The Problem of Evil
We all live with both the concept and reality of death and suffering. And while worshippers of various deities may attempt to explain things differently, naturalists can chalk it all up to it simply being the way it is.
It’s a “circle of life” idea. Bad things happen sometimes; everything lives and dies, and it’s natural. However, even though accidents are tragic, diseases are heartbreaking, and the thought that everyone you know will pass away at some point is painfully sobering. Evil is something else.
Even the most committed materialist can feel the tendrils of horror slink through their mind at the thought of someone committing child abuse or torture. And crime scene investigators looking into a string of serial killings don’t experience PTSD just because they lived through something we think of as “natural.”
Even a traumatized soldier suffering after seeing the horrors of war likely won’t view what they experienced as belonging to the same ethical category as what Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, or Jeffrey Dahmer enacted, even though their body count may not have been anywhere near as high as what a war might produce.
Similarly, most understand that a policeman shooting a perpetrator during a violent bank robbery or a convicted murderer being put to death aren’t typically considered evil acts but are justified because of the circumstances.
Although terrible and tragic, the fact that the person killed willingly chose to defy the law and infringe on other people’s rights justifies the actions of the people that destroyed them. No one in their right mind would have wanted such things to happen, but because of the context, most would say justice had been served.
So bad things happening to someone, even when caused purposefully by one person upon another person, are justified under specific moral, ethical, and lawful conditions. It’s understandable to a certain degree.
However, evil impacts us differently; it’s on a whole other level than simply saying something is “bad.” It instinctively repulses us, and the reality of evil has caused many people to turn away from God.
They reason that if God created everything (and if evil is a thing), then he must have created evil—so they blame God for all the evil in this world. Essentially, they feel they could have done a better job creating the world themselves. The Roman Epicurean poet, Lucretius, put it this way:
Had God designed the world, it would not be / A world so frail and faulty as we see.1
Did the Original World God Create Contain Evil?
However, Scripture is clear that God did not create a world with evil in it, as the world we now live in does.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (Genesis 1:31–2:1)
However, Scripture also says that all things were created by God.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)
You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. (Nehemiah 9:6)
And although many want to blame everything on the devil, even Satan was part of that originally very good world and blameless in the beginning, as Scripture says:
You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:15)
So, how can we reconcile this seeming contradiction of some “thing” coming into existence apart from God (who supposedly created all things)? Did God change his mind and add something to the creation later on? It seems unlikely since he clarifies in Scripture that all things were created in six literal days!
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11)
When Did Bad Things Come About?
First, let’s discuss when bad things came about. After all, we just read that the original creation was very good.
Scripture says that in the garden of Eden, God gave Adam everything needed for his enjoyment, along with only one negative command. God gave them a clear warning as to the consequences should they disobey him.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17)
Adam and Eve were fully mature adults who’d been told very clearly what the consequence of their actions would be. And Genesis 3 records the day Adam and Eve willfully rejected God’s generosity and authority and rebelled against him.
Being holy and righteous, God punished them just as he told them he would. And from that point forward, the world was never again called “very good.” So, death and suffering are the consequence of their sin, as Scripture says:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
So, Adam and Eve suffering the consequences of their willful actions against God certainly falls into the category of just punishment. Of course, the challenge we all face now is that we were all effectively “in” Adam when he fell, and we are part of a corrupted race.
We also sin—we do it willingly and contribute to how bad the world now is, and we can’t overcome our situation or live sinlessly by ourselves, which is why we need a Savior.
J.