks we have been looking at providence and what that means to us today.
We saw in the first lesson that providence means that God sees everything, past, present and future, and He sees what causal effect every single action or event will have in the world, and that He is not only a spectator but rather that He is the author of history.
Secondly we saw that God is the primary cause of everything that exists, but also of everything that happens in this universe, and that everything thing that is, and that everything that happens can only be, or happen with His divine permission.
Last week we had a look at the whole question of chance, and as we saw, there is no chance that something can happen by chance. Chance is no thing, it is nothing, and it has no authority, no power, and no influence on anything that happens. It is rather God who ordains everything that happens according to His own free and sovereign will.
Let me begin with a little story some of you might be familiar with. On February 12, 1938 two men were having a private meeting in a mountain retreat. In the course of their conversation one of the men said to the other one: “I have a historic mission to fulfil, and that mission shall be fulfilled because providence has destined it to be so”. He went on to say that anybody who was not with him on his mission would be crushed. Some of you know who that was? It was Adolf Hitler.
Now you may be wondering why I’m telling you about Adolf Hitler this morning. Well, quite simply, whenever you have a serious discussion about human depravity, and human wickedness, then somewhere along the line the name Hitler will emerge as one of the most wicked men to have walked the planet. You can probably add a few names to the list, such as Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Nero.
Now, with all of this that we have said, that God allows, ordains or causes everything that happens to happen, what about the reality of human wickedness. Does that mean that God is responsible for human wickedness; does it mean that God sometimes causes people to sin so that His sovereign and eternal plan can come to fruition? Was Hitler right? Was he ordained to kill 6 million Jews? What about Adam and Eve, were they doomed from the moment that God created them, to sin, because remember that the Messiah, Jesus Christ was part of Gods plan before He even created Adam and Eve?
Obviously these are very difficult questions, and I can tell you right now that I don’t have all the answers, but we are going to spend some time considering these questions, and hopefully we will leave here with peace in our hearts and minds with the fact that God is good, that He is holy, that He is perfect, that He is sovereign, that He is omnipotent, that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and that His decree, His will is far above that of humans, and also settled in the fact that He is not answerable to any human being despite what we sometimes might think.
Before we get to some answers this morning, I need to share with you what seems to be the common belief in society, and in Christian circles, and in Christian churches today. People all over are telling us that God is good, that He is loving, that He is kind, that He is forgiving, that He only wants the best for His children, that in Him is no darkness, and therefore anything and everything that is bad is contrary to the will of God, but that He then rearranges His plan so that those things which are contrary to His will can be ultimately used to bring about the good of those that love Him.
This is the modern teaching, this is the popular teaching, and while they have a part of the truth, they are also terribly mistaken. You see, God is good, God is loving, God is kind. What we can never forget is that God is also.. just and He is also... righteous, but for the purposes of this discussion the vital thing that we cannot forget, cannot deny, and in fact cannot even debate because it is a fundamental aspect of our belief in who and what God is, is the fact that God is also sovereign, and He is omnipotent!
As we’ve seen in the past few weeks, this means that there cannot be anything that frustrates His will, or that is contrary to His will! (That is a non-negotiable truth about our God! Take that away and you might as well serve Allah or Buddha or some other idol)
So the question then comes back to what I mentioned a bit earlier: how is Divine providence related to the whole question of evil, and the existence of evil?
Last week I quoted from the Westminster Confession, from the 3rd chapter, and I said that God has freely and unchangeably or immutably ordained whatsoever shall come to pass.
Now, does that mean then that God ordained Hitler, or that God ordained Stalin or Adams fall, or maybe a more modern name, does that mean that God ordained Osama bin Laden?
Is evil then something that is ordained in the providence of God? You see if God ordains everything that comes to pass, then is should logically follow that He also ordains evil?
Now we need to ask the question, are we going to stick to our guns when it comes to evil? Are we going to say that God ordains evil, and that He allows it to run rampant in His creation? Some might even take the question a bit further and ask if God ever does evil?
