Apologetics
PROPOSED EXPLANATIONS
Why did she have to get cancer? Why did he have die in that horrible wreck? Of all people, why did that stray bullet hit my baby?
Wrestling with the presence of evil and suffering is perhaps the greatest and only "serious" challenge that can topple a believer’s faith.
There are really two sides to this challenge, the rational and the emotional. The rational is easier to deal with than the emotional because it deals with reason in light of scripture. However, coming to a satisfactory and logical conclusion may do little to help with the emotional side of the challenge. This is a difficult issue, so I cannot deal with it effectively in an article. The emotional side needs more than paper and ink. It needs a human touch.
However, I can offer some minute help by way of the rational side of the issue here. How can you reconcile the existence of such great evil in the world with the existence of our God who is all-good, loving, powerful, and knowing? As we approach September 11, this question may become even more acute.
One common explanation is that God gave humans free will which came with an unavoidable price tag. That price tag is evil. This is perhaps the most common explanation for the problem of evil and suffering, but I believe it is inadequate.
This assumes that God could not avoid the entrance of evil and suffering into the world when he gave humans free will. Is this true? Was he really between a rock and a hard place on this? If it is true that God could not avoid evil, then it appears God was not completely in control, and that is a scary thought.
I do not believe that evil and suffering was an unavoidable consequence of free will. You can avoid evil by limiting choices and circumstances that lead to evil. As parents, we do this with our small children. We don’t place sharp knives, poisonous chemicals, and other dangers than can kill them close to the floor and then tell them to stay out of it. Instead, we put them out of reach.
Did God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil out of reach? No, the text tells us it was in the "middle of the garden (Gen 3:3)." Was evil unavoidable? God could have chosen not to put the tree in the garden. He could have kept the serpent out of the garden, but he didn’t. God intentionally allowed all of this to happen. It was not out of his control. The same is true in the case of Job. God allowed Satan to afflict Job (Job 1:12). There is no question that God could have chosen to prevent the calamity that came on Job and his family. It is also clear that what happened to Job was not because Job was evil or wicked. Job didn’t choose the way of wickedness then pay the price for it. The text describes his as "blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil (Job 1:1)."
GOD INTENTIALLY ALLOWS IT
So why does God intentionally allow evil as in the case of Job? This is not a question that the Bible answers fully. However, the Bible does give us some insights into the question. God says he himself is . . .
"The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these (Isa 45:7)."
So we should avoid the temptation to defend God by not laying any responsibility at his feet for calamity. Job’s friends vehemently defended God, not wishing to lay any of the evil that befell Job at God’s feet. However, from our vantage point as readers, we can see that God intentionally allowed Satan to afflict Job. In the end, they had spoken wrongly of God.
Even brutal, wicked Assyria’s attacks on Israel demonstrate that God is behind calamity. God refers to Assyria as, "the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hands is My indignation (Isa 10:5)." These texts clearly indicate that God is responsible for both well-being and calamity.
This seems to contradict passages such as Psalm 34:8 which says, "O taste and see that the Lord is good." If he is good, why does he create calamity? Unlike eastern religions that deny the existence of evil and suffering by claiming them to be illusions, the Bible teaches that God uses calamity and suffering.
"… the Lord your God has led you … testing you, to know what was in your heart, …He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna … that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord … the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. (Dt 8:2-5)."
All of the discomfort in the wilderness was not without some purpose. God always has a purpose in suffering. We see this in Paul as well.
"... to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-- Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. (2 Cor 12:7-9)."
Most believers understand that God uses difficulties for our good. God disciplines his children as a father, and we all understand that discipline is about training, not punishment. Good and bad children alike receive discipline from good fathers, and eventually learn self-discipline.
However, the difficulty many have is not that we suffer evil and calamity. Often, the difficulty comes when it is excessive. Just as it is senseless (and illegal) to punish a child excessively, it sometimes seems senseless when the Lord‘s discipline is excessive. What are we to do when the difficulties we face don’t make sense?
A PRACTICAL RESPONSE
"Okay, I can deal with the fact that we suffer the consequences for our mistakes. I can also deal with the fact that the Lord disciplines us for our good. But this – this is too much! "
Does this sound familiar? What in the world did those kids in Jonesboro, or at Columbine do to deserve that? What did all those people who went to work September 11 last year in Manhattan do to warrant what happened to them? What about those faithful Christians in other parts of the world who are being tortured, whose families are ripped apart, who suffer daily because of their faith in God. Indeed, the same could even be said for Job. In Job 1, we can see that it was Job’s uprightness that led to the events that shattered his life.
It is easy to talk about this question on an intellectual level. We can find answers that seem to fit. However, it is not unusual for those answers to not quite be enough when an extreme tragedy disrupts your life. How do you respond? The following story illustrates an answer to this question.
Several years ago, a faithful and upright young couple lost their only child in a senseless accident. In anguish they asked why? How could God allow such a thing to happen? Why didn’t he stop it? They asked the preacher. He said it was God’s will. They then asked an elder. He said that it was a bad tragedy. They talked to their Bible class teacher. He said that God needed their son, so he took him. They asked a theologian from a nearby theological school. He explained to them at some length that God can use every event in a person’s life for good. He even cited numerous scriptures. None of these answers seemed adequate. Surely someone had an answer. In a last ditch effort, they asked an aging widow in the congregation why this happened. She simply took those two young people into her arms, and they all cried together.
"Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15)."
Job’s friends came to sit with him and comfort him. It wasn’t until they opened their mouth in chapter four that things began to go downhill. Sometimes the best thing to do is simply weep with those who weep, and realize we do not have the complete picture.
(Visit my web site at www.epreacher.org)
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