Answering Our Culture
#8 – “If God is So Good, Why Is There So Much Evil?”
Various Scriptures
September 22, 2002
NOTE: I am greatly indebted to the books, "The Case for Faith," by Lee Strobel, and "True for You, But Not for Me," by Paul Copan.
Introduction
There is no question that evil exists and that it is rampant. Anyone who would deny that is either living alone in a cave somewhere or delusional.
And yet Christians would say that God is good, and all-powerful. So why doesn’t God do something about it?
Could it be that God really is not all that good after all? Or maybe it’s a case of God not being all-powerful, as much as we would like to believe He is.
Maybe we would have to agree with Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, when he says that God isn’t all-powerful after all – that He would like to help, but He isn’t capable of solving all the problems in the world. “Even God has a hard time keeping chaos in check.” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith).
So what’s the answer? Is God capable of destroying evil? Is so, then why doesn’t He do it?
Why should I believe in a God who allows children to be molested and murdered, and allows bloody warfare in His name?
Why are innocent people made to suffer? Why is there famine and drought, where families and young children die when all they needed was some rain?
Why does God allow terrorists to strap bombs to themselves and take out innocent civilians, or to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings, killing thousands at a time?
Why does He allow this?
These are tough questions. And I don’t pretend to be able to understand everything, so I will try to give some answers that I hope will give us a start on unraveling this deep mystery.
The first thing I would suggest in understanding why there is evil in the world is to…
I. Realize that God is all-powerful and perfectly good.
There is a line of logic that goes something like this:
An all-powerful God could destroy evil.
A good God would destroy evil.
Evil is not destroyed.
Therefore, there cannot possibly be such a good and powerful God.
On the surface, this sounds logical, until we realize that the standard being used to measure the ability and will of God is faulty. We are hardly objective in measuring such things, and just about everybody has an opinion about them.
Why is this so important to realize? Because in the midst of suffering and tragedy, we can forget it.
We get so focused on the horror of what is happening that we begin to wonder if God really cares at all.
So why doesn’t God destroy evil? Could it be that He is not really a good God?
Listen to Psalm 34:8 –
PS 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Many other verses tell of the goodness of God. In fact, the whole Bible is an outline of God’s goodness in His dealings with man.
After all, why would God bother to tell us how we can please Him, and how we can have a home in heaven if He was not being good beyond measure to we who don’t deserve it?
So God is good.
Could it be that God is not all-powerful? I don’t think so. Listen to Isaiah 40:25-26:
ISA 40:25 "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
ISA 40:26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
I’d venture to say that the Creator of the universe is plenty powerful, wouldn’t you?
BUT, did you know there are some things God CANNOT do?
Wait just a minute, Preacher! Didn’t you just get done saying God is all-powerful?
Yes, but hang on. Let me list a few things God cannot do, and you will see where we are going in a bit.
First, God cannot lie, according to Numbers 23:19. James tells us that God cannot be tempted, nor can he tempt people to sin.
In other words, God cannot do anything out of His character. The reason God cannot lie is because He is truth. He cannot sin or tempt to sin because He is pure.
He also can’t undo the past, create a square triangle, or make what is false, true.
So what do we make of all this? God is good and He is all-powerful to perform any and all things within His character, and yet we have evil. Why?
To answer that we need to move on to the next section, and that is the need to…
II. Recognize the source of evil.
One of the arguments brought out of the belief that God is all-powerful is that since He created everything, then He must have created evil.
(These paragraphs adapted from The Case for Faith, chapter 1 “Objection #1 – “Since Evil and Suffering Exist, a Loving God Cannot,” by Lee Strobel)
God did not create evil; He created the possibility of evil. What do I mean by that? Let me explain by reading the words of Peter Kreeft, a philosopher at Boston College, and author of numerous books on philosophy and religion.
“…it is not logically possible to have free will and have no possibility of moral evil. In other words, once God chose to create human beings with free will, it was up to them, rather than God, as to whether there was sin or not.
That’s what free will means. Built into the situation of God deciding to create human beings is the chance of evil, and , consequently, the suffering that results.”
