How can a God who is good allow evil to exist?
I want to begin to answer this question by emphasizing the fact that God is good and that God’s goodness is not open for debate. Some would say that since evil is allowed to exist, then that necessarily implies an evil God. But that just simply isn’t the case.
When God created the various things that are part of the creation sequence in Genesis 1, after each day it was said (do you remember?), “And God saw that it was good.” Only a good God can bring into being a creation that is good.
Also, keep it in mind how creation started. It was a good world that God created. It was a GOOD world.
And let me just continue on for a moment in this vein of God’s goodness. There is also Jesus’ statement to the rich young ruler who referred to our Lord as, “Good Teacher.” Do you remember how Christ answered? He said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except (who?) GOD ALONE.” (Luke 18:19b) Jesus said it. (So I believe it!)
And so we have also the testimony of Christ (who cannot lie) about the goodness of God.
And so God is good and not evil.
And yet God allows evil to exist.
“But it didn’t start out that way,” as I’ve already quoted the first chapter of Genesis. It was a good world that God created. And then what caused the world to go bad? Do you remember? It was through man’s choice that evil was introduced into the world (Adam and Eve in Genesis 3). Some people conveniently dismiss that it was through man’s choice that evil was introduced. And so (spell it) m-a-n ~ MAN ~ if we’re pointing fingers at anybody, we ought to point fingers at him. Man is responsible for evil and its entering the human experience.
Man is responsible.
And I was thinking about how bad things happen. And then God gets blamed. “It was an act of God that the tornado ~ It was an act of God that this or that happened and people were injured or killed.” It was an “act of God.” In other words, it was God’s fault.
No, it wasn’t.
It was our fault.
It started back in the garden of Eden with the choice of our parents where evil was introduced into creation.
And the entire creation is messed up because of it (including weather, etc). And the Bible is about God picking up the pieces! The Bible is about God fixing our mess!!
And He allows for evil so that we would have a choice in the matter of whether or not to love Him or reject Him. God allows for evil ~ though He hates it ~ though He knows the depth of the misery and pain that results because of evil.
And have you ever thought about that?
I came across a quote in McDowell and Stewart’s book, “Answers To Tough Questions” (pg 98-99), where they quote Dorothy Sayers. It’s just powerful what this lady says. Her quote speaks of a God who allows for evil though He hates it ~ about a God who knows the depth of the misery and pain that results because of evil. Do you remember what happened to Jesus at Calvary? (John 19:1-2, 16, 23)
Here’s the quote from Dorothy Sayers (this really ministers to me personally in my afflictions especially the last line ~ I’m convinced it will minister to you, too)…
For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is ~ limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death ~ He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He (God) was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile. (Dorothy Sayers, Creed or Chaos?, pg 4)
I don’t fully know how a God who is good can allow evil to exist. But I do know that there must be something worthwhile to it that even God Himself would see fit that He should partake.
And I choose to defer to an infinite Lord today who knows all and cannot help but do all things well. God knows best. And for whatever reason, that some day I’m expecting to know the answer to it when I meet Him, the “best” in this life has been deemed by God to include the putting up with evil for a time.
Ultimately, all evil will be vanquished. (Revelation 19:11) Until that happens I’m trusting in a God who is good. (Romans 8:28)
(Picture above in the public domain: click here. PD-US)
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