Evil constitutes the biggest single argument against the existence of an almighty, loving God.
// John W. Wenham, philosopher
The effort to demonstrate that evil disproves God is now acknowledged by almost all sides to be completely bankrupt.
// William Olsten, philosopher
The Problem:
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how come evil is in the world?
// Epicurus, philosopher
The Response of Other Worldviews: Is There Really Evil in the World?
The problem of evil is not unique to Christianity. Indeed every philosophical theory has to deal with it in some way.
// R.C. Sproul, philosopher
Eastern / New Age:
Evil is but an illusion.
// Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health
Atheism:
Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Why then is there evil?
// David Hume, atheist
A Christian Response: Philosophical and Personal
The Problem Restated:
A loving God would want to eliminate evil.
An all-powerful God would be able to eliminate evil.
Yet evil still exists.
Thus, God cannot exist.
The argument assumes a common understanding/recognition of objective moral values such as “love” and “evil” and thus objective moral values exist. The existence of objective moral values is a strong evidence for the existence of God.
For evil to exist, it requires an objective moral judgment. Without God and absolutes, there may be obstacles, inconveniences, and un-pleasantries with individuals subjective desires and needs, but these cannot be called evil. Prescriptive morality is necessary to the concept of evil. When people object to evil they must appeal beyond their godless world to an objective standard of goodness.
// Kenneth Richard Samples, philosopher
When I was an atheist my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of “just” and “unjust”? What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? Of course I could have just given up my idea of justice by saying that it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too—for the argument depended on saying that the word was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple.
// C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Could there really be any such thing as horrifying wickedness if there was not God? I don’t see how. There can be such a thing only if there is a way that rational creatures are supposed to live, obligated to live. A non-theist way of looking at the world has no place for genuine moral obligation of any sort, and thus no way to say there is such a thing as genuine and appalling wickedness. Accordingly, if you think there really is such a thing as horrifying wickedness then you have a powerful argument for the reality of God.
// Alvin Plantinga, philosopher
The argument assumes that God has no reason(s) to allow evil.
God’s Glory is displayed in light of evil and suffering and will ultimately be displayed in his ultimate prevailing over evil.
Conscientious human parents often allow their children to undergo difficulties and pain…they allow problems because the experience produces greater good within their children—independence, perseverance, strength, courage, wisdom, and maturity…God may similarly allow evil and suffering to exist because they serve a greater purpose for human beings and the universe, and ultimately lead to the greater glory of God himself.
// Kenneth Richard Samples, philosopher
Romans 9.17
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
John 9.1-3
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
1 Corinthians 15.24-26
24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
God uses evil and suffering for the greater good.
All the evils we find around us are logically necessary conditions of greater goods, that is to say that greater good couldn’t come about without the evil or at any rate the natural possibility of evil.
// Richard Swinburne, philosopher
Acts 2.23-24
23This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,[a] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Out of this horrible incident of malice and agony came divine redemption for sinners. God brought the greatest good out of the greatest evil.
// Kenneth Richard Samples, philosopher & theologian
God uses evil and suffering to bring people to himself and mold people into the image of Jesus.
Luke 13.1-5
1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
Romans 5.3
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
Interlude: Keeping God’s Sovereignty in View
Romans 8.28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
God may hate a thing as it is in itself, and considered simply as evil, and yet . . . it may be his will it should come to pass, considering all consequences. . . . God doesn't will sin as sin or for the sake of anything evil…sin will come to pass for the sake of the great good that by his disposal shall be the consequence. His willing to order things so that evil should come to pass, for the sake of the contrary good, is no argument that he doesn't hate evil, as evil.
// Jonathan Edwards, theologian
Evil does have a place in the great scheme of things. God intended all along not only to run the risk of free human beings sinning, but to allow things actually to take this course with full foreknowledge of the consequences—and did so because God preferred on the whole the global result of the drama of sin and salvation to a world without it…evil was necessary for that drama.
// John G, Stackhouse, philosopher
In one sense God wills that what he hates come to pass, as well as what he loves… This is a fundamental truth that helps explain some perplexing things in the Bible, namely, that God often expresses his will to be one way, and then acts to bring about another state of affairs (i.e., God opposes hatred toward his people, yet ordained that his people be hated in Egypt; God opposes the murder of innocent people and yet ordained that Jesus be crucified).
// John Piper, pastor and theologian
The argument assumes that because evil still exists, and God hasn’t yet eliminated it, its presence speaks to His absence.
To say that God doesn’t exist because evil is still present is simply unreasonable…Just because God is all-powerful and all-good doesn’t mean He must destroy evil now. Rather, if God is all-powerful, He can destroy evil; and if he is all-good, He will destroy evil. Our finite minds simply do not know when.
// Norman Geisler, philosopher
God who has created morally responsible creatures may have chosen to eliminate evil through a careful process that initially allows it.
// Kenneth Richard Sample, philosopher
A Loving God would want to eliminate evil.
An all-powerful God would be able to eliminate evil.
Though evil exists now, God will eliminate it in the future.
// Alvin Plantinga, philosopher
What is Evil?
Evil is not a being, thing, substance or entity.
Evil is real but it is not a real thing. It is not a substance. It is more about disordered love; distorted will. God did not make it…
// Peter Kreeft, philosopher
The first evil act of will, since it preceded all evil deeds in man, was rather a falling away from the work of God to its own works…Consequent deeds were evil because they followed the will’s own line, and not God’s…Moreover, though an evil will is not natural but unnatural because it is a defect, still it belongs to the nature of which it is a defect, for it cannot exist except in a nature.
// St. Augustine, City of God XIV
The Origins of Evil: Responsibility of Man (in light of the Sovereignty of God)
Freewill of Creatures Led to Evil
Genesis 2.15-17
15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
Genesis 3.6
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Why did God give us free will and allow us to misuse it? The question is misleading. One gives a polish to a table or a pony to a schoolboy, but one does not give three sides to a triangle or free will to a human being. Free will is part of our essence. There can be no human being without it. The alternative to free will is not being a human being but a machine.
// Peter Kreeft, philosopher
To create creatures capable of moral good, God must create creatures capable of moral evil.
// Alvin Plantinga, philosopher
Acts 2.23
This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
God’s Solution to Evil and Suffering: Identification (Incarnation) and Defeat (Cross)
John 1.1, v.14
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Romans 8.3-4
3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Hebrews 4.15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
God has himself gone through the whole human experience from the trivial irritations of family to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death.
// Dorothy Sayers
Colossians 2.14-15
14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
A warrior could defeat his opponent by standing still and taking his enemies best blows–indeed to absorb all his blows one after another until the enemy literally exhausts his power and collapses, spent.
// John G. Stackhouse, philosopher
Jesus’ work on the cross did indeed defeat evil.
// Norman Geisler, philosopher
Hope in the Midst of Suffering: The Promise of the New Creation
“I thought you were dead!” Sam said. “Is everything sad going to come untrue?”
// J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Romans 8.18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Revelation 21.4
I saw a new heaven and a new earth...coming down out of heaven from God…and He shall wipe every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall be no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain...
