The Problem of Evil
Dodd Cummings / Elder, Calvary Bible Church
History, Types, Worldviews, Responses
History of Evil
“If there is no God, why is there so much good? If there is a God, why is there so much evil?” -Augustine
“The sufferings of millions of the lower animals throughout almost endless time are apparently irreconcilable with the existence of a creator of unbounded goodness.” -Charles Darwin, 1856
Why do bad things happen to good people? – That only ever happened once, and he volunteered for it! - Unknown
Epicurus (341-270 BC)
Epicurus is generally credited with first expounding the problem of evil, and it is sometimes called the “Epicurean paradox’, the “riddle of Epicurus”, or the “Epicurean trilemma”:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent
Is He able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?
-The Epicurean Paradox, - 300BC
Philosophical View of the Problem of Evil (Philosophical Syllogism)
1) If an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God exist, then evil should not exist.
2) There is Evil in the world
3) Therefore, an Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnibenevolent God does not exist.
Types of Evil
-Natural Evil – Earthquakes, Draughts, Hurricanes, cancer, pandemics etc..
-Moral Evil – People
-Sovereign Evil (Not our position, but the charge against God)
-What does the world deserve?
-Doesn’t eternal Damnation seem kind of extreme? Sovereign Evil Responses
-Car example (Junk Yard vs. Lamborghini)
-Sin against God is infinite Evil, because, he is an infinite being.
“Our obligation to love, honor and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness, or and authority. Therefore, sin against God, being a violation of an infinite obligation, must be a crime infinitely heinous and so deserving infinite punishment. If there is any evil in sin against God, it is infinite evil.”
-Jonathan Edwards
World Views & Evil
All stories, books, movies and even worldviews have the same basic elements: -How we got here, what is our purpose, what went wrong, how do we fix it and
where are we going. Ask these questions to anyone with any worldview...
Atheism/Naturalism, Materialism –
How could a good God allow...............?
Removing God solves nothing... they still have the problem............
But the non-Christian needs to respond to evil as well.
William Lane Craigs reply to Bertrand Russell
Hinduism – The problem of evil does not apply to most Hindu traditions. Evil as well as good, along with suffering is considered real and caused by human free will, its source and consequences explained through the karma doctrine of Hinduism.
Buddhism – As a non-theistic religion, does not assume, assert, or have an answer to the problem of evil. It just is.
Theism – Islam, Judaism and Christianity
-Islam – The omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent god in Islam thought, creates everything including human suffering and its causes (EVIL). Evil was neither bad nor needed more Justification from God, but rewards awaited believers in the afterlife. The faithful suffered in this short life, to be judged by God and enjoy heaven in the never-ending afterlife.
Judaism – The ancient books of the Hebrew Bible do not show an awareness of the theological problem of evil, and even later biblical scholars did not touch the question of the problem of evil. The first systematic reflections the problem of evil by Jewish philosophers in traceable only in the medieval period. The problem of evil gained renewed interest among the Jewish scholars after the moral evil of the Holocaust. The all-powerful, all-compassionate, all-knowing monotheistic God presumably had the power to prevent the Holocaust, but he didn’t.
Christianity – “Christianity is the best explanation for the way things are.” G. Koukl
Responses to Evil
Theodicy – an attempt to provide a plausible justification, a morally or philosophically sufficient reason for the existence of evil.
A term coined by a German Philosopher by the name of Gottfried Leibniz in 1710. A believer, he argued that this is the best of all possible worlds that God could have created.
First
-Understand from where the question comes? Is this:
-An intellectual question or
-An emotional question
-Romans 8:28 answer or “God’s plan for your life” may not be sufficient.
The question of evil and more importantly, the Christian response needs to be handled carefully. Believers and non-believers have undergone and are undergoing real issues. Death, disease, and suffering. Christians need to be so sensitive to these real issues when answering. Perhaps the best response to the woman who lost her husband, or a child with medical issues is to love her and listen. Show her Jesus by your actions and not always your words. Hopefully, this will give you the opportunity to share Jesus with her so she can see where real hope comes from.
Natural Evil Responses (4 Options – one or more, correct?)
-Natural evils are the result of the fall of man, which corrupted the perfect world created by God, or
-Natural evils are the result of natural laws; or (If a tree falls in the woods..) -Natural evils provide us with a knowledge of evil which makes our free
choices more significant than they would otherwise be, and so our free will more valuable, (Climate Justice); or
-Natural evils are a mechanism of divine punishment for more evils that humans have committed and so the natural evil is justified.
Moral Evil Responses Practical Response
-First, do you want to eliminate evil or just punish evil? This will happen tonight at midnight.
