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Perhaps the most frequently asked question by skeptics today is
why God allows evil to exist. From the holocaust to Columbine to 9-11,
it has become more common and even acceptable to question why a good God
allows human beings to suffer. In 1965 Stewart Zabriskie wrote, “At no
time in the history of theology has the doctrine of the
imago Dei had a more
challenging pastoral relevance or more provocative theological
implications than it does within the current of contemporary theology.”1
Forty six years later, we can only wish that society’s questions of
God’s image were still as easy.
Just this week I heard a well-known TV commentator ask a popular
Christian women’s speaker how she can believe in a God who would allow
9-11 to happen. “Could He have stopped it?” he asked, thus implying
that God is either not powerful or not loving. I concur with
Zabriskie’s comment about this having challenging pastoral relevance.
Only a few weeks ago I visited the home of a man dying of cancer who had
always questioned God’s existence (or at least His relevance). The only
question he had for me was, “If God is good, why does He allow suffering
in the world?” Upon the answer to that question hung the only
possibility of giving the gospel at such a critical time.
In
his popular book, The Problem of Pain,
C.S. Lewis described the agnostic’s dilemma, “If God were good, he
would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were
almighty, He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are
not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power or both.”2
That is exactly how a lost man thinks. Why would he want to believe in
a God who either does not love us enough to care about evil and pain in
our lives, or else He is not able to do anything about them anyway? As
tragedies are known and felt around the world with such rapidity, people
are confronted with these questions to a greater degree than ever
before.
The classical answer to the problem of
evil.
The
classic atheistic argument looks something like this:3
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If God existed, He would
eliminate evil.
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Evil exists.
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Therefore, God does not exist.
The
classic theistic answer would look something like this:
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Evil does indeed exist.
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Since evil exists, good also
exists.
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Good is not incompatible with
evil.
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Good is actually greater than
evil.
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God both exists and is good.
The
breakdown for the skeptic comes in a) thinking that good and evil cannot
coexist even for a while, and b) that a good God would have to destroy
evil immediately. The fact is that earth’s history since the Garden of
Eden proves that good and evil can exist in the same world, and God’s
revelation shows that God allows this as a probationary time for sinners
to freely repent, believe the good news of Christ’s deliverance, and
secure an everlasting home in heaven which will fulfill all of his
expectations and more. Far from God being unloving or unable, He is
rather longsuffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance
2 Peter 3:9). The
problem is man’s selfishness in insisting on some ill-deserved ease, not
God’s patience in applying the right medicine over the needed time.
A practical answer to the problem of
evil.
While reading in the book of Revelation I was struck with the
progression of thought in chapter six. The four horsemen (“of the
apocalypse”) are unleashed on the world, bringing terrible destruction,
while the souls of the faithful martyrs must wait under the altar to be
vindicated by God. The scenario offers a few biblical and yet practical
answers to our question.
A coming storm. As John watches
the Lamb open the first seal he hears
as it were the noise of thunder (vs. 1). A storm is coming upon
the earth such as never was seen in all of history. John Walvoord
writes, “On a warm summer day one can hear thunder in the distance even
though the sun is still shining where he is. The approaching dark
clouds and the roar of the thunder presage the beginning of the storm.”4
The coming Tribulation period will bring catastrophes, tragedies,
plagues and destruction which can be called “evil” and yet are directed
by the hand of God.
Though this period of earth’s history will be worse than any, all of
history has been filled with violence and suffering. We know that it
came from the “Pandora’s Box” of Genesis chapter three when men and
angels chose to disobey God and bring sin into the world. The storm of
consequences began there and will culminate in the end times.
Four horsemen by permission.
The Tribulation scene opens with the opening of the seven-sealed book.
The first four seals release the four horses and their riders. They
bring war and conquering, death and the sword, famine and starvation,
and finally the sword, hunger and death by wild beasts. This all comes
in a relatively short time span causing the unbelieving earth dwellers
to hide themselves in out-of-the-way places in the earth. In three of
the four cases John records that this “power” was “given” to each
rider. (The third rider on the black horse representing famine needs no
permission since the famine is already in progress). The same wording
appears throughout the book, especially in chapter thirteen where the
beast is “given” a mouth speaking great things (13:5) and “given”
ability to make war with the saints (13:7). None of it happens without
God’s permission. Satan could not touch Job without God’s permission
(Job 1:12, 2:6)
Some would object that if God has to give His permission for evil to
happen then evil is ultimately His fault anyway. Or some might say that
a good God would only allow good things to happen. But, as we have
seen, if evil originated in the choice of angels and men, then a good
God has allowed their bad choice in order to bring about a better good.
