EVIL-PROBLEM
There is
unquestionably a great mystery here as to how a holy God who cannot even look
upon evil (Hab. 1:13) can work His will through evil, but that He does is the
clear teaching of Scripture. If something could get outside the will of God, it
would become a god unto itself and a rival to God. Such can never be the case.
God alone is God; there is no other.
Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible, Baker,
1996, p. 653.
If God rules
only in those places or events where no sin is involved, God does not rule on
this earth. If sin can thwart God, His sovereignty is a name and not a fact.
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
18.
Adam the
sinner furthered the purposes of God to the same degree as Adam the righteous…
What Adam aimed to do and what Adam actually managed to do are not the same. In
a different way, but in the same degree, Adam carried forward the purpose of
God. Adam’s act was sinful because he did not aim to please God. His motive was
wrong, and God judged him for it. But God meant to use even that evil to
advance His own glory.
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
45.
God doth not
will [sin] directly, and by an efficacious will. He doth not directly will it,
because He hath prohibited it by His law, which is a discovery of His will; so
that if He should directly will sin, and directly prohibit it, He would will
good and evil in the same manner, and there would be contradictions in God’s
will: to will sin absolutely, is to work it (Psalm 115:3): “God hath done
whatsoever He pleased.” God cannot absolutely will it, because He cannot work
it. God wills good by a positive decree, because He
hath decreed to effect it. He wills evil by a private decree, because He hath
decreed not to give that grace which would certainly prevent it. God doth not
will sin simply, for that were to approve it, but He wills it, in order to that
good His wisdom will bring forth from it. He wills not sin for itself, but for
the event.
Stephen
Charnock
The Old
Testament authors do not hesitate to name God as the origin of calamity or
trouble, often described by the same term for “evil.” For examples, God sent a
similar “evil spirit” (like the one He sent on Saul – 1 Sam. 16:14) between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem
(Jud. 9:23). The Bible does not attempt to answer the questions, Why does evil exist, and Where does evil come from? Instead,
biblical authors attempt only to expose the nature of human sin, which they see
as the ultimate origin of pain and suffering in the world.
Bill Arnold
NIV Application Commentary-1 Samuel, 2003, p.
242.
(Based on a
false premise) pain and suffering raise a dilemma. Philosophers commonly
argue: “If God is good, then He is not
all-powerful; and if He is all-powerful, then He is not good.” Suffering, they insist,
is not compatible with an omnipotent, benevolent deity. If God were both good
and omnipotent, He would never allow suffering. Since misery and suffering do
occur, He is either not good or He is not all-powerful.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 1.
A dilemma
would exist only if there were no suffering in a sinful world. Then we would
have to say there cannot be a true God. Were there no adversity in a sinful
world, God either would not be good or would not be omnipotent. Either He would
be unconcerned about sin’s being unpunished, and therefore not good, or He
would be unable to punish sin, and therefore not omnipotent. That would be a
real problem in our world, where sin obviously abounds.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 3.
Troubled by
the non-problem of pain, most people do not feel the real problem. The real
difficulty is the problem of pleasure. While in a sinful world, pain is to be
expected, and pleasure is not to be expected. We should be constantly amazed at
the presence of pleasure in a world such as ours.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 3.
So when we
call pain a problem, we claim we do not deserve it. We are even prepared to
scuttle God to maintain our own innocence. We will say that God is not able to
do what He would like, or He would never permit persons such as ourselves to
suffer. That puffs up our egos and soothes our griefs at the same time. “How
could God do this to me?” is at once an admission of pain and a
soporific for it. It reduces our personal grief by eradicating the deity.
Drastic medicine, indeed, that only a human ego, run wild, could possibly
imagine.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 4.
In this
light, we see the problem of pleasure. Manifestly, as sinners against an
infinitely glorious God, we deserve an immediate and infinite, condign,
irremediable punishment from His holy, powerful hands. Nothing that we have
ever received, that anyone has ever received, in all this
world, has even approximated an adequate punishment for the crimes we commit in
any one moment. How, therefore, do we continue to live? Why are we not plunged
into eternal torment now, immediately?
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 15.
What irony
that sinners consider the greatest problem they face in this world to be the
problem of pain. The ultimate insult against God is that man thinks he has a
problem of pain. Man, who deserves to be plunged into hell at this moment, and
is indescribably fortunate that he is breathing normally, complains about
unhappiness. Instead of falling on his knees in the profoundest possible
gratitude that God holds back His wrath and infinite fury, the sinner shakes
his fist in heaven’s face and complains against what he calls “pain.” When he
receives his due, he will look back on his present condition as paradisiacal.
What he now calls misery, he will then consider exquisite pleasure. The most
severe torment anyone has ever known in this life will seem like heaven in
comparison with one moment of the full fury of the divine Being.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 15.
God would
never permit evil, if He could not bring good out of evil.
Augustine
That we
should say, that God has decreed every action of men, yea, every action that is
sinful…and yet that God does not decree the actions that are sinful, as sin,
but decrees them as good, is really consistent… By decreeing an action as
sinful, I mean decreeing it for the sake of the sinfulness of the action.
God decrees that they shall be sinful, for the sake of the good that He causes
to arise from the sinfulness thereof; whereas man decrees them for the sake of
the evil that is in them.
Jonathan Edwards
The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2:527.
Human beings
do cause evil and are responsible for it. Though God ordained that it would
come about…yet God is removed from actually doing evil, and His bringing it
about through "secondary causes" does not impugn His holiness or
render Him blameworthy.
