If God exists, why is there so much evil in this world?
Preface
Hi! I’m Kezia Reji, a freshman at Liberty university majoring in Biomedical sciences. At liberty, I have the privilege of learning more about the gospel from great men of God. First off, I want to give credits to my professor, Dr. Werner, who was the first person to discuss this topic with me. It’s my honor to include some of his answers in todays’ post on why evil exists in our world.
Introduction
This is one of those questions that has passed our minds at least once and for sure made us slightly doubt our faith. The first thing we must understand is that our God does many things our human minds can’t understand, many of our doubts can only be completely understood and answered once we join with Christ in heaven. Secondly, the Christian faith is completely built on trust; it is not a religion, but in fact a relationship with God. We don't follow Christ because of what He does, but because we trust Him and believe He is the true God. Now, coming to our topic, there’s an emotional side to the problem of evil and an intellectual side, it’s important not to mix the two when explaining this to someone. I am going to be exploring the intellectual side.
What is Evil?
Evil is not a thing; it is instead the absence of a good thing. In other words, evil does not have an ontological existence, it’s like a shadow (7). We as Christians have to admit that God has good reasons for allowing evil in this world. 1st Samuel 15:23 explains “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.” In the remainder of this post, I will be taking you through nine key points referencing why God allows evil and its impact on our lives.
I. God Training his Children
Some of what we call evil occurs so that God can train His children. In other words, God allows some people to endure pain and suffering, so that they can help weaker or non-Christians with similar difficulties. If God has comforted you in your suffering, you should look around to see who you can help through a similar situation. Similarly, if you are experiencing suffering, then look for the help of those who have walked down a similar path (13).
II. tEST OF fAITH
Evil might be allowed so that God can test our faith. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith . . . may be proved genuine.” This kind of persecution is so effective at purifying the church that the Bible tells us that it is according to God’s will and that we should expect this kind of suffering. The result of this may in fact be a more purified church and a more glorified God (15).
iii. sUFFERING DRAWS US CLOSER TO GOD
Another reason for the existence of evil and suffering may be to bring us closer to God. We can all admit that it is suffering or hardship at a point of our lives that drew us closer to him. A part of what we call evil is God dispensing justice in a way that is not ill intentioned. Instead, it is the deserved punishment of our rebellion—what the Bible calls sin (18).
IV. God’s Favor
To add on, some of what we call evil happens to us because God favors us or is confident of our faith in him. This is where Job comes in, everyone familiar with the book of Job in the Bible can see how he had to go through suffering just because God favored Job and was confident in him. But ultimately, we can see that God rewarded him on earth. 2 John 1:8 says, “Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.” The result of God’s favor can be shown through rewards stored up in heaven and on earth for us. In this verse, we see how falling into deception and evil deters us from those rewards. By not falling into the evil traps of this world, God promises that we may be rewarded fully.
V. god’s mercy
Evil might be a result of God’s mercy. For example, if we were to assume that some of the babies who died prematurely or at an early age would’ve rejected God or suffered unnecessarily later on in their lives, we can see evidence of God’s mercy in taking them away early and not subjecting them to pain. To say, this aspect of evil might be the result of an all-loving, all-knowing God protecting his children from more severe evils and suffering (14).
VI. Path to salvation
Evil may also be part of God’s plan of salvation. God allows this kind of evil as the means to “save” to the lost (28). I love the example Dr. Werner provided in his writing. “Some evils, such as the death of a friend or loved one, often cause us to reevaluate our lives. For instance, when men reach the midpoint of their life and some of their friends begin to die, these middle-aged men start questioning their priorities. Some commit the remainder of their lives to worldly pleasures. Others pursue heavenly goals. Either way, the thought of death (and the reality of suffering) causes humans to reevaluate their lives” (29). Very often, non-believers search for answers and are led to Christ through it.
VII. God’s Glory
Likewise, a different view to this may be that a part of what we call evil occurs for God’s glory, like the story of the blind man Jesus healed (John 9), Jesus said “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Our testimonies are always used to glorify God and very often encourage fellow Christians and may even lead others to Christ.
VIII. Disciplinary action
Some of evil is the result of God’s disciplinary activity. For instance, Exodus 32:35 says “The Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.” (26). Similarly, looking back at the old testament when God freed the Israelites to the promised land- they suffered and travelled for 40 years when in reality they would have reached the land in just 40 days! Why would God allow all that suffering? The bible tells us one thing, it’s because they weren’t obedient. Evil may occur because of our disobedience and non-diligence to his commands. Coming back to today’s world, God has given us a simple command to love one another as yourself, let’s be real- how many of us actually do that? Similarly, another greatest commandment God gave- love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Luke 10:27). If we truly loved one another and God in the way He decrees, we can live a life in harmony with others as it says in Romans 12:16. Much of the hatred and violence we see in the world stems from a disobedience of this one crucial commandment of God.
IX. Freewill
Another interesting point is- what if all this occurs because of God’s desire for voluntary love? Evil or suffering may exist to give us a choice. Evil may be the result of human free will. “God seems to allow things to occur that are against his will. But, why would a loving God allow such evils? Perhaps he wants humans to be capable of acting freely—not as mindless, pre-programmed robots. Although God would like to have a world free of evil, He seems to value a world where humans can choose to do right or wrong” (35).
Conclusion
Evil cannot be understood from our limited perspective, perhaps, there may be one day when we will eventually be able to see how such evil and suffering ultimately occurred for our good. In conclusion, we as humans can only think of different reasons God may allow evil and suffering, our human minds cannot comprehend his works and the true reason. God has plans and none of us have the right to blame or question him, but we must completely trust him and continue glorifying him whenever possible and believe in him all our life. We do know that God did not create the world with evil in it. We humans brought evil into the world (38).