Geisler writes,
Because God does control and order evil, evil itself is part of a
total picture of good in the universe. Failure to see this ultimate
harmony in the universe with evil in it is like charging an artist
for lack of harmony in his mosaic by concentrating on only one piece
of it. One must step back and view the overall picture in order to
get the proper perspective of evil.5
The believers’ questions. Even
in the first half of the Tribulation, many will come to saving faith and
yet suffer martyrdom for that belief. Chapter six and verses nine
through eleven give a glimpse of the souls of such saints who
were slain for the word of God, and
for the testimony which they held (vs. 9). They suffered
unjustly for something which they believed in their hearts. Their
question to God is two-fold. 1) How long will their wait be? 2) Will
He judge and avenge their blood on those who dwell on the earth? These
questions are identical to the questions today: Can evil exist in God’s
world without judgment? And how long will it be before the judgment
comes?
What we know from reading the whole Book is that yes, God will
completely purge His floor and tread the winepress of His wrath, and He
will do it in exactly the time allotted by the prophecies of this Book.
But interestingly, God doesn’t answer these faithful saints with exactly
that answer. Neither are His ways always clear to us. But any saint in
any age may affirm with Abraham, Shall
not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen. 18:25).
God’s response to saints who suffer.
The divine response that was given is found in verse eleven and it is
three-fold. 1) They were to rest yet
for a little season. Since their own personal suffering was
over, they were to rest in their resting. For those who are presently
enduring trials, it is enough to know that God is in control and that
even this trial will somehow work out for the best in God’s plan (Rom.
8:28). Peter could write, But the God
of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you (1 Pet. 5:10).
2)
They were to wait until their fellow
servants also and their brethren, . . . should be killed as they were.
They were to endure until evil had run its course. Sometimes in
history sin has brought evil on everyone whether in the form of disease,
war or general decadence. Sometimes evil is directed at believers
specifically because their righteousness is an indictment upon the
unrighteous. Cain slew Abel because
his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous (1 John 3:12).
Jesus did not pray that we would escape the suffering of this world but
that we would be kept from the evil one (John 17:15).
3)
They were to rest and wait until these things that God was allowing and
directing should be fulfilled.
Evil will cease one day, but only when God’s benevolent purpose is
complete. There are many things we know from Scripture that are yet to
be fulfilled and it would be useless of us to ask God to by-pass what He
has already written. Such will be the case in the Tribulation when the
prophetic clock has begun to move again. Without being fatalistic, in
the age of grace, where we do not see every time and purpose indicator
as clearly, we must trust God that He is fulfilling His purpose in the
best possible way, dealing with sin on His own righteous schedule.
And so . . .
God
is bringing a stop to evil in
the world! But He is doing it in the best way and with the best
timing. His faithful believers know with the Apostle Paul
that we must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God! (Acts 14:22). We may add two
concluding thoughts for those who are in the midst of suffering.
First, prayer is a God-given avenue for relief, comfort and change!
The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much (James 5:16). By the eighth chapter
of Revelation we observe the prayers of the persecuted saints coming up
before the throne of God as incense (8:3-5). The effect of these
prayers shakes the earth even in the midst of the Tribulation! (see also
Psalm 18:6-9 and 2 Sam. 22:5-10). Our prayers are always answered!
Even if that answer is to endure suffering without fully understanding
why. This brings us to the second thought.
Second, history is God’s will! Once events go from the future to the
past, we do not need to pray about them or to worry and grieve over
them. Rather, Paul says, In every
thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you (1 Thes. 5:18). Once God has allowed even evil to
happen, we must realize He did that for reasons perhaps known only unto
Him. Someday in heaven we will see how every prayer of ours affected
that outcome, and how our patient endurance was used of God for His own
glory and the advancement of His will.
There is a good reason why many of the hymns in our hymn book end with a
verse speaking of heaven. “Don’t think me poor or deserted or lonely,
I’m not discouraged, I’m heaven bound” or “I heard about a mansion He
has built for me in glory, and I heard about the streets of gold beyond
the crystal sea.” Maybe it’s because that’s the way the Bible ends!
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are
passed away (Rev. 21:4).
Notes:
1. Quoted by Charles Feinberg, “The
Image of God,” Vital Theological
Issues, Roy Zuck, ed. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1994) 52.
2. C.S. Lewis,
The Problem of Pain (New York:
Macmillan, 1962) 26.
3. See Norman Geisler,
The Philosophy of Religion
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974) chapters 14-17.
4. John Walvoord,
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1974) 124.
5. Geisler, 340.
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