Evil Can I believe that God is really good?

Agnostics say: How can a loving God allow the appalling evil and suffering that happens in this world? If God is loving He must wish to abolish evil. If He is all powerful He could have done it by now. God cannot be all powerful and perfectly loving! –David Hume – Atheist Philosopher/Empiricist 1711 As Christians we often choose to run rather than fight this battle. The Bible has answers! Ideas presented by John Hick, Augustine, and Dave Kerr

Bible is faithful to say that evil is not God’s will: Faithfully reflects that evil is evil. Suffering and pain is faithfully recorded in realistic detail. –Abel, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Jesus Evil is dark, menacing, heart-rending, and crushing. John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8 The climax of evil was Christ’s death as unjust, murderous, and a rejection of the hope of a deliverer (Messiah). Colossians 1:20 All of these prove that evil is definitely against God’s wishes. So why does it continue?

Main Principles in the Bible: God has created you and desires that you serve Him and love your neighbor. Matthew 22:37-40 You are a moral agent that He wishes to spend eternity with. Romans 2:15-16, Manual Article 7, Rom 14:12 Your major battles are not food, drink, clothes, etc., but rather evil, attitudes, and moral dilemmas during your life. Ephesians 6:12 Your spiritual formation is of greater concern to God than your physical formation. Luke 9:23-27 (esp. 25)

What is evil? The Universe is good. It was created good, and good can still be seen in it. Evil is therefore a corruption of what is (was) good. It is something that was good having gone wrong. (Ideas from St. Augustine)

Correct/Incorrect views of evil: REJECT: “We must have evil so that we may know the good.” This is NOT a Biblical teaching. This sets up a dual Universe with Evil equal to Good (Zoroastrianism). ACCEPT: “Evil must be possible in order for Good to be possible.” This is logical in accordance with scripture. –If there is only one choice, good or bad is not really possible – only the one choice. –If you always choose good, then you never know evil, though it could exist –If free choice is good, and if it is possible to happen, then to occur there must be at least two choices. That which is “not good” is “bad” which is a corruption of the Universe, since it was created “good.”

Evil offends in two ways: Moral evil (a.k.a. “wickedness”) –Why does an all-powerful God allow this? Non-Moral evil (suffering/pain not caused by humans i.e. Hurricanes/Fires/Floods) –Why has a good God created a world in which bad things can happen to good people?

Moral Evil: The Dilemma God is able to create beings of any kind and characteristic. Humans = morally free agents. –They get to choose to develop their spirits or condemn them. God could create robots if He wanted to. To say that God should not have created human beings that could sin is saying “God should not have made human beings!” If we do not choose the good, we are letting the bad rule our lives. The Bible calls this sin. People are special: –Only they can become “children of God!” –capable of entering a personal relationship with God freely and uncompelled! Wow!!!!

Moral Evil’s Symptoms: PovertyOppressionPersecution WarInjusticeIndignity Inequity (even in the most advanced societies) All of these could be stopped if you and I did not allow them to be perpetuated. In fact, Christ has called us to battle these in Love! Thus these are less a reflection of what God desires as it is a testimony to how much we all need Jesus Christ as Lord.

Non-Moral Evil mixed with Moral Perhaps the more difficult of the two to justify. Very hard to separate out from man’s role in sin as well. I.e. Tsunami: Many of the poor are forced to scavenge on the coast. Many of the children are forced into labor early with no education. When the tides went out the scavenging was best until the wave came in. Human greed, and our allowance that there should be poor among us contributed to the horrors of allowing the children and the poor to die in such large numbers.

Non-Moral Evil’s Symptoms: Earthquake (tsunami) Uncontrolled Fire Storm Flood Drought Blight All of these are seen as “Acts of God” by insurance companies! How could He allow these things? It is built into the very structure of our world!

The skeptic on Non-Moral Evil: The world is our “Garden” 1. Man is a perfect creation 2. God’s purpose for the world is to provide a suitable and happy dwelling for this perfected creature called “man.” This view is not Biblical

The skeptic is wrong on both counts! Man is not perfected Hebrews 12:2, Phil. 3:12 No where in the Bible does it say that Earth was created as a paradise! (Eden was a garden created while the Earth was developing! Read Genesis!) Gen 2:4-9

What is the purpose of Creation? “Soul making” (Romans 1) The creation of “Children of God” 1 John 3:2 Making “Heirs of eternal life” Romans 8:17 Man is not perfect. Man needs perfecting. Sons and daughters need to “grow up.” So, is this world ideal for the development of the soul? This world is perfect for it’s purpose! How?

Let’s imagine the skeptic’s world: no one could ever injure anyone else: –the murderer's knife would turn to paper or his bullets to thin air; the bank safe, robbed of a million dollars, would miraculously become filled with another million dollars fraud, deceit, conspiracy, and treason would somehow always leave the fabric of society undamaged….

Skeptic’s world continued… No one would ever be injured by accident: –the mountain-climber, construction worker, or playing child falling from a height would float unharmed to the ground; the reckless driver would never meet with disaster. There would be no choice and no challenge There would be no need to work, –no harm could result from avoiding work; There would be no call /reason to be concerned for others in time of need or danger, –in such a world there could be no real needs or dangers. This all sounds nice, but leads to other problems…

Perception and Reality would not work! Existence would be a continual series of individual adjustments. “Special Providences” would be the requirement General (and explainable) laws would not work! –Gravity would work sometimes, sometimes not! –An object would be hard at times, at times not! No Science, no exploration, no challenge, no PURPOSE! And that is the key – there IS a purpose! Could we even communicate in such a world? –What would you talk about? What would be “news?”

Skeptic’s world would be meaningless: If harming someone is wrong, and I cannot harm someone, then I cannot do wrong. If stealing is wrong, but no damage is done by it, then why is it wrong? Kindness, generosity, “agâpe” love; courage, -- all would be completely unnecessary. Unselfishness, prudence, even work; all would be meaningless.

Logical Conclusion: Sin that man causes does not need to be in this world. for soul building to occur. Sin is a perversion. A world that would allow soul building should have general laws, consequences, and circumstances that would allow moral choices for soul-building (danger, dilemmas, sacrifice opportunities) and for loving your neighbor and having faith that there is a God. This world is perfect for soul building, even with man’s contribution of sin.

The Christian Triumph: Christ’s death and resurrection is the epitome of what God can do with this earth! His death was the worst kind of evil: murderous, barbaric, unjust, debasing, and that to Deity! The purpose in the death was the greatest kind of good! Salvation of those who did not even know it yet! Chivalrous sacrifice for an incredible good! Laying down self-will for the good of others. The supreme evil turned to the supreme good should inspire us to be a part of God’s purpose of working “all things for the good of those who love and trust God!” Romans 8:28

Finally: The crucifixion of Christ = man's redemption, –so good can be won from other evils. His execution = an experience which God desired and made to serve the divine ends… …So the Christian response to calamity is to accept the adversities, pains, and afflictions which life brings, in order that they can be turned to a positive spiritual use. Man’s evil is changeable and unnecessary, and should be opposed for spiritual growth. Natural suffering allows God’s redemptive work to succeed. Be part of it! The world is perfect for your spiritual growth and for development of Faith. It is by faith you are saved… Ideas by John Hick, Augustine, and Dave Kerr

David Hume ; British (Scots) Empiricist

The Problem God is perfect. This world is created by God. Therefore, the world approximates perfection. There is evil in the world. Therefore, the world does not approximate perfection. Therefore, either the world is not created by God or God is not perfect. If God did create the world then either God is not all powerful or he is not infinitely loving. That is, he is either unable or unwilling to deal with evil.