I’m going to answer these questions, and then we are going to discuss my answers. Firstly let me answer the simple question – Does God ever do Evil?
There is only one biblical answer to this question and that is absolutely.....NO! God never does evil! (He is immutably/ unchangeably holy and righteous and can NEVER perform an act of evil or sin)
As for the second question, bearing in mind what we have said about God ordaining everything that comes to pass, and considering then that some of the things which come to pass are evil, the question is: does God ordain evil?
Only one biblical answer to that, and that answer is absolutely.....YES. If God did not ordain evil, there would be no evil, because God is sovereign.
Ok, now before you think I’ve lost it all together, let me explain this to you, and we start at the beginning.
If we have a look at the character of God, Scripture is very clear that God does not change, He can never change, He will never change. His very essence, His nature is absolutely pure and holy and free from any form of malice or sin. That will never change.
Man on the other hand wasn’t created in the same way, because man was created with the potential to sin and do evil. Man was created with the ability to desert the initial goodness and purity we were made with, and to follow evil and commit sin. God made us that way – I don’t know why, I can speculate, but for now the reason is not as important as the fact.
Let me put it another way, when God created us, he created us with the capacity to do evil. Now here is where you need to understand the word ‘ordained’ very clearly. I have said that God ordained sin. I never said that God forced sin, He never encouraged it, He never wished for it, and He most certainly never implemented it!
But He knows that we are going to sin, He knew that Adam and Eve would listen to the serpent and depart from His commandments, He knew that sin was going to enter His creation, so basically if we think about it, God had one of three options back then. First, He could have destroyed the serpent, second He could have destroyed Adam and Eve and started over, or third, He could let things continue. For some reason He decided to let it happen...he chooses not to stop it....why...I don’t know.
Ok, let me quickly give you the origin of sin and evil. Evil is derived from the very nature and essence of man. Let me explain it this way. When God created Adam and Eve He created them with something we don’t have anymore...He created them with a free will in which they could choose to not sin, or they could choose to sin. (More on that next week).
The moment they decided to be disobedient to God and to eat of the tree of knowledge, sin and evil became a reality in this world. So, the blame for sin rests squarely on the shoulders of us as human beings, however... God is still ordained it, for two reasons – first because it was God who made it possible for Adam and Eve to sin. If God never made it a distinct possibility, if God never allowed it, Eve would never be tempted and Adam would never have succumbed to the following temptation, and second by allowing sin and evil to happen.
We all know, beyond any doubt whatsoever that God could have stopped it right there in the garden of Eden, we all know that, but He chose not to. (If you think I’m wrong, let me ask you one question – is God going to allow evil to continue forever? Of course not – a day is coming when He will cast Satan, and the demons and all the unforgiven sinners into the lake of fire – a day is coming when God will banish sin – that means that for now – He is allowing sin and evil to continue!)
So, let me make my first of two points for today: 1. God is sovereign over sin and evil
If God controls all things, if He ordains whatsoever shall come to pass, if He is the primary cause of everything that exists and happens in His creation, if there is no chance or coincidence or bad luck, then it must be that the control over evil, and the allowance of evil is a part of His plan. There are also many specific Scriptures which make it clear that God controls evil.
(Please note: I am NOT saying that God causes us to do evil, or that He tempts us to do evil or encourages us to do evil or coerces us, or even opens the door for us to do evil. I need to be really clear on this point – God allows us to do evil. That is clear in the verses we are going to read together as well as in Romans 1:28 where Paul says the God “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” )
Psalm 105:25, speaking of the Exodus, says of the Egyptians that God "turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants."
Isaiah 63:17 After a time of unfaithfulness, Israel asked God, "O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?”
Lamentations 3:37-38 is a direct statement that God decrees not only good things, but also bad things: "Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?"
Isaiah 45:7 God says that He is "the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these".
Think of Job for a moment when considering this topic. When all of Job's children were killed, he acknowledged the sovereign control of God behind the evil situation. Job did not say that "The Lord gave, and Satan took away." He said "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). "Through all his Job did not sin nor did he blame God" (v. 24). At the end of the book we once again see the author's agreement with Job. When describing Job's restoration, he says that Job's friends came and "consoled him and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought on him" (Job 42:11).