God created humans in His own image, capable of having and sustaining a personal relationship with Him. But to really be in His image, they have to be capable of freely loving Him and following His will without being forced.
BUT, creatures who are free to love God must also be free to hate or ignore Him. And when people act in ways outside the will of God, great evil and suffering is the ultimate result.
God is capable of destroying evil – but not without destroying human freedom.
The source of evil is not the devil, it is our own free will. We choose evil. Let me explain using a quick illustration I borrowed from a message by Dr. Norman Geisler.
Evil is a lot like rust on metal. The rust does not exist on its own – it’s part of the metal that it contaminates.
Evil, like rust is part of something. It’s part of our human freedom of choice. Evil contaminates our free will, so that we choose evil over good.
Here’s the bottom line: the source of evil is not the devil. The source of evil is our own free will.
Let me read a passage of the Bible that illustrates how this plays out in our lives.
James 1:13-14 says this:
JAS 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Back to the main question: why doesn’t God destroy evil?
Because to do so He would have to destroy you and me. Evil is part of us, because of our fallen natures and our own evil choices.
God will ultimately triumph over evil, but He will not destroy it while we inhabit it.
Let me take this just a bit further.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world so that as many people as possible would come to know forgiveness of sins, and have a home in heaven, where there is no evil, only pure love and worship of God.
This is good. But the evil on earth perpetrated by you and me caused Jesus to have to suffer a horrible death in order to know that forgiveness and heaven.
God’s remedy for evil is ultimately the death of His Son, Jesus.
And at the end of the message, I will discuss how you can have that remedy for yourself, okay?
So let’s take a moment to review: God is all-powerful and is perfectly good, no matter what we might think at the moment, and no matter the circumstance.
He is good and powerful not according to our flawed standards, but rather according to His perfect standards.
And the reason God doesn’t destroy evil is because the source of evil is our own human freedom of choice, and to destroy evil would mean to destroy the very creatures God created in His image.
So what do we do about evil? How can we cope with the tragedy and suffering? Let’s move on to the next section and see if we can make some sense out of this.
The basic answer to coping with the suffering in our world is to…
III. Reach out to the One who can do something about it.
It’s one thing to be able to believe that God is holding back from destroying evil because He doesn’t want to destroy us. I think I can track with that.
But here’s a question that I have to wrestle with occasionally:
But why is there so MUCH evil? Why do we live in a world in which we can’t even let our kids listen to the evening news because of the horrible events taking place around the world?
Here’s my answer. And I want you to pay close attention, because this is going to get a bit technical and I don’t want to lose anybody. Ready?
I don’t know.
How’s that?
I don’t know.
But while I may not be able to pin-point reasons for the why there is so much evil, that doesn’t mean reasons don’t exist.
Please allow me to read Isaiah 55:9:
-“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”-
My kids don’t always understand the reasons behind what I allow or don’t allow them to do. It would be unrealistic for us to expect to understand all of God’s reasons for allowing all that HE does.
So I need to reach out in faith to the One who can do something about it. How do we do that?
Before I discuss how to do that, let me give you a couple of ways to NOT cope with suffering:
The first is to look at all instances of pain and suffering as some sort of cosmic conspiracy against you.
This is a basic premise of Hinduism, which states that you suffer because of the wrongs you did in your last life.
If you go to India, you will find a group of people called the Untouchables, and I’m not talking about a group of detectives in Chicago led by Eliot Ness.
These are people who are so wretched because of their station in life, that no one will have anything to do with them.
No one except the Christians, that is. Even Gandhi did not want them to be involved in the government because they were the refuse of society.
They believe that if you help to lessen some of the suffering, you are actually hurting them for the next life, because they are working out their bad karma in this life.
Folks, the Bible says that God loves the fatherless and the down-trodden, and that the church of God is supposed to be involved in their lives.
God is not carrying out a cosmic conspiracy against you.
The second unhealthy response is to just react with cynicism and bitterness toward God, rejecting Him and His sovereignty in the affairs of men.
Now let’s look at how we can reach out to God, the only one who can make a lasting and real difference.
