SINCE EVIL AND SUFFERING EXIST, HOW CAN GOD? How can mere finite humans be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate short-term evil for more long-range good to happen that we cannot see? To free an animal from a trap, it may have to be hurt more than it hurts now. To take a sliver out of a child’s foot, we may have to increase the pain. Only where faith is difficult can faith exist. “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him (God)…” Heb.11:6.
If God were open and visible, we wouldn’t need faith. He has given us evidence that He exists, clues for us to follow to believe in Him. Augustine said, “If there is no God, why is there so much good? If there is a God, why is there so much evil?” “The fact that there is evil presupposes that there is a standard of Supreme Good. The idea of evil and good – and of God as the origin and standard of goodness is in the human mind. Where did that come from?” [C.S. Lewis]. If there is no Creator and therefore no moment of creation, then everything results from evolution. What, then, would be the purpose of things evolving? Without a beginning or first cause, the universe has always existed and has been evolving for an infinite time. That would have been plenty of time for evolution to have finished and evil to have been vanquished.
Atheism cheapens everything it touches. People have no meaning because death has no meaning, and if death has no meaning, life has no meaning if there is no God. In the end, when the atheist encounters God instead of the nothing he predicted, he’ll recognize atheism was cheap because it refused the only thing of value – the God of infinite value. Three attributes of God:
- God is all-powerful. God can do everything that is meaningful, everything that is possible, everything that makes any sense at all. He cannot make Himself cease to exist. He cannot make good to be evil. He can’t make mistakes. Only weak and stupid beings make mistakes. He created them with free will, creating the possibility of evil. The source of evil is not God’s power but man’s freedom. If God created a world without human freedom, it would have been a place without humans. It would have been a place without hate, suffering, evil, and without love. Humans wouldn’t have been real humans. By granting humans choices, comes the possibility that people would choose hate instead of love. The pain in the world is because we choose to kill, slander, be selfish, be sexually unfaithful, and break promises.
- God is all-knowing. He knows the future as well as He knows the present. He allows suffering because He knows more people will be happier in the long run than if He intervened miraculously. The ultimate evil – the death of Christ – was also the ultimate good. Suppose you were the devil and you wanted to kill God, but you can’t. But God has this weakness of creating and loving human beings, whom you can get at. You would be happy because now you’ve got hostages. You can corrupt them and drag some of them down to hell. And when prophets come to enlighten the people, you kill the prophets. God does what seems the most foolish thing of all – He sends His own Son to play by the world's rules. Your agents – Judas, Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas get Him crucified. But when He was on the cross, He stuck His foot in your mouth and you bit Him, but that blood destroyed you.
- God is all-good. Dentists, teachers, trainers, parents all know that sometimes it is not good to be to kind. Moral character is formed through hardship. We learn from mistakes and the suffering they bring. The point of our life isn’t comfort but training and preparation for eternity. A world without suffering and only endless entertainment, would make everyone spoiled brats. To prevent all evil, you must remove all freedom and reduce people to puppets. Justice delayed is not justice denied. At what point does suffering disprove the existence of God? One purpose of suffering is to bring repentance. Israel and the events in other nations prove this. C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Suffering is compatible with God’s love if it is medicinal, remedial and necessary. If we are sick, we need a cure. God went beyond justice and incredibly, took all the suffering upon Himself. He went the extra mile; He practiced more than He preached; He entered into our world; He suffered our pains; He offered Himself to us in the midst of our sorrows and sufferings. How could God bear all the suffering of the world? He did! Suffering reinforces faith just as likely as it sows seeds of agnosticism. Some of the world’s greatest sufferers have produced the most shining examples of faith. Jesus is beside us in the lowest places of our life: Are we broken? He was broken like bread for us. Are we despised? He was despised and rejected of men. Do we cry out when we can’t take any more? He was a man of sorrows. Do people betray us? He was sold out. Are our tenderest relationships broken? He loved and was rejected. Do people turn from us? They hid their faces from Him.
We know that scientists and philosophers must accept certain things that cannot be proved by faith. To bring people into a personal, living, loving relationship with God is impossible by human philosophy. We don’t even use philosophical logic to win a woman’s love and get her to be our wife! To win a person’s trust and love requires something very different. The reason people sometimes give up for not entering into a personal relationship with God is that they say it is not logical. The real reason is probably ingratitude and pride. To show gratitude to the Almighty God is to admit our total dependence on Him, and many people resent and refuse.
To penetrate this barrier of alienation, guilt, fear, enmity, misapprehension, and mistrust, God presents not a philosophy but a Person – and that Person is God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t present a theory about morality but a historical event – the cross of Christ. That demonstrates more powerfully than words, the result of man’s sin and alienation from God. The cross reveals, as no philosophical argument could, the reality and sincerity of God’s love for man. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” [Rom.5:8]. Man’s heart is reached; all barriers between man and God are broken down; forgiveness and reconciliation are made possible; and the future is guaranteed – by the cross.
No other philosophy has a real plan to eliminate evil from the world. The pursuit of pleasure, the hope of justice, the challenge for meaning in life, peace of mind, and a secure future can only be found by beginning at the cross. A stoic existentialist can never find meaning in life without coming to Christ. Science and philosophy seek to define and explain the problems sin causes, but they stop short of addressing the needs and realities of humanity.