If God is all good, why does He allow all the evil we see in the world?
If He is all powerful, couldn't he do something about it?
So, either God is not all good or He is not powerful.
So, how could you give an answer to this my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I would love to hear your responses. This is one of the topics for discussion at the Genesis bible study that I attend on Monday nights.
I think that the problem is in the logic of the questions. We assume things already in the questions we ask. First of all, God is good. (Ps 24:8, Ps 34:8). If we believe the bible then we know he is good. If we don't believe the bible then that is another topic of discussion...another day. So not if God is good - we already know he is (this logic starts off bad, trying to disprove that God is good, we already know the answer to this).
Second, why does he allow evil in the world? It is important to remember that the world God created was good in every way. There was no death, sorrow, or separation from God (not even death among the animal kingdom I might add - man and animals were only eating plants Genesis 1:29-30). Man's sin is what has led to all of these. After man sinned, God cursed the serpent and God cursed the ground. The earth is still under this curse (thus the reason for all natural disasters and the death caused by them). So the cause of evil in the world is man and the serpent. But that does not answer why God allows it. I think God is holy and he requires holiness. He is also merciful and forgiving. My only answer is that through all the evil God has worked out his perfect plan of salvation. All the old testament points to christ. The sacrificial system that God provided for his people points to Christ. God is somehow glorified through all the evil - both the natural disasters and the evil of man (both are evil). So I guess I can only answer that God allows (plans for you hyper calvinists) evil because it somehow in the end points to the holiness of God and is glorifying to him and brings his people to salvation.
I won't comment much on the powerful question. I don't think any us question whether God is powerful enough. At least I don't. I know he is powerful. It is just hard to figure out the reason why he does allow evil?
Maybe I'll have some better answers after the study tonight, or maybe you have some answers you'd like to share.
1 comment:
Wow. This has to be one of the most challenging doctrines in the Bible. I have never heard a really good explanation of how evil came to be. It is another one of those things we just except even though we don't understand it (much like the trinity & fully God: fully man).
The Bible is clear that God is not responsible for evil and is not evil. But we know it exists and if He didn't "want" it to, it wouldn't, since nothing happens out of His soverign control. I think we just have to shrug our shoulders and say that we except it for what it is: another great mystery of God.
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