God is Great, God is Good, So Why Is There Evil?

Text: Selected Texts

Introduction:
  1. Preliminary Thoughts
    1. This has been the most perplexing problem for Christians
      1. Opponents of Christianity have leveled their best attacks against God in the area of evil
      2. Just as some of the issues about God are not completely comprehendible (Trinity, incarnation), it may not be possible to completely understand the presence of evil in the universe
    2. Preliminary thoughts
      1. Distinguish between types of evil
        1. Moral evil
        2. Natural evil or catastrophe
        3. Evil that is a matter of perspective
          1. Short term difficulty that leads to a long-term benefit
            1. Illus. Martyrs
            2. Illus. A failure in one area may lead you to a more prosperous or better suited area
          2. Situation that can be good for one while bad for another
            1. Illus. Rain ruins my picnic but helps a farmer
            2. Illus. My losing a game may be a benefit to the team that won.
      2. Origin of evil (we will touch on in more detail later)
        1. Moral evil originated with Satan
        2. Man committed moral evil in the Garden of Eden
        3. Natural evil is the result of man's sin on creation (Ro. 8)
      3. The objections to Christianity are based on three attacks
        1. Attacks on the greatness (omnipotence) of God
        2. Attacks on the goodness of God
        3. Attacks on the wisdom of God in allowing or creating evil
  2. Problem Stated

    3. Five statements of the problem

    1. The Origin of Evil
      1. Problem stated
        1. God made everything perfect
        2. Imperfection cannot come from perfection
        3. Perfect creatures cannot be the origin of evil
        4. Therefore, God could not exist
      2. Answer
        1. God made everything perfect
        2. One of the perfect things He created was free creatures
        3. Freedom is a good thing
        4. Free will is the cause of evil
        5. Therefore, evil can come from the perfect
      3. Notes:
        1. God created the fact of freedom; Man performs the acts of freedom
        2. God made evil possible; man made it actual
    2. The PERSISTENCE of Evil
      1. The Problem Stated
        1. If God is all good, He would destroy evil
        2. If God is all powerful, He could destroy evil
        3. Evil is not destroyed
        4. Therefore, there is no such God
      2. Answer
        1. Evil cannot be destroyed without destroying freedom
        2. Freedom is a necessary good for free creatures
        3. Love is impossible without freedom
        4. To destroy freedom would not be the greatest good
        5. However, evil will be defeated
    3. The Purpose of Evil
      1. The Problem Stated
        1. There is no good purpose for suffering
        2. An all good God must have a good purpose for
        3. everything
        4. Therefore, there cannot be an all-good God
      2. The Answer
        1. Even though we may not know the purpose, God may
        2. have a good purpose
        3. We do know some good purposes for evil
      3. Notes: 4 Purposes for evil
        1. Warn us of greater evil
        2. Defeat evil
        3. Bring about a greater good
        4. Keep us from self-destruction
    4. The Extent of Evil
      1. The Problem Stated
        1. The greatest good is to save all men
        2. One person in hell would be less than the greatest good
        3. Therefore, God cannot send anyone to hell
      2. The Answer
        1. God desires all men to be saved
        2. God cannot force anyone to love Him
        3. All who go to hell choose to go there
        4. The ideal is not always the actual
      3. Notes
    5. The Avoidability of Evil
      1. The Problem Stated
        1. God knows everything
        2. God knew evil would occur
        3. God had other possibilities that could have avoided evil
      2. The Answer
        1. Wrongly implies that nothing is better than something
        2. Wrongly assumes non-free can be compared to the free
        3. Impossible to create free creatures that would not sin
        4. Impossible to create free beings that would all be saved
      3. Notes
        1. This is not the best of all conceivable worlds, but it is the best of all achievable worlds with free creatures
        2. The best type of world is a free world where sin has been defeated
        3. It is possible to have a world without sin, but such a world would lack freedom. Thus, it would be undesirable because true love can only exist where there is freedom to love or hate.
  3. Implications of Evil
    1. For the Christian, present evil will be outweighed by future reward (Ro. 8:18; 2 Co. 4:17)
    2. Some evil is the direct result of the judgment of God
      1. Illus. Korah's followers being swallowed up by the earth
      2. Illus. Ananias and Sapphira dropping dead
    3. Some evil is the natural result of sin (Gal. 6:7)
      1. STDs, AIDS
      2. Cirrhosis of the liver
    4. Not all "evil" is the result of personal sin or the consequence of personal sin
      1. It is possible for bad things to happen to innocent people
        1. Illus. The man born blind
        2. Job's troubles
      2. Don't assume that all difficulties, whether your own or someone else's is the consequence of sin
    5. Our response to evil depends on our view of God and our maturity in the faith
      1. Gripe, complain like the Israelites in the wilderness
        1. They had a shortsighted view of life.
        2. They were looking at the temporal, not the eternal
        3. They were only considering the present and not the future
      2. Bitter when circumstances don't go our way
        1. We were created for God's glory, not our happiness
        2. Bitterness is ultimately blaming God for things you don't like and don't think God will change
      3. Faith his trusting God even when we don't understand why
      4. The mature response to difficulties is to:
        1. Not complain
        2. Not blame
        3. Trust God even when we don't understand
    6. For all its difficulties, evil points to a loving God
      1. The fact that we even have categories such as evil and good suggests that there is a moral agent that created us
      2. If there is no God, then there is right or wrong
    7. God is the ultimate victim of evil
      1. Evil grieves God
      2. You can't fault the love of God for allowing sin when you consider the price he paid in the incarnation and the sacrifice of His own Son

Conclusion: