Why does God allow evil?

Why does God allow evil? 

The Bible describes God as holy (Isa. 6:3), righteous (Ps. 7:12), full of justice (Deut. 32:4) and sovereign (Dan. 4:17-25). These characteristics of God tell us that: (a) God is able to prevent evil, and (b) God desires that evil be eradicated.  But if both of these statements are true, why does God allow evil?

 

1. The problem 

Some call this issue the 'Achilles' heel' of Christianity because they believe it invalidates our faith. However, there is a logical and biblical answer to this question for anyone who is willing to listen. 

The question 'Why does God allow evil?' has been asked in various ways, but ultimately it comes down to the same question. Some ask, for example: If God knew Adam and Eve were going to sin, why did He put the tree in the Garden of Eden? Or, if God is loving, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people? Or, if God is all-powerful, why doesn't He do something about the suffering in the world? But it ultimately remains the same question: Why does God allow evil? And it's not just unbelievers who struggle with this question, even believers sometimes ask about it. 

Many people ask the question and many even use it to reject Christianity, but in reality it is not such a complex question to answer. It is certainly not the 'Achilles' heel' of Christianity!

 

2. What is evil? 

Both Augustine and C.S. Lewis make a strong case that evil is not something tangible or physical, but rather a contamination (corruption) of something that is actually essentially good. When God made everything it was indeed very good, just as He said (Gen. 1:31). 

When God made 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' He was not the author of evil. Like all the other trees and indeed all of creation, God made everything good. However, in His sovereignty, God allowed the possibility for the existence of evil. This does not make Him the cause or author of evil. 

The word 'evil' (evil) is first found in Genesis 2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Here God instructs Adam not to eat of the tree's fruit, because otherwise he will surely die. Adam also delivered this message to Eve, so they knew that eating this fruit was against God's will and would have bad consequences. 

God's goodness is seen in that it is not the fruit that is evil, but disobedience to His good will that is evil. His love is seen in the fact that He clearly warned man of the danger, but man chose of his own free will that which is sinful and evil and ate its fruit. 

The evil was not caused by the fruit or the command, but by the disobedience to God's command. The result is Genesis 3 and here we see how evil entered this world: through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Despite God's clear warning, they chose wickedness, or sin, rather than obedience to God.

 

3. Why does God allow evil? 

So why didn't God wipe out Adam and Eve immediately after they sinned? He said that if they ate of it they would 'certainly' die? Why did God keep them alive? The logical answer is that the whole of humanity would have to be annihilated, not just an Adam and Eve. Every man, like them, also does evil by sinning. When God said that they would 'certainly' die, He did not say that they would die immediately, but that they would surely die eventually if they sinned. Those who disobey God sin and will therefore eventually die as a result of their sinfulness. 

Yet there is a degree to which we 'die' immediately when we sin. At that moment we die spiritually, which is a precursor to our eventual physical death. Sin makes man worthy of a double death, first spiritual and then also physical. This is the tragedy of evil. 

4. Why does God not prevent evil? 

Since God, as the almighty God, has the power to prevent evil, why does He not prevent it? 

a.The issue of 'free will'

If God were to change the personality of every human being so that it was impossible for them to sin, it would put an end to all the evil in the world, but it would mean that man no longer has a free will to choose as he will. This would mean that man could no longer choose for himself between right and wrong. This would turn man into a programmed robot that goes around and does everything that is right. This would make a reasonable relationship between God and man impossible because we would automatically do everything He wants. 

Through a free will, God gave man the ability to choose between good and bad. This causes believers to now want to honour Him out of love because they want to trust His goodness and therefore want to obey rather than disobey. However, Adam and Eve, and every person after them, chose disobedience to God. So we live in a real world with real choices and real consequences. Adam and Eve's sin had consequences for us, just as our sin also has consequences for our descendants. 

Our sin also has consequences for ourselves, it ultimately leads to our own physical death. At the same time, it has consequences for our offspring who are conceived and born from us in sin and are therefore prone to sinful desires for which they are responsible. 

This is one reason why God does not change our personalities so that we cannot sin, because by giving us free will God does not make us robots. While this free will, as a result of sin, tends to evil, man is perfectly capable of choosing what is right, and indeed many times chooses that way. 

b.The Proposition of 'Divine Interventions'

Because God is omnipotent, why does He not supernaturally intervene in every case of evil to stop its evil consequences? God can stop a drunk driver before he causes an accident. God can take away a lazy employee who frustrates others. God can prevent the alcohol or drug addicted parent from hurting his spouse and causing the children to end up in the children’s home. God can put the school bully in his place so he doesn't hurt anyone. God can stop the thief before he breaks in. So why doesn't God do this? 

This would mean that God intervenes and prevents the evil person from doing what he wants. This is against the idea of ​​free will. But more than that, the necessary consequences for the evil person would also be nullified. This may sound like a good thing, but it isn’t, because for many the consequences of evil actions are precisely the deterrent for doing more evil. Thus, if God were to intervene and stop the effects of evil, it would encourage evil and not destroy it. The consequences of people's evil actions are exactly there in order to curb evil. 

