If
God, Why Evil and Suffering?
by
Charlie H. Campbell
When
it comes to intellectual objections to faith in God, there is by far one
objection that is more popular than any other.
And that is what we refer to as “the problem of
evil.”
Many
people find the notion of an all-good, all-powerful God and the existence of
evil and suffering incompatible.
Wherever
I have shared the gospel with people (USA, Hungary, Scotland, Costa Rica, Maui)
this has, again and again, resurfaced as the most common problem that people
have.
The
Barna Research Group has also found this to be true.
They
conducted a national survey of a scientifically selected cross-section of
adults and asked this question:
“If you could ask God only one question an you knew
he would give you an answer, what would you ask?”
The top response, offered by 17% of those who said
that they had a question, was:
“Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”
For
some, it’s just a perplexing question.
For
others it is a serious roadblock to faith.
Because
the problem is so popular, it will be good for us, as Christ’s ambassadors, to
have thought through the issue.
So,
in tonight’s class we want to respond to this problem by answering a host of
questions related to the topic.
I
would like to start off by noting that there are generally two different types
of people who will struggle with the problem of evil.
1. Those who
are skeptical of the Christian faith.
2. Those who
are actually suffering.
In
our time together we will deal with how to reason with those in the first group.
For
those who are in the second group (those who are genuinely suffering) they do
not need theological discourses on the origin of evil, or long treatises on why
God permits evil, etc.
The
Bible says in Romans 12:15 to…
Romans
12:15
“weep with those who weep.”
We
need to…
--Enter into their pain.
--Listen to them.
--Be there for them.
--Pray for them.
--Love them.
--Encourage them with reminders of God’s
love and faithfulness
--and
so on.
So,
it’s important to keep that in mind with those who are suffering. We need to
have an entirely different approach
than the approach might use with a skeptic or critic.
Let’s
look at some of these questions and objections that critics and skeptics have
raised...
The
first question is this:
1.
“If God is the creator of everything, as you Christians suggest, and evil is
something, then how can you say that God is not the one responsible for the
existence of evil?”
What
might we say to that?
Well,
let’s break down the question.
Q.
Is God the creator of everything?
Yes? No? Trick question? Answer is yes. The Bible
tells us that this is the case.
Colossians 1:16
“For by Him all
things were created that are in
heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and
for Him.” NKJV
Q.
Is evil something?
We talk about evil people….Child molesters, Timothy
McVeigh,
Osama bin Laden, Marilyn Manson
We talk about evil acts……..Murder, Rape
We talk about evil
books…..Pornography
We talk about the evilness
perhaps of diseases…Cancer, Birth Defects
Q.
But what is evil?
Have you thought about that?
Q.
Are there evil molecules or atoms floating around?
Q. Is evil some black, gooey stuff that floats
around the universe and latches on to people and causes them to do awful
things?
No.
The
Bible teaches that evil is not a thing that God created, but rather:
--a departure
from the way things ought to be.
Or,
in other words, we might say...
--evil is a non-conformity to the way things ought
to be
--a non-conformity to God’s will
--a deviation from God’s standard.
The
very word “sin,” often used in the New Testament, is the Greek word: “hamartia”
which literally means “to miss the mark.”
Sin is therefore referred to as “falling short of
the glory of God” in Romans 3:23.
Sin is evil.
Evil is a departure from the
way things ought to be.
So,
yes…
--God created everything.
--But evil is not a thing.
Evil is simply a departure
from God’s will.
Therefore
we conclude…
--Then, God did not create evil.
A
second question I have heard is this…
2.
“How can you say that God is not directly responsible for the origin of evil,
when God says in Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make
peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things”? It seems pretty clear that God did create
evil!!”
It does say that in the King James
Translation.
The
Hebrew word there, translated “evil” by the King James Translators is the word
“Ra,” and a better translation of the word is actually “calamity.” And that is
the way that the more modern translations (i.e. NKJV, and NAS) translate the
word.
The
passage is speaking of the disasters, or the calamity that comes when God
executes His righteous judgment against a sinful people.
A
third question or objection I have heard goes something like this…
3.
