Current Study: Major Bible Doctrines
Past Studies: The Book of James
Spiritual Warfare By: Jim Osman
Theodicy: The Problem of Evil
Book: If God, Why Evil? by Norman Geisler, can be purchased on Amazon.com or Christianbook.com
My Personal Perspective of Evil
Dennis M. Grant
I have seen evil and I have endured pain and suffering. In 1979, my mother died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. I was only 16. In 1983, my brother, who was also my best friend, died from a car driven by a drunken driver at the age of 21. I was 19. In that same year, I was diagnosed with a near fatal fissure of the lower intestines that had caused so much pain in my body that I wanted to die. In 1984, I endured a very severe case of chicken pox. In 1990, another brother died from an automobile accident. He was a passenger in a truck on his way to help repair a house for an underprivileged family. The driver of the truck only received a scratch on the elbow, my brother suffered a broken neck. In 1996, my father died of Leukemia. It was 3 months after I received my college degree that I promised him I would get.
These are just a few of some personal events that I have encountered in my life. Time nor space will allow me to share others. Yet, in the wake of all these situations, I am convinced of the faithfulness of God and the eradication of pain and suffering now more than ever. However, I must admit that I have not always had the confident trust that God would do so.
Well, maybe I should say I trusted that He could, I believed that He would, but I didn’t see the, “when” of it happening. What was taking Him so long?
I have been a Christian since age 10. I reaffirmed my faith in Christ at age 19. Since that time, I have had questions about God’s dealing with us and the issue of pain and suffering. But I have always believed He was in control of all things.
I learned early in Romans 8:28, that all things, good and bad, work together for good, according to God’s purposes. I learned early that some sicknesses and even deaths were for the glory of God according to John 9:3 and John 11:4.
Did I understand His works in its totality? By no means. But growing up in a Christian home I learned to just accept things as “this is God’s will” or that “some things are just a part of life.” I have begun to call them the “vicissitudes” of life.
While these “life problems” were hard to stomach sometimes, I accepted them. But how do you console a 16 year old boy who has fervently prayed to God to deliver his mother from cancer and convince him to accept that “it’s just a part of life?” It ain’t that easy. How do you convince him that “it’s just God’s will”, that his brother was killed by a drunken driver? Why didn’t God will that the drunken driver die instead of my brother? To me, it was apparent that he didn’t want to live since he was stupid enough to drive drunk.
Or how do you rationalize your brother suffering a broken neck while the driver of the truck only got a mere scratch? Come on, God, really?!
It was only later in life as I read Acts 12, when I thought that the family of James could have asked the same question about him when God allowed Herod to take James with the sword and when he proceeded to take Peter God miraculously intervened.
It took me awhile to come to grips with the sovereignty of God. I “believed” that He was in control of everything, but I had to “experience” that He was really in control of everything, evil included.
Now as I look at the world and the problems in life, I marvel that there really is a God who can make sense out of it all. I am in awe how God operates by weaving various situations together, good situations, bad situations, problematic situations, self-inflicted situations, all for His ultimate glory and our subsequent good.
The various readings in this class have helped me to put in perspective some things that I have believed in for a number of years, but never quite been able to articulate them in the way they have been presented.
As I began to understand the concept of Theodicy, I realized that I had been wrestling with it all my life. But the various arguments for and against God was new to me. As a matter of fact, if the truth be told, I can’t remember if I even knew or had come across the term theodicy before. Shallow me.
In times past I would affirm with others the question, Why do bad things happen to good people? But over the years I have rebutted the question by asking, who said they were good people? Right here, I am thinking about the incidents Jesus referred to in Luke 13:1-5 concerning those who Pilate had killed and the ones on whom the tower of Siloam had fallen on and killed.
When I consider the evil that is in the world and the people that commit evil acts, it is apparent that they ain’t so good. Yes, there may be what I consider traces of goodwill in some, but at the heart, the Bible is true when it says, that there is none that doeth good, no not one (Romans 3:10). And the fact is unless we all repent, we shall likewise perish.
The evil that we see is the result of sin brought into the world through disobedience. Disobedience by something God created. Yet, God cannot be blamed for the evil or the suffering that arises from the evil. Therefore, if we are going to deal with the problem of evil, then it is of utmost importance that we get a solid theological and Biblical understanding of God. For I am convinced that this is the reason why so many people lose hope in tragic situations and some even have wavering faith because they misunderstand God.
I believe that everything God created was good. I believe that man was created good, with the ability to choose good or evil. Yet the evil influence that was brought to bear upon him through the temptation of the devil caused his downfall. Thus, sin entered into the world.
Now, why God allowed evil to arise in the devil after being in His glorious presence in the first place, I can’t answer that. And it is when unanswerable questions like this arise that I resort to Deuteronomy 29:29 that says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law”.
No, this is not a cop out, but quite the contrary, it is just the fact that I have learned to trust that God knows what He is doing. It does not mean that I don’t pursue some understanding of His ways and even question His actions that I am confronted with. I like Job, accept first and foremost, that the Lord can give, and the Lord can take away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
However, I also believe that I would be less of God’s servant, no, less of His child, if I didn’t pursue the questions, not just to know the answers but to know Him, the one who is my loving, heavenly Father. Even as Paul declared in Philippians 3:10, that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. This is what drives me as I minister to others and seek to help them come to faith in Christ alone.