Think, for example, of national laws that specifically punish evildoers' evil and the consequences of their evil with the aim of combating it. Evil deeds must have consequences. So God does not intervene supernaturally to neutralize the consequences of evil deeds, because that would encourage evil. 'Real' actions lead to 'real' consequences. 

We are conceived and born in sin, and there will come a day when, not the government, but God will act against all evil (Rom. 5:12). His promise is that on that day He will make everything new, but in the meantime He delays this promise in order to give people the opportunity to repent of their sin and find salvation in Christ (2 Pet. 3:9). 

c. The idea of ​​'mass extermination of evil people'

Why doesn't God just destroy all evil people immediately? This would mean that God would have to wipe out all people, because we are all evil. God's definition of evil is: Anything that is against His holy will. This means that it is not only murder, rape, theft, torture that is evil to God, but also selfishness, anger, unwillingness to forgive, dishonesty, infidelity and all other sins that are considered 'small'. This is clear from Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 

The standard of what is evil is not determined by us, but by God Himself, and He does not distinguish between great and small evil, but everything that is against His holy will deserves eternal death. So God would have to wipe us all out!

 

5. God's solution to evil 

Does this mean we are now stuck with evil forever? No! God has an exceptional plan through which He will finally rid the universe of all evil. However, the perfect time for the fulfilment of God's plan has not yet arrived, the first part of it has however already been put into effect: It is Jesus Christ. 

1 Corinthians 15:45 calls Jesus the 'last Adam' and shows that He came to solve the problem of sin that the 'first Adam' started. The 'first Adam' became a living soul, but the 'last Adam' is a life-giving Spirit. 

The reason why God did not wipe out Adam and Eve and the rest of mankind is because He knew that His Son would one day come to pay the price of sin and evil. The reason why God allowed evil humanity to continue is so that Christ could be born from a human being to be the solution to sin and evil. 

Notice what Romans 3:25 says “[Jesus Christ] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." The verse says that God in forbearance postponed the punishment of sin because Christ would come to make reconciliation through His blood and give justice so that sin would remain unpunished on all who come to Him by 'faith'. It is not reconciliation and justice with accompanying unpunished sin for everyone, but for those who come to Christ 'through faith'. 

In the days of the Old Testament there were the sacrificial systems that were not a sufficient sacrifice, but through this sacrificial system the people of the Old Testament could look forward to the perfect sacrifice, the Messiah, Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:4 & 10) 

But the believer has even more, we have the Holy Spirit in us who drives us away from sin and disobedience and inclines our hearts to obedience to God and His will. Yet we still do not achieve perfect sinlessness, because we will always remain dependent on Christ for the forgiveness of sin and access to eternal rest. Never in this life will we be able to stand before God in our own righteousness, but only in the righteousness of Christ. All people, believers too, remain sinners all their lives. 

We wait for the fulfilment of God's plan when Jesus comes again on that last day and will judge each person according to his works, our good and evil works. On that day every man will receive the payment for what he deserves for his sin. However, the believer will not receive it, because the price for their sin was paid by Christ and therefore they receive, in Christ, eternal life. However, those who have rejected God's solution to sin and evil (namely Jesus Christ) will receive the necessary consequence of their sin which is eternal hell.

 

6. Our response to evil 

a.Sympathy

We are all sinners and will be sinners until the day we die. Therefore we should have sympathy with fellow sinners. This does not mean we must approve of their sinfulness or sin, but by sympathy we show that we are no better than they are, like them we also deserve hell. 

b.Gratitude

The awareness of our own unworthiness and the fact that we still, although unwillingly, sin, must drive us to have hearts full of thanksgiving to God in Christ Jesus. In Christ we are not only delivered from eternal hell, but also delivered from our natural desire for sin, so that we no longer desire sin, or find joy in it. We are also grateful for the Holy Spirit who guides and teaches us on God's way of justice so that we desire it. 

c. Concern

Those who have found salvation from sin in Christ want to lead others to Christ. We should have a serious concern for people who are lost. That is why we must pray for them and testify to them that Jesus Christ is the only hope. 

d.Resistance

Those who have received salvation in Christ do not sin carelessly and unthinkingly. The believer hates the path of sin on which he once walked and resists it with all he can. The Spirit in us helps us in this struggle by reminding us that we are God's children with a new heart and new desires. 

It also further calls for us to oppose and combat evil in this world. We seek justice and we desire accountability. Through the Word and in deed we live as enemies of this evil world for God's glory.

  

The answer to the question of why God allows evil is ultimately centred on Christ. God allows this so that Christ can be the Saviour who save people from their own evil and ultimately from this evil world in which we live. What we see is that God uses even evil for His own glory and for the good of everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.

ds. Leon Harmse

Pastor of Sunward Park Baptist Church