“The Bible says that everything God made was good. But good creatures cannot do
that which is evil. Yet, God’s good creatures did do that which is evil. Therefore the Bible’s account of
creation can’t be true.”
Let’s break down the question.
Q.
Does the Bible teach that everything God made was good?
Yes or No?
A. Yes. Genesis 1:31 says that
everything that God made was “very good”.
The
second part of the question was…
“But good creatures cannot do that which is evil.”
Do
you agree? Or disagree?
Answer: We disagree.
We believe that a good creature (such as Adam was) can do that which is evil, don’t we?
Yes.
We
believe that one of the good things
God created mankind with was free will.
Freedom to choose between opposing
options, morally speaking, is a good
thing.
And I believe that even atheists will concede that
this is true.
So,
we contend that rather than EVIL
being a creation of God, it is
simply
the
result of what happens when mankind
used, and uses, his freedom to depart from God’s will.
Where did evil originate?
It originated with what free moral agents did with
their free will, not in God making a less than perfect universe.
A
fourth question, or objection is…
4.
“Well, God is still to blame. He’s
the one who made the people with free will.”
Ahh,
the critic seems to have a point here.
God
was the one who made the people who
exercised their free will, bringing about evil and suffering in the world.
But
here’s something to think about.
“If somebody stabs somebody with a knife, who is to
blame, the knife company [i.e. God] who made the knife or the man who did the
stabbing?”
The fault lies with the person who misused the
knife.
That is a good question to ask the skeptic who
brings up this question.
A
similar question, you may ask, is this…
“If you see a smashed up Mercedes Benz [a picture of
the world] alongside the road, who do you assume is the one at fault, the
Mercedes Benz manufacturer [i.e. God]? or the driver [mankind] that crashed the
car?”
The answer is obviously: the driver.
No one assumes that Mercedes Benz created the car to look like that.
God, like the Mercedes Benz manufacturer, did His
part perfectly.
He created a good world, with good creatures.
Evil, and the suffering associated with it, arose
and continues to arise out of what men do with their freedom.
Think of all the suffering that goes on today. It is
easy to see that much of it is caused by man’s choice…
--to
kill
--to
slander
--to
be selfish
--to
stray sexually
--to
break our promises
--to be reckless. [p. 38, The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel, 2000]
Ahhh, but the critics of Christianity raise another
good question at this point.
5.
“If the evil and suffering originated with our misuse of freedom, why didn’t
God just create a world without human
freedom?”
That
is a good question.
A
world without freedom would have been a world without humans.
Q. Would it have been a place without hate?
Yes.
Q. A place without suffering?
Yes.
But
it also would have been a world of robots.
It would be a world of rocks and trees.
It would have been a world absolutely void of any
love.
Why’s
that?
Real
love—our love of God and our love of each other—must involve a choice. A choice
to hate, or to love.
A
meaningful and loving relationship can
only exist when the option of loving is not the only option.
A
billion robots that are programmed to say “I
love you God” would be absolutely meaningless to God.
Do
you remember the first time that somebody told you that she/he loved you?
What
a blessing it was to hear those words!!
But
what if a man was holding a gun up to their head, demanding that they say those
words?
That profession of love would be meaningless to you.
Why?
--They were coerced.
--There was no option.
--They had to say they loved you.
So
too God, saw it worth it to grant to mankind real freedom.
--We can freely love Him or hate him.
--We can freely obey or sin.
--We can freely love our
spouse or we can turn our back on
them and walk away.
That
freedom that God has given us, although it allowed for the possibility of evil and suffering to take place, allows for love,
the highest good to be experienced.
One
of the ways I think to help skeptics see that they actually appreciate the
freedom that God has given them, is to ask them a question like this…
“Do you think it be a good or bad thing for our
government to write and enforce laws
banning premarital sex?
Just about everybody will
say “No!”
Question
number two, ask them this:
“Why?
They’ll
usually say something along the lines of:
“Having freedom to choose
what we want to do is a good thing.”
Just a side note here:
Anybody who would say that it’s not good to have freedom would be using their freedom to say that ‘freedom is not good’ and that
would be self-defeating.