I am learning what the arguments of theodicy are from an academic standpoint. But I have learned what the solutions are from having faith in God and His word.
There is evil, pain and suffering in this world. No one is immune from it. Some people seem to suffer more than others. And sometimes it seems that those who I might think deserve some suffering, don’t suffer at all. I am thinking of Psalm 73 now. But what I have come to accept, even if I don’t fully understand them, is that God’s ways indeed are not my ways and his thoughts certainly are not my thoughts.
For even as I just wrote that, I think there are some who deserve some suffering, who am I that I should think I deserve the good I receive from God? How arrogant.
We sing a song in church that says:
“We are often tossed and driven on a restless sea of time,
Somber skies and howling tempest oft succeed a bright sunshine.
But in that land of perfect day when the mist has rolled away,
we will understand it better by and by.”
Yes, the hope that I have is that we will one day understand the reason for evil, pain and suffering. Whether it is mitigated by Satan, the evil one, or whether it is because of our sinful natures. Whether natural evils like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters are termed correctly as “acts of God” or because sin has so marred the entire creation that things are running their course under his watchful eye.
Even though the song says we will understand it better by and by, I just believe that at that point it won’t matter because all things will be new. No sickness, no pain, no death, no suffering, no evil. Yes, that will be glorious day. But until then, I believe that we must do what Jesus said he must do in John 9:2, and that is work the works of Him that sent us while it is day, for when night comes no man can work.
Yes, I have an obligatory mandate to witness unto Christ and to evangelize wherever I go, no matter what obstacles I face or what evils may lurk. And unless the word of God is my hope, I fail in my efforts. James Russell Lowell said in his poem “This Present Crisis” these words,
“Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadows keeping watch above His own.” I am in full agreement with Lowell and his assessment of what I see as “this present crisis” of having to deal with evil. But I am even more convinced and assured of the words of Jesus that he spoke in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world“.
Therefore, if Jesus has overcome the world. He has also overcome the evil in the world. Even so, come Lord Jesus, come. PRAY.
Theodicy: The Problem of Evil
Dennis M. Grant
The Problem of Evil has been around a very long time.
It is very hard to explain and very difficult to define.
It is known as Theodicy from a theological perspective
It’s the justice of God a discipline measure is God’s objective
It begs to ask the question, How can a loving and Holy God
allow evil in world and stand by watching without a nod?
Either He is not all powerful, and cannot stop what Satan does
and we all have been deceived about His unconditional love
Because it just seems so unfair that good people have to suffer
and their lives are filled with pain with no protection and no buffer
A disease can come along and a baby has to endure
pain and suffering his whole life and we never find a cure
Or just out of the blue comes a fast-moving tsunami
and it sweeps all life away and they didn’t see it coming
And what about the lives that were snuffed out by the gun
or destroyed in a fire because they had nowhere to run
These are just a few examples of the tragedies we face
there are others even worse everyday in every place
So please help me understand why the pain is so immense
and God seems to turn away, To me it doesn’t make much sense
But here is where you are wrong and your perspective is not clear
God is a very present help His mighty hand is always near
Yes, He sees what’s going on in your life and in mine
and He’s the only one who can help but He does in his own time
There is something you must learn on life’s journey as you trod
and that’s the attributes and character and the Sovereignty of God
God is holy and He’s righteous this is something we all know
we are sinful and depraved the Bible plainly tells is so
So, when we look at situations we have to understand our view
our perspective is clouded by sin so we fail to know what’s true
Even though it doesn’t seem God is looking out for our good
it’s right next to His own glory and He’s doing what he should
So let me try to make it plain ‘cause I haven’t even scratched the surface
there’s a necessity for evil believe it or not it serves a purpose
When God created man as a being with free will
it meant more than free to choose but there were consequences with which to deal
If man truly will be free he must be allowed to make the choice
to whom he will submit himself to Satan’s lies or to Gods voice?
I can make him follow me like a puppet on a string
but that would not be good for him nor would that let his freedom ring
He must learn to live by faith even in the darkest hour
when his world is upside down and he has no strength or power
He must know that I am God and I’m fully in control
I’m the captain of his fate and savior of his soul
Even though I let him hurt and he cannot understand
I am still a loving God and will not let go his hand
Know that evil will not triumph because of divine sovereignty
and the direct correlation of human responsibility
God is good all the time it’s a part of his nature
and even though pain is allowed behind the hurt there is His favor
It is obvious something’s wrong for there is still this great dilemma
Is God really all that good and are we really all just doomed sinners
As fallen human beings we must all humbly admit
For a good God to allow evil Again, it doesn’t make much sense
There is much more to the concept Of this thing called theodicy
But it may only be in heaven When its truth we’ll plainly see
Questions for Discussion
- What is the problem of evil, and why is it such a problem?
- Why is it important for Christians to develop a theodicy?
- Has evil in the world or in your pwersonal lifecused you toask questions about God? If so, how did you resolvethose questions?