First, we can cry out to Him like David did in Psalm 10, which we read at the beginning of the service.
Look back at the first verse of that Psalm:
-Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?-
We get the same out of Psalm 13 –
PS 13:1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
David cries out to God, and he’s asking some tough questions. And by the way, that’s okay!
God is not afraid of the tough questions – He’s heard them all before anyway! He might not give you the answer you want, but it’s okay to ask.
The book of Psalms records numerous instances where the writer is crying out to God about his suffering and the injustices he sees.
In fact, there are almost as many psalms of lament as there are psalms of praise and thanksgiving, and sometimes there is a great mix of sadness and praise in the same psalm.
We can allow ourselves to experience the emotional pain involved and to express it.
We are encouraged by God in the Bible to pour out our hearts to Him. And we can be sure that he hears and understands.
You see, God knows what it’s like to experience grief and suffering, and the loss of relationships that are dear to Him. He knows what it’s like to lose a loved one, and to have that loved one murdered at the hands of evil men.
David knew that He could question God, but that God ultimately knows what’s best, because he finishes Psalm 13 with this:
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
So the first thing we can do to cope is to cry out to God in our frustration and hopelessness.
Next, we can focus on one of the great truths of Scripture: that even in severe trials, God is working.
Listen to these famous words from Romans 8: 28 –
RO 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
When personal tragedy strikes, God is working in us for our good. That’s not to say that God causes all tragedy. I’m saying that in the tragedy God is working. Working for our good. Working for your good. Working for my good.
Hudson Taylor, missionary to inland China, wrote this while under intense pressure and difficulty:
"It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies - whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart."
Dr & Mrs Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1958), p.107.
A third way to reach out to God in coping with tragedy and suffering is to do something to alleviate suffering when it is in our power to do it. Why? Because God uses people to do His work on earth. We need to engage in the pain of our society and become involved.
The job of the church is to impact our society with the gospel of Jesus, making disciples of all nations.
This means, among other things, that we are with people who need Jesus. It means that we may need to meet physical and emotional needs so the door will be opened to spiritual needs being met.
And a fourth response, and sometimes the only response, is to simply wait and trust. This is not easy in many, if not most cases, but sometimes that’s all we have left to do. We have done everything we can humanly do, and we can only wait and trust God to do His amazing work.
Conclusion
The problem of evil is, indeed, a problem, and not one to be taken lightly. But it doesn’t have to leave us in defeat and bitterness.
We can take it with the understanding that our good and all—powerful God is also all-loving.
He has our best interests at heart. And He sees the bigger picture.
There’s the story of the man flying his plane above a mountain road. He looked down to see a car trying to pass a semi truck. However, the man in the car could not see around the truck to pass due to the dips and curves in the road.
The pilot could see that there were no other vehicles in the area, and that the car would be in no danger in passing the truck.
All he could do was sit up there and reflect on the fact that from his vantage point he could see what the man in the car could not see. Because he had a bigger picture.
It is the same with God. He sees the BIG picture.
I don’t have all the answers. I wish I did. But I know the One who does. I call on Him to cope, and while He doesn’t promise answers to satisfy me, He does promise that He will be with me, no matter what.
And if you are trying to make sense of all the madness in our world, and you’re trying on your own, then my friend, you’ve got an impossible task on your hand.
Let me invite you to begin a relationship with the one who created the universe and who has it’s ultimate good, and your ultimate good at the center of His heart.
Call on Jesus to forgive your sins, since the Bible says we all have sins that need forgiveness, and to give you a home in heaven.
The Bible says that God has given us eternal life and that life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life, and that those who don’t have the Son do not have eternal life.
It’s that simple.
Call on Jesus to help you turn from your sins to a life that He will help you live, that pleases Him.
And the Bible says that calling on Jesus brings you salvation from the penalty we all deserve for our sins.
And not only do you have a home in heaven, you have God Himself living in you, helping you to love Him and live for Him, and being there when you face the tragedies of life in a very real world filled with evil.
I am going to pray now, and if you want to take Jesus to be your Savior, you can pray along with me in your heart, okay?
Let’s pray.