You never hear anybody marching at the Capital
shouting out:
--“Down with freedom!”
--“We don’t want to have choices!”
--“Put us back into slavery!”
People march for freedom and for liberty. Freedom is a good thing.
And you can point that out to the skeptic, by saying
something like…
“Well, if having freedom is good, and restricting a
person’s freedom to choose between moral choices is bad, then God is simply
doing good by allowing the choice for both good and evil.”
The
skeptic brings up another question at this point…
6.
“If God is all good, He would defeat
evil. If God is all-powerful, He could
defeat evil. But obviously evil is still running rampant. So how can you say
that there is an all good, all loving God?”
Q. Do you agree that an all-good God would defeat evil?
Yes.
Illustration: A good person
can not stand by and watch a bully continue to beat up on a little boy. That is
evil, and he must get involved.
Q. Who agrees that if God is all-powerful, He could defeat evil?
There is no evil that an
all-powerful being couldn’t crush.
Q. Who believes that evil is still running rampant?
I do. Read the news.
Uh
oh.
Is
it then an inescapable conclusion that an all good, all-powerful God must not
exist?
No.
Why?
Because the game is not over!
God is not finished yet.
The final chapter of earth’s history
has not been written!!
The Bible teaches that God, not only can defeat evil, but that He will defeat evil.
The reason why He hasn’t yet, is because doing away
with the presence of evil requires, putting your foot down, and saying “That is
enough!”
It requires judgment; the very thing that God is, in
His mercy, is delaying (2 Peter 3:9)
2 Peter 3:9-10
9 “The Lord
is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward
you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” NAS
To
criticize God right now for the evil and suffering that is taking place is like
stopping me mid-sentence and saying…
“You don’t make sense.”
I would say, “Let me finish my sentence.”
But
God does better.
He doesn’t
just tell us that He’s not finished with His “sentence” [or His story] but He
tells us what is coming: a future
when evil and suffering will be put away.
Revelation 21:4-5 says that God...
“…will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there
shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain,
for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are
true and faithful.” NKJV
It’s wrong to insist that just because there is evil
right now, that it will always be that way.
The Bible says that God will defeat evil.
Another
question I have heard has to do with the seeming meaninglessness of evil and
suffering. The question goes like this…
7.
“How could an all-good God allow so much suffering, for which there is no good
purpose?”
One
of the questions often times on the minds of those who suffer is the
question: “Why?”
--“Why did I have to lose my arm?”
--“Why did my
little girl have to die?”
--“Why did our
house have to burn down?”
There are
many instances of suffering that we are unable to make sense of, and many
situations when it appears that there is
no good purpose.
But there is a difference between…
--Our knowing the purpose for someone suffering
--and God having a purpose for it.
I
can think of numerous good reasons why God allows evil and suffering:
1.
Suffering can draw us back to God.
It is
interesting to note that many of the people who do come to a relationship with
Jesus, come because of their miserable circumstances, or their suffering
(example: Mark 7:25, or the Jews in the OT times over and over again)
If
there were no suffering and misery on this planet far fewer would ever see
their need for God.
If
people were to not see any immediate need for God many would continue along
their path of unbelief and sin, which would result in separation and judgment
at the end of their life.
2 Corinthians 7:10
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God
produces a repentance without regret” NAS
The
terrorists attacked the U.S., and people across the nation were filing into
churches.
C.S.
Lewis in his book The Problem of Pain
wrote:
“God
whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our
pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” [ p.93, 1962]
2.
Suffering helps to restrain us from committing evil.
Hebrews 12:11
11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be
joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” NAS
Pain & suffering put a boundary on free choice.
Malcolm
Muggeridge (1903-1990) wrote
this…
“Supposing you eliminated
suffering, what a dreadful place the world would be! I would almost rather
eliminate happiness. The world would be the most ghastly place because
everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature, man,
to feel over-important and over-pleased with himself would disappear. He's bad
enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered.”
3.
Suffering keeps us humble.
2 Corinthians 12:7
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the
abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger
of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” NKJV
4.
