The Problem of Evil- Part Three

Romans 8:12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

So we have explored reason number one why God allows the existence of evil (there is another reason we will explore later) and why the existence of evil is not a logical objection to the existence of God. The question that follows is this: if God allows for evil to exist, then does that mean that it is okay to do evil? Does God turn a blind eye to evil? Will bad people get away with it in the end?

These questions can only be answered if we examine the nature of God as revealed in the Bible. We all know from the Bible that God is loving- indeed we know from John 4:16 that God is love. But sometimes we forget some of His other attributes. We will examine four other attributes.

Perfect
We know from Matthew 5:48 that God is perfect. This is an important attribute. It is the attribute by which we can define all of His other attributes for if God is perfect, then His attributes are perfect as well. As we examine His other attributes we will see just how important this is.

Holy
In both Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 we are told three times that God is holy. If it was not enough to know that God was perfect in His Holiness by inferring it from above, the point is hammered home to us in these scriptures. God is unlike any other (see Hosea 11:9), and His holiness is the essence of that “otherness.” His very being is completely absent of even a trace of sin (James 1:13; Hebrews 6:18). He is high above any other, and no one can compare to Him (Psalm 40:5). God’s holiness pervades His entire being and shapes all His attributes. His love is a holy love, His mercy is holy mercy, and even His anger and wrath are holy anger and holy wrath. These concepts are difficult for humans to grasp, just as God is difficult for us to understand in His entirety.

Faithful and Just
In 1 John 1:9 we learn that God is faithful and just. These two attributes go together for by God being perfect in his faithfulness; we know that we can trust Him- always and in everything. The Greek word used here is pistos and means trustworthy. This is important because we often tend to think that God might not care about some small sin we have committed. But we know that God is also perfectly just. So if God says that He will punish even the smallest sin, then we know not only that we can believe Him, but also that He is just in punishing the smallest sin.

So what does all of this mean? It means that God will not judge us based on human standards but on His holy standards. We will not be compared to Hitler or Mother Theresa when we face God at the judgment. We will be compared to His perfection and we will be found lacking. According to His word, a price must be paid for our sins. No, evil has not and will not go unpunished.

There is a small part of me that wants justice. But then I think about what that would mean for me and I realize that I only want justice for others- and even this is my idea of justice, not God’s. For me, I want mercy. Are you honest enough with yourself to admit that you too would like to have mercy for yourself and maybe, just maybe, for others?

Stay with me. We will look at what God has done to punish evil and what He will do next. Then perhaps we will finally get to the text of the scripture.

The Problem of Evil- Part Two

Romans 8:12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.


Let me back up for just a minute. I seem to have gotten to my conclusion well before I have made my opening statement. Let us address the question of why God allows evil in the first place before we go too far down the road of why evil is still present. It seems that God had four options concerning creation of our world and evil. I am going to paraphrase Ravi Zacharias a bit in my summation:

1. God could have created no world at all- this option does eliminate evil, but there would be nobody here to notice it. Since we are here, we can safely ignore this option (and be thankful that God did not choose it).
2. God could have created an amoral world- in this world there would be no right and no wrong. There would be nothing we could point to and say “that is good” or “that is evil”. Clearly we sense a distinction between celebrating the birth of a child and mourning the senseless murder of the same child. The very fact that we have the words good and evil tells us that we know there is a difference between the two and that we do not live in an amoral world. I think I can safely say that we would not want to live in such a world either.
3. God could have created a world in which we could only choose good- in this world we would be some sort of automaton programmed to always do right and never do wrong. This may sound appealing to some but there are problems with this world as well. There would be no freedom for the creatures of this world. Without freedom, love can not exist. For without freedom one can not choose not to love. If one can not choose not to love, then one can not choose to love either. Clearly we have options here so this is not the world that God created for us either.
4. God could have created the very world that we live in- a world that allows for the existence of evil. You see, without this option at least being available to us, we can not have love. The only possible way you can have a choice to love is to have the choice to hate. You can only have good in the world if evil is possible no matter how awful that evil may seem to us.

