What about the problem of evil?
Question 60006
If God is all-powerful, He could prevent evil. If God is all-loving, He would want to prevent evil. Yet evil exists. Therefore, either God is not all-powerful, not all-loving, or He does not exist at all. This is the problem of evil, and it has been posed as an objection to Christian faith for centuries. How should we respond?
Understanding the Problem
The problem of evil is not merely an intellectual puzzle; it is an existential cry from the human heart. When a child dies of cancer, when a tsunami kills hundreds of thousands, when a madman shoots up a school, people naturally ask, “Where is God? Why did He allow this?” These questions deserve serious, compassionate answers.
The problem is often stated in two forms. The logical problem of evil claims that the existence of God and the existence of evil are logically incompatible. The existence of any evil at all disproves an all-powerful, all-loving God. The evidential problem of evil is less absolute: it admits that God and evil might coexist but argues that the amount and distribution of evil in the world makes God’s existence improbable.
We should note at the outset that the problem of evil is a problem for everyone, not just Christians. The atheist who raises this objection must explain where his sense of moral outrage comes from. If the universe is merely matter in motion, if there is no God and no objective moral standard, then “evil” is just a label we attach to things we dislike. True moral evil requires a moral standard against which it can be measured. And a moral standard requires a moral lawgiver. The very existence of evil, properly understood, points toward God rather than away from Him.
Free Will and Moral Evil
Much of the evil in the world is moral evil: evil caused by human choices. Murder, theft, adultery, cruelty, war, genocide. These are the products of human decisions to rebel against God’s good purposes. And here the concept of free will becomes essential.
God created human beings in His image, with the capacity to make genuine choices. This capacity is part of what makes us persons rather than robots. But genuine freedom means the freedom to choose wrongly as well as rightly. God could have created beings who always chose good, but they would not have been truly free. They would have been automatons, programmed to behave in certain ways. God wanted genuine relationship, genuine love, genuine worship, and these require genuine freedom.
The free will defence does not explain every instance of evil, but it goes a long way toward explaining why God permits moral evil. He permits it because eliminating it would require eliminating human freedom, and human freedom is intrinsically valuable. As C.S. Lewis put it in Mere Christianity, “Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”
Some object that God could have created free beings who always freely chose good. But is this coherent? If it is logically impossible for God to make someone freely do something, then God’s inability to do so is no limitation on His power. God cannot make square circles or married bachelors either. These are not genuine possibilities.
Natural Evil and the Fall
But what about natural evil? Earthquakes, floods, diseases, and other disasters that are not caused by human choices? These seem harder to explain.
The biblical answer is the Fall. When Adam sinned, the consequences extended beyond humanity to the entire creation. In Genesis 3:17-19, God tells Adam, “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” The natural world was subjected to frustration and decay as a result of human rebellion.
Paul develops this in Romans 8:20-22: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”
Natural evil, in this understanding, is not the way God originally made the world. It is a consequence of the Fall, a symptom of a creation out of joint. The earthquakes and diseases that afflict us are reminders that something has gone terribly wrong. They are not God’s original design but the result of humanity’s choice to go its own way.
This does not mean that every specific instance of natural evil is a punishment for a specific sin. Jesus explicitly rejected that notion in John 9:2-3, when His disciples asked about a man born blind: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” We live in a fallen world where bad things happen to everyone, regardless of their moral standing.
The Purposes of God in Suffering
While we cannot always know why God permits specific evils, Scripture suggests several purposes that suffering can serve.
Suffering can build character. Romans 5:3-4 says, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” There are qualities of soul that can only be developed through adversity. Patience is forged in waiting. Courage is forged in danger. Compassion is forged in pain. Without evil and suffering, these virtues would be meaningless.
Suffering can draw us to God. Many people testify that their deepest encounters with God came in their darkest moments. When everything else is stripped away, we discover what really matters. C.S. Lewis called pain “God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Comfort often makes us complacent; suffering wakes us up.
Suffering can serve the purposes of others. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, a terrible evil. Yet years later, Joseph could say, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). God weaves even human wickedness into His redemptive purposes.
Suffering can display God’s glory. In John 11, Jesus delays going to Lazarus until after he has died. When Martha questions why Jesus did not come sooner, He responds, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). The death of Lazarus, and the grief of his sisters, became the occasion for the greatest miracle of Jesus’ ministry before His own resurrection.
The Cross as God’s Answer
The deepest answer to the problem of evil is not a philosophical argument but a historical event: the cross of Jesus. Here is God’s definitive response to evil and suffering.
At the cross, God did not remain distant from human suffering. He entered into it. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, took on human flesh and experienced the full weight of human pain. He was betrayed, abandoned, mocked, tortured, and killed. He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). God knows what suffering is because He has experienced it Himself.
At the cross, God dealt with the root cause of evil: sin. Jesus bore our sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). The penalty that we deserved fell on Him. The justice of God was satisfied. The way was opened for sinful human beings to be reconciled to a holy God. Evil will ultimately be defeated because, at the cross, its power was broken.
At the cross, God demonstrated His love in the most decisive way possible. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We cannot say that God does not care about suffering when He gave His own Son to suffer and die for us. Whatever questions remain unanswered, the love of God is not in doubt.
The Future Triumph Over Evil
The story is not over. The Bible promises a day when God will wipe away every tear, when death shall be no more, when mourning and crying and pain shall pass away (Revelation 21:4). The evil and suffering we experience now are temporary. They belong to this age, which is passing. The new creation that God is bringing will be free from all evil forever.
This is not wishful thinking or pie in the sky. It is the certain hope grounded in the resurrection of Jesus. Because He rose from the dead, we know that death does not have the final word. Because He conquered the grave, we know that God will make all things new. The problem of evil finds its ultimate resolution not in this life but in the life to come.
Conclusion
The problem of evil is real and painful. We should not minimise it or offer glib answers. But the problem of evil does not disprove God; rather, it points to our need for Him. Only in God do we find a sufficient basis for calling evil what it is. Only in the cross do we find God entering our suffering and dealing with its root cause. Only in the resurrection do we find the promise that evil will not triumph. The Christian faith does not ignore evil; it provides the resources to face it, endure it, and ultimately overcome it.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
Bibliography
- Carson, D.A. How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil. 2nd ed. Baker Academic, 2006.
- Craig, William Lane. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. David C Cook, 2010.
- Feinberg, John S. The Many Faces of Evil: Theological Systems and the Problems of Evil. Crossway, 2004.
- Geisler, Norman L. If God, Why Evil? A New Way to Think About the Question. Bethany House, 2011.
- Keller, Timothy. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering. Dutton, 2013.
- Lewis, C.S. The Problem of Pain. Geoffrey Bles, 1940.
- Plantinga, Alvin. God, Freedom, and Evil. Eerdmans, 1974.
- Wright, N.T. Evil and the Justice of God. SPCK, 2006.