Suffering builds perseverance, character, and hope.
Romans 5:3-4
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations,
knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character;
and character, hope.” NKJV
As you endure adversity, you are trained to
persevere.
Your character is changed.
Your hope, or confidence in God is strengthened.
5.
Suffering can help advance the gospel.
Philippians 1:12-13
“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things
which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the
gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard” NKJV
Galatians 4:13
“…you know that it was because of a bodily illness
that I preached the gospel to you the first time” NAS
6.
Suffering can help bring praise and glory to God.
John 11:3-4
Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord,
behold, he whom You love [speaking of Lazarus] is sick.” When Jesus heard that,
He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God may be glorified through it.” NKJV
John 9:1-3
And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.
And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that
this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God
might be displayed in him.” NAS
7.
Suffering can help us to be more compassionate, kind and sympathetic.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all
our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble,
with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” NKJV
8.
Suffering can help us to better understand the magnitude of God’s love, in that
Jesus willingly suffered for us and even died in our place.
9. Suffering
brought about the greatest good that has ever occurred.
What those Roman soldiers, and the Jewish leaders
did to our innocent Lord was truly evil. They condemned a good, innocent man to
die.
But it was through Christ’s suffering, and
ultimately His death, that mankind can now be freely and justly forgiven by
God.
So
those are some of the reasons God allows suffering.
It
is wrong to assume that there is no good purpose for suffering.
And even if we don’t
know the purpose for our suffering.
We do know why
we don’t know: we are finite, and God is infinite.
Isaiah 55:9 says His ways are high above ours and we
can rest assured that God is good and is working all things together for good
(Rom. 8:28).
The
existence of evil and suffering actually turns out to be a strong evidence for
God’s existence.
It
does? Yes. Listen to this 5 step argument.
1. Evil exists in the world.
If the critic disagrees with this, then
they can have no problem with God allowing evil.
2. Evil is a departure from
the way things ought to be.
3. If there is a way things
ought to be, there must be a designed plan (or designed standard) for the
universe
Peter Kreeft said in his Handbook of Christian Apologetics, “...the very fact of our outrage
at evil is a clue that we are in touch with a standard of goodness by which we
judge this world as defective, as falling drastically short of the mark.” (p.
123)
4. There cannot be a
designed plan for the universe without a designer of the universe.
5. Evil is mankind’s
departure from this designer’s standard and that designer is God.
CHRISTIAN: “So, we can agree that evil does
exists in the world?”
SKEPTIC:
“Yes.”
CHRISTIAN: “Would you agree that evil is a
departure from the way things ought to be?”
SKEPTIC:
“Hmmm. I’m not sure...”
CHRISTIAN: “You yourself have looked at the
world and have seen the famines and the diseases, and the wars, and have
thought this is not the way things ought to be. They should be better.
So then, evil is simply a departure (or deviation) from the way things ought to be. Can we agree with that?”
SKEPTIC:
“Yes.”
CHRISTIAN: “If there is a way things ought
to be, there must be a designed plan (or designed standard) for the universe.
So it would logically follow, and correct me if I’m wrong that there cannot be a way that the
universe ought to be (a designed plan for the universe) without a designer of
the universe.
SKEPTIC: “Why’s that?” or “I disagree”
CHRISTIAN: “But you cannot have a plan, or a
way the universe ought to be if the universe is just the result of some
random explosion, or accident. If the universe came into existence from nothing
and by nothing (which seems foolish, but that is what atheists believe) then
there cannot exist a way things are supposed to be. The universe should
experience suffering, diseases, death, and we could never say that anything is
wrong about those things.
ABOUT
CHARLIE CAMPBELL
Charlie
Campbell has been on staff as a pastor at Calvary Chapel Vista in Southern
California since 1997. He is the Director of The School of Ministry and teaches
courses on Apologetics, World Religions and Cults, Bible Prophecy, and
Systematic Theology. He is married and has three children.
BOOKING
If you would like to have Charlie Campbell speak at
your church, conference, Christian school, or retreat please call 760-726-4224
or email him at CharlieCampbell@CalvaryChapel.com. References available.
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