The very existence of evil is evidence for God. If you admit that there is evil in the world, then you must also admit that there is good. If you admit there is good, then you must posit some sort of moral law by which to differentiate between good and evil. If there is a moral law, then there must be a moral lawgiver. But this is exactly who you are trying to disprove by your initial objection so I ask the objector- what exactly are you objecting to?

I would like to suggest that perhaps the objector in his denials of God (because of evil) admits evidence that he would rather not admit. My only hope is that the objector will examine the possible reasons that God would allow for evil and explore what God has done and will do about it.

As a side note in case you are wondering- I will eventually return to the text of the quoted scripture. Please be patient.

The Problem of Evil- Part One

Romans 8:12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I am not the best father in the world. In many ways I fall short. I often lose my temper or fail to discipline my children as I should. I sometimes take comfort in the fact that I do better than some other fathers, but this simply won't do. I feel that I have an obligation as a father to model my theology of The Father when I am parenting. I fall short in this as well.


This was brought home to me this past week. I have a friend who left his father's house. We took him in for a few days while he resolved his issues at home. End result was his father took him back in, but during the time he was at our house, I could not help but question this man's ability to be a father. Even though I am not privy to all of the things that have influenced this father's decision to allow his son to be homeless. Nor was I privy to whether the father even wanted that to happen.


I am lucky today that I can see my own hypocrisy. I have met so many people that have questioned God because of suffering or evil in the world. I have dismissed their complaints upon many occasions without seeing the true issue here. They are not privy to the reasons that the Father has allowed this to happen.


The Father could have destroyed evil and I believe that one day He will. However, if He were to destroy it today, what would become of me (and you if you are honest)? Does evil not reside in my heart as well? If true justice were served would I not suffer the same fate as those that I deem to be "worse" sinners than myself? But if the Father hates evil, why does He allow it to continue? You see, that question is the real key and the only one that matters.


There seems to be an assumption that somehow those that do real evil will somehow get away with it. That God is somehow turning a blind eye to deceit and disobedience. This is simply not the case. You see, true destruction of evil would result in there being none of us left. For all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's plan for perfection. But none will "get away with it". There is a price to be paid for all sin and evil. The question before you is are you willing to pay that price yourself?

A Challenge or Two

For the past couple of months I have been working with my former classmates from high school to organize our upcoming 25th reunion. There is a great temptation when you are thrown back together with old friends to fall into old habits. One of the temptations is obvious. There may have been old habits that your friends associate with the old you. Maybe you were prone to swearing or gossiping or drinking, but whatever it was the temptation is obvious.

It is also easy enough to overcome when you have been removed from these friends for a long time. You have new habits with your new self that have taken the place of the old habits and just because you are around your old friends that does not mean you have to give in to the old temptations. So you refrain from gossiping, swearing, and drinking and you feel quite proud of yourself and all the while you have neglected the greater command that you have not seen as a temptation.

The Bible it up nicely here in Luke Chapter 10:
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Just who is my neighbor (hint: read the rest of Luke 10)? And what is the temptation that I am referring to that I have to be careful of? One of the easiest things to do when you are with a group of friends is to exclude others. To not show them the love that you so easily show to your friends. So my challenge when I return for my 25th reunion is to not exclude anyone and to show the love of God to all that I meet as equally as I can. This will be far more difficult than refraining from the "obvious" sins.

How about you? Did you see anyone at church recently that you did not know already? Did you make the effort to make them feel welcome? Or did they leave wondering why they bothered to make the effort? My challenge to you is to seek out those that don't already belong more frequently and to make them feel welcome. It is not really that difficult. You can start like this: Hi, my name is _________. I am happy you joined us tonight. Let me know if I can do anything to make your visit more enjoyable.

We are great at hugging our friends, but how about our neighbors?