-Eliminate? - Where will you be at 12:00 tonight?
-Punish? – Where will you be at 12:00 tonight?
-Turn with me to Luke 13:1-5
Jesus talking about the murders in the temple and the wall falling and killing people.
In short, Jesus is not making an excuse for evil but rather justifies it.
The focus was not on evil but on their salvation. We live every minute of every day by the grace of God. We are owed nothing...
-Second, God will punish and eliminate evil, but the issue is that people don’t allow God to be God. They want punishment on demand and when they want it. They want to tell God how to run the world, how to do things.
-Turn with me to Matthew 13:36-43
We know this, but we still can’t wait... we want justice NOW!
“We are like the Israelites. God blesses us and then we forget. At least until we get int the next mess. We keep God in the basement like a janitor, calling on Him when we’ve another mess to clean up. We’re not slow learners, we are just quick forgetters.” – Bob Gass
Deuteronomy 29:29 Response
The Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. -Job’s Encounter with God:
“Then Job replied to the Lord: I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, “Who is this who conceals My counsel with Ignorance?” Surely, I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know, You said, “Listen now, and I will speak. When I quested you, you will inform me.” I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes.” – Job 41:1-6
“Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one.” -Tim Keller
“Be comfortable with your inability to NOT get it.” – John MacArthur
-Soul Making Theodicy
Soul Making? - God is not in the business of making you happy but making you Holy.
Irenaeus, 2nd century French Theologian
It holds that one cannot achieve moral goodness or love for God if there is no evil and suffering in the world. Evil is soul-making and leads one to be truly moral and close to God. God created an epistemic distance (such that God is not immediately
knowable) so that we may strive to know him and by doing so become truly good. Evils is a means to good for three main reasons:
Means of Knowledge – Hunger leads to pain and causes a desire for food. Knowledge of pain prompts humans to seek to help others in pain
Character Building – Evil offers the opportunity to grow morally. “We would never learn the art of goodness in a world designed as a hedonistic paradise.”
Predictable environment – The world runs to a series of natural laws. These are independent of any inhabitants of the universe. Natural evil only occurs when these natural laws conflict with our own perceived needs. This is not immoral in any way.
“The suffering of sickness and the suffering of persecution also have this in common: They are both intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith and governed by God for the purifying of our faith.”
“Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with Him has come through suffering.”
“Suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine.
That is what faith does; it magnifies Christ’s future grace.”
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. – C.S. Lewis
If you think about it, you’ll find that virtually every valuable lesson you’ve ever learned resulted from some hardship in your life. In most cases, bad fortune teaches while good fortune deceives. In fact, you not only learn lessons from suffering, but it’s practically the only way you can develop virtues.
You can’t develop courage unless there is danger. You can’t develop perseverance unless you have obstacles in your way. You won’t learn how to be a servant unless there’s someone to serve. And compassion would never be summoned if there were never anyone in pain or in need. It’s the adage, “no pain, no gain.”
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a fare more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory.” -2 Corinthians 4:17
Free Will response
Make a world for me that allows free will but does not allow for evil.
How much free will should God take away? (Auto Accident that kills teens)
Speeding? Drinking? Thoughts? Where would you draw the line? No, I say God must allow free will to allow Love.
If you eliminate fee will, you eliminate Love. Marie example...
If God prevented pain every time we got into trouble, then we would become that most reckless, self-centered creatures in the universe. And we would never learn from suffering. (Jumping off a building)
Story of two old men sitting on a porch.......
One says, Sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it. The other man says, “I’m afraid God may ask me the same question.” -Peter Kreft
-Do something – Matthew West
-Farmland 10% - We don’t have a famine issue, we have a human issue
Greater Good Response
-Abortion issue – Allow abortions in the case that the mothers life in in danger? – Ectopic Pregnancy
Pre-suppositional Response
Know Evil, Know Good, Know Good, Know God
Ontological Response
Oughtness; Guilt, Ruler/Yard stick
Fortuitous Response
God uses pain to teach us and to prevent other problems.
-Good can come from Perceived evil
-When we perceive evil, we don’t always have the entire picture. Example – Little girl at the feet of her mother who is doing needle point
-Praying for your child to feel pain (CIPS – Congenital insensitivity to pain)
-Joseph’s life -
-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. – GEN 50:20 -Jeremiah 24:1-7 – The story of the good and the bad figs.
-The Greatest Evil of all time brought the greatest good of all time
Glorifying Response
-God uses evil so we can glorify him. “A good sailor is not made on calm seas”. -Bravery
-A Hero