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.