Moral evil is a natural consequence of human free will. Because
God created people with the ability to choose, moral evil is the result of a
person choosing wrong over right. Chapter 4 gives you the lowdown on this nasty
stuff called sin.
Natural evil is a byproduct of the first moral evil that
Adam and Eve committed (known as the Fall of man; see Chapter 4) and includes
evils that people after the Fall haven’t caused by sinning. These include
diseases, aging, natural disasters, polyester, leisure suits, and so on.
Christianity says that neither of these types of evil
existed before Adam and Eve sinned. Rather, the first sinful act that the
original dynamic duo committed unleashed a fury of evil onto the rest of the
world that continues through the present day. However, Christianity goes on to
say that the days of evil are numbered. Eventually, after the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ (see Chapter 9), God will eliminate these evils once and for all
in the new heaven and new earth.
Understanding why evil exists
So why would an all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing
God allow this kind of evil to exist? Christians give a variety of responses to
this problem, including the following:
Evil is the result of free will. God gave freedom to people,
and he meant it. Because God wanted to give true free will to humans, he had to
allow for the possibility of evil to occur. In other words, when you take a
risk in order to achieve the greatest good, you also open yourself to settling
with the worst bad.
As a comparison, suppose your softball team got a chance to
play in the league championship. Would you take it? The opportunity to succeed
is great, but you also open yourself up to losing as a natural byproduct of
that decision to play. God seems to believe that the possibility of winning,
even with the downside of losing, is greater than not playing in the game at
all.
Evil is the result of original sin. The suffering that evil
causes is a direct consequence of sin. Therefore, because all people have
sinned (see Romans 3:23), the argument holds that I have no one to blame but
myself, even if the evil that affects me is not directly the result of my specific
sin. In this role, I am much like the getaway driver of a bank robbery that
turned deadly. Even though I didn’t pull the trigger, I still receive punishment,
because I was part of the crime. In the same way, Christians believe that every
person is directly or indirectly an accomplice to all the sin of the world (see
Chapter 4).
Evil sometimes achieves good. God hates evil but temporarily
uses the suffering that results from evil to mold his believers into the kind
of people that he wants them to be. Through suffering, Christians can develop
qualities that last for eternity: joy regardless of circumstances, humility
through knowledge of one’s limitations, and obedience in spite of the costs. Take
note of how these play out in a Christian’s life:
Pain forces Christians to depend solely on God rather than
on their own resolve. As they experience suffering, God takes them into a
deeper relationship with him as they trust him for sustaining grace and power.
Pain provides an opportunity for God to display his power in
a Christian’s life. The Apostle Paul, for example, experienced suffering (he
called it a “thorn in his flesh”), but Paul understood that this problem was a
way for God’s power to be displayed through his own weakness. In other words,
Paul saw these moments as opportunities to glorify God: “For when I am weak,
then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Pain brings spiritual joy. Paul said that he delighted in
the suffering he went through – not because he was a masochist, but because
instances of pain were opportunities for Jesus to be glorified in his life, so
long as he kept focusing and relying on the Lord in the process. Take but one
example: When he was jailed for his faith, he used the situations to preach to
other prisoners – and even the jailors – to help bring them to saving faith in
Jesus Christ.
The existence of evil allows for the best of all possible
worlds. Even though it doesn’t seem like it initially, Christians believe that
this world is the best way to bring about the best of all possible worlds. In spite
of the evil that exists, any other ways of creating the world and humans would’ve
resulted in even less goodness. For example, suppose God didn’t give free will
to humans. In that case, the resulting robots that he created may have been
programmed not to sin, making evil an impossibility. But to a loving God who
desires relationships with his creation, a pre-programmed robot is far less
good as compared to a human who chooses God on his or her own.
This argument may seem hard to stomach given the starving
kids in third-world countries, the numerous hurricanes that have left many
families with nothing and the terrorist tragedies that shake our world. However,
a slightly different take on this argument is to look ahead and consider the
grand scheme of eternity. With the new heavens and new earth (flip back to
Chapter 9), God is planning the Ultimate of All Possible Worlds that his
followers will enjoy for eternity. Given what’s to come, the way that he
created and ordered this present world – with free will and all its
implications – is evidently the best way to achieve that future, in spite of
the current suffering and evil that exists.
However, humans have an earthly-centered mindset that makes
it hard to think with an eternal perspective. The goal of most everyone is to
achieve the highest quality of life on earth for as long as possible. Yet, God
clearly demonstrates in the Bible that this objective isn’t what he’s got in
mind for humanity. Instead, the New Testament talks a heck of a lot about
suffering, persecution, and hardship for people who follow Jesus Christ. Earthly
life, therefore, seems much more like a training ground for what’s to come. Just
as football players have to go through much suffering and pain in summer
training camp in order to prepare for the regular season, so too do people on
this earth. Think about it – if a football team skipped training camp, they’d
be unprepared to make it when the real games started. It seems clear that God
feels the same way about his purpose for earthly life. Evidently, in order to
have that Ultimate of All Possible Worlds – one that combines human free will
with perfect obedience (see Chapter 9) – humans have to go through a
considerable amount of blood, sweat, and tears on earth in order to be ready
for that future.
In the end, although Christians offer up intellectual
reasons for why God permits evil, you can’t easily sweep this topic under the
table. The problem of evil and suffering is a tough issue to understand,
involving both head and heart when people encounter it.
Another tough issue that Christians have to face
head-on is the issue of moral relativism. I cover this topic in the next
section.
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