What I like about the book of Job is that it makes it very clear, that God's control over evil does not deny the activity of Satan and the reality of wickedness in human hearts. Further, God never does evil and cannot be blamed for evil. However, God has not left the sources of evil to simply do as they please. He has them on a leash and they can only act if God specifically decides to allow it. Since the evil that Satan causes is only by the specific permission of God, then it is correct for Job to ultimately attribute his suffering to God's plan.
The evil spirit that tormented Saul was said to be "from the Lord" (1 Samuel 16:14). In punishment for David's sin, "The Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, so that it was very sick" (2 Samuel 12:15-18). If natural or man-made disaster occurs, it is ultimately because God had ordained it, for Amos 3:6 asks rhetorically, "Does evil befall in a city, unless the Lord has done it?" Physical infirmity and disease are not outside of God's ordination either: "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" (Exodus 4:11). As Donald Barnhouse has said, "No person in this world was ever blind that God had not ordained for him to be blind; no person was ever deaf in this world that God had not ordained for him to be deaf--If you do not believe that, you have a strange God who has a universe which has gone out of gear and He cannot control it."
Perhaps the clearest example that God ordains sin is the crucifixion of Christ. (Remember also that this was ordained before God even created the universe) It was sin for the Jews and Romans to crucify Christ, for He was the innocent Son of God. Yet, what Christian would deny that the crucifixion of Christ was brought about by God? Scripture is clear that "It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" (Isaiah 53:10). Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was "delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God" even though it was "by the hands of godless men" that He was put to death. The acts of Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Jews and Gentiles, in crucifying Christ were sin. Yet Scripture says that "Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel [did] whatever Thy hand and Thy plan predestined to take place" (Acts 4:28). John Piper has said it well: "People lift their hand to rebel against the Most High only to find that their rebellion is unwitting service in the wonderful designs of God."
2. The holiness and goodness of God
The sovereignty of God over evil raises many questions for us. First, how can a holy, good God ordain sin? Very simply, God never coerces or tempts any human being to sin. Yes God gave them the capacity to sin, but if you recall it was the devil that tempted Adam and Eve, and it was Adam and Eve who were completely and utterly responsible for their own choices – remember I said that they had something unique – they had the free will to choose to sin, or to choose not to sin, They had the capacity to say no to Satan and yes to God, yet they used their freedom to choose evil.
Gods’ goodness, His holiness is never brought into disrepute due to His sovereignty, there is no duality in God, there is no dark side to God. He is altogether good and altogether holy, and what He has done, is He has used sinfulness, He has used hardhearted people to fulfil His eternal decree and plan.
What I find liberating and wonderful is the fact that God is still in control, despite the fact that we rebelled against Him, despite the fact that we chose evil over Him, that we chose all the filth the world has to offer over Him: despite all this – He is still in complete control, and yes, even of the evil that is in the world.
Think again of Joseph and his story: It was sin for Joseph's brothers to throw him in the well and then sell him into slavery. But many years later when Joseph finally encountered his brothers again, he said "And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life...Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God" (Genesis 50:5, 8). "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about his present result, to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20). This is a necessary truth in order to properly understand God's Providence. When God ordains bad things to occur, it is not because He delights in suffering and evil in itself, but it is because He is working all things together for the good of those that love Him.
Thus, God's control over all things is good news, not bad news. God's Providence is not random, but is directing all things toward a goal--His greatest glory and His children's greatest good. Thus, God's Providence is something we can trust and rejoice in. It is good that we are not in control of history, for surely God knows better than we do!
When God ordains something, He always ordains it for the ultimate good...that includes evil, and in Gods eternal plan, evil plays a role that is ordained by God.
Dear friend. Thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. If you would be so kind as to take another minute and comment, your thoughts, your agreements and even your disagreements. As a pastor I need these to continue growing and to enable me to serve the Lord more effectively.
Your friend
Pastor Ian
