The Problem of Evil

The problem of evil is difficult to accept.  If a man is injured through no fault of his own and while in the hospital is defrauded of all his possessions and savings, we know it is wrong.  We see no reason or sense in it and we worry over the problem of evil.  On the other hand, if a man who lived an uneventful life is befriended by a benevolent soul who helps him solve all his problems and starts him on a prosperous career, we don’t worry.  Why don’t we worry of the problem of good?

For some reason we assume that things ought to be right and we are not surprised when they are.  We expect the good and we are troubled when it fails us.  If the world was merely a mechanical device, churning our purposeless events, there would be no more reason to expect good things than bad things.  If that were the case, there would be no problem of evil because there would be no standards of right and wrong.  Random, arbitrary events are an interesting theory but mankind simply cannot live that way.  Even those who claim the world was created by chaos do not live their lives that way.  They believe there is a difference between good and evil, particularly when it happens to them.

Instinctively, we postulate a Will for Good as the guiding influence in life.  Where would we be if we did not believe that goodness was the normal condition of human existence?  Evil is abnormal and out of place.  That’s why we have a problem with evil but not with good.  As Christians, we look to a Heavenly Father who made the world and said it was good.  He wants His holy and righteous principles to prevail among men.  Evil is out of character with God so we find it hard to understand why it exists.

There are four classes of occurrences which we commonly designate as evil.  First, there are harmful, perverted deeds committed by men and women which cloud the characters of those who perform them and often inflict injury on others at the same time.  The answer to this class of evil is simply sin.  God does not will these deeds and does not want them.  They are the products of human selfishness and the denial of God’s will.  Sin is evil and needs correction and God provided a way of redemption through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Beyond the consequences the perpetrator incurs for his sin, innocent persons also incur consequences for the perpetrator’s sin.  Frequently the heaviest penalty of sin falls upon those who are not guilty.  It is not fair but we all see it happen.  We are all so bound together in this life that no man lives completely alone.  What I do has an inevitable effect on those who live about me.  It applies to good as well as evil.  I can make life easier or harder for others by my actions.  If someone commits a sin, I may suffer for it undeservedly.  If someone does a good deed I may benefit undeservedly.  We all share in the world’s hurts and its blessings.  We cannot be exempt from the actions of others.  The evil of sin lies in human resistance to God and because we are human, we are part of it.

Second, there are natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, fires, floods, volcanoes, and tornadoes.  The insurance business calls them “acts of God”.  These are so complicated it is almost impossible to detail cause and effect reliably.  We can identify cases where inappropriate use of natural resources has contributed to fires and floods.  We sometimes attempt to live in areas conducive to producing earthquakes, volcanoes and tornadoes.  In these cases, we probably contribute to the catastrophic nature of the event.

Another aspect of these catastrophic events is that we know relatively little about the big picture.  Natural laws may allow what we determine to be an immediate catastrophe to bring about changes for the better.  Annihilating a city in ruin and rebuilding it as a cleaner, healthier place to live can in the long run be beneficial.  Sometimes the evil we see is not as evil as we think.  A temporary loss is often the way to a greater final gain.  We must trust God to turn the scale in the right direction.  In these cases it might be better to withhold our judgment about the good and evil in some events.

The third class of evil is illustrated by the book of Job.  Job was “perfect and upright.  He feared God and eschewed evil.  Adversities descended upon Job until he was almost overwhelmed.  Friends and neighbors tried to comfort him and explain his situation.  Finally God reminded everyone that they know very little of God’s purposes.  In many things we must simply trust God even in mysterious visitations like Job’s.

When we measure right and wrong, fortune should smile on the good and the righteous while trouble and difficulty should be lot of the wicked.  Often the situation is reversed and we call it a problem of evil.  But these evils are not always evil at all.  Adversity may prove to be a rousing experience to test the mettle of our courage.  Sometimes we find great growth during a violent disturbance which at the time seems unjust and unnecessary.

When these circumstances of undeserved hardships fail to do anybody any good, we question their existence.  Remember the first class of evil we discussed.  We suffer hardships without deserving them because we are part of mankind and cannot escape.  At the same time, we enjoy many benefits we do not deserve for the same reason.  The advances of modern medicine are enjoyed by all of us and we would be hard pressed to show how we paid the price for them.

Finally we come to the problem of pain.  This is the most common and most acute aspect of the whole question of evil.  The amount of physical agony in the world is appalling.  How can a good God allow this to exist?  It is not as simple as the divide between good health and ill health.  A large amount of disease and pain is attributable to our own bad living or violations of the laws of health.  It can be directly due to our sins.  The infliction of pain can be remedial and produce a greater joy in the long run.  Sometimes physical suffering induces refinements of character which would not have resulted from a lifetime of ease and luxury.

All of these considerations may qualify the problem of pain.  They may dull its edge and dilute its venom, but the question still remains.  Why should there be sin, and brutality, and greed, and violence in a world which God made to be good.  Where do such ungodly factors come from?  How did they get here?  Why do they continue to bedevil us?  There are three ways to approach the problem of evil.

First, we may ignore it.  We know there are good and bad elements in life, but we can chose to pay no attention to the bad ones.  Good is positive, evil is negative.  Can we emphasis good to the point of smothering out evil?  Evil cannot be dismissed as the absence of good.  It can produce very definite harm and must be eradicated.  They must be recognized, tagged, labeled, fought, and destroyed.

Second, we may deny the existence of evil as a logical impossibility.  God is good and the author of all things.  Therefore there is no place left for evil.  Sin and sickness are figments of our imagination and cannot exist because God is good and God is the source of all creation.  Such a denial answers nothing.  If sin and sickness are only mistaken ideas, where did such ideas come from?  If evil is impossible, so is the idea of evil.  As far as human misery is concerned, what’s the difference whether it comes from evil or the idea of evil?  A person may be killed with a gun or frightened to death.  We can argue about the cause, but in either case, we still have a funeral.

The third approach is to face the facts honestly and admit that we do not know.  Almost from the beginning, people have worried about the problem of evil without reaching any satisfactory solution.  Conditions are too complex for us to analyze.  Some experiences we think are evil turn out to be good for us.  Others are mixed to the point we cannot unravel one cause from another.  Our vision is limited and our judgment is faulty.  Christ met life with all its thorns and brambles.  He did not minimize the forces of evil but challenged them without compromise.  He did not tell us why they are there or where they come from.  Whatever the reason for evil may be, its power is temporary and must eventually submit to the goodness of God.  We must continue to wage moral and spiritual warfare in Christ’s name and trust the triumph of good over evil to God.  God is good.  Our destiny is to be like Him.