Wayne Grudem
Systematic Theology, Zondervan, 1994, p. 328.
We should
notice that the alternatives to saying that God uses evil for His purposes, but
that He never does evil and is not to be blamed for it, are not desirable ones.
If we were to say that God Himself does evil, we would have to conclude that He
is not a good and righteous God, and therefore that He is not really God at
all. On the other hand, if we maintain that God does not use evil to fulfill
His purposes, then we would have to admit that there is evil in the universe
that God did not intend, is not under His control, and might not fulfill His
purposes… Surely this (too) is an undesirable alternative position.
Wayne Grudem
Systematic Theology, Zondervan, 1994, p.
328-329.
The problem
of evil assumes the existence of a world-purpose. What, we are really asking,
is the purpose of suffering? It seems purposeless. Our question of the why of
evil assumes the view that the world has a purpose, and what we want to know is
how suffering fits into and advances this purpose. The modern view is that
suffering has no purpose because nothing that happens has any purpose: the
world is run by causes, not by purposes.
W.T. Stace
Religion and the Modern Mind, 1953.
The real
problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do
not.
C.S. Lewis
In
view of the witness of Scripture, therefore, we do not come closer to solving
the problem of evil by diminishing God’s active and purposeful involvement in
any sphere of life. To remove God's sovereignty from the realm of evil before
it occurs forces us to conceive of God either as playing "catch-up,"
by redeeming evil only after we have carried it out (after all, in this view,
to intervene sooner would jeopardize our free will), or as standing on the
sidelines, sympathetic in our struggles but unable to help. Apart from God's
sovereignty, God's love in the midst of suffering is downsized to an emotional
response of "caring."
Scott Hafemann
Why is There So Much Pain and Evil in the World? by
Scott Hafemann taken from The God of Promise and the Life of Faith by Scott
Hafemann, copyright 2001, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers,
Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org,
page 140.
It
is true that God is good and that in the world under His control bad things
happen – at least bad things happen from the human perspective. When I
discipline my child, it might seem like a bad thing from his vantage point, but
it is a good thing from mine. When a nation wins a just war, it might seem bad
from the enemy’s side, but it is good for the world. So at
least part of the problem is perspective. Are we saying something is bad
from God's perspective or man’s?
Jim Elliff
If God is Good, Why do so Many Bad Things Happen?, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Here are some
good reasons for what man thinks is bad:
1.
Pain and death help man comprehend the power and
awfulness of sin. The
entrance of sin brought destruction and decay into the world. It is a good
thing to be wary of the effects of evil… By seeing how bad results come from
sin, we might learn to avoid it to whatever degree possible.
2.
Pain and death are sometimes used by God to judge
sin. The Bible is full of
stories of God’s use of physical pain and death to accomplish judgment.
3.
Pain and death help us know the importance of
Christ’s death... Christ
took sin on Himself at the cross in order to deliver people from the
consequences of their sin. We should be thankful that God has made a way to
escape the consequences of sin through Christ. The more I know about evil, the
more I should want to be freed from its power, and the more I should be
appreciative of the only way of ultimate escape through Christ's death.
4.
Pain sometimes brings people to Christ. When a person realizes that he is weak
and needs Christ, he is most willing and ready to come to Him. Sometimes God is
good in removing our self-sufficiency through suffering.
5.
Pain and conflict with evil does the authentic
Christian good. The Bible
actually says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who
love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28; see
2 Cor. 12:7-10). After Joseph had endured a lot of evil from his own brothers,
he told them, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for
good” (Gen. 50:20).
6.
Finally, bad things happen because God wants to
teach Christians something about His special favor toward them (see Rom.
9:22-23).
Jim Elliff
If God is Good, Why do so Many Bad Things Happen?, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
We can be
thankful that God does not remove all evil right now. If he did, would he not
remove you? Suppose he said, “Ok, I will do just as you request. I will take
away all evil right this minute!” Do you think that you would be spared?
Jim Elliff
If God is Good, Why do so Many Bad Things Happen?, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
It
is in fact cold comfort to say to a heart-broken person whose only child has
been killed or whose husband has been fearfully injured, “This is not God’s
doing or God's will; we live in a disordered world in which evil has been let
loose; we must expect these things where sin reigns; but keep trusting God.” How
infinitely more comforting, more biblical and more glorifying to God it is to
say with Amos in defiant faith: "If disaster falls has not the Lord been
at work" (Amos 3:6).
John W. Wenham
The Enigma of Evil: Can we believe in the Goodness of God? Zondervan,
1985, p. 44, www.zondervan.com.
He wants to
know about the problem of evil. My answer to the problem of evil is this: There
is no problem of evil in an atheist's universe because there is no evil in an
atheist's universe. Since there is no God, there is no absolute moral standard,
and nothing is wrong. The torture of little children is not wrong in an
atheist's universe. It may be painful, but it is not wrong. It is morally wrong
in a theistic universe, and therefore, there is a problem of evil of perhaps
the psychological or emotional sort, but philosophically the answer to the
problem of evil is you don't have an absolute standard of good by which to
measure evil in an atheist's universe. You can only have that in a theistic
universe, and therefore, the very posing of the problem presupposes my world
view, rather than his own. God has a good reason for
the evil that He plans or allows.
Greg Bahnsen
The Great Debate: Does God Exist? University
of California, Irvine, 1985..
The problem
of evil is one of the most crucial protests raised by unbelievers against the
face of God.
James Orr
The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations,
ed. Mark Water, 2000, Baker, p. 321.