Defending the Faith: the Problem of Evil (Part 2)

Defending the Faith

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL:

Purposes for Evil and Suffering

 

As Christians we have the responsibility to give an answer for the hope we have. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “Always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you.” That means we must be armed with answers for why we believe the things we believe. No belief that we have is challenged more than our belief in an all-loving and all-powerful God who nevertheless tolerates evil. Randy Alcorn is right when he says, “More people point to the problem of evil and suffering as their reason for not believing in God than any other.”[1] People are always asking why God doesn’t do something about all the evil and suffering in the world. They ask questions like: Why does God let children die from cancer? Why doesn’t he steer the drunk driver away from the oncoming car? Why doesn’t he jam the gun of the shooter who opens fire into a classroom full of students? Why does he allow the bombs of the terrorists to explode and kill hundreds of people? Why does he permit a few to become multi-billionaires while millions struggle to find a single bowl of rice once a day? Why doesn’t he cause rain to fall evenly across the earth instead of permitting floods in the Midwest and droughts in Africa? If God is all-loving then he wants to stop evil and suffering. If he’s all-powerful, he can stop them. Yet he doesn’t. Evil and suffering continue to surround us. So does this mean God doesn’t exist? Does it mean he isn’t all-loving? Does it mean he isn’t all-powerful?

As Christians we answer “No” to all of these questions. We don’t believe for a moment that the existence of evil proves that God doesn’t exist. Nor do we believe that the existence of evil proves that God is not all-loving or all-powerful. We are convinced instead that God has purposes for evil and suffering. He hasn’t eliminated them because he is using them to further his redemptive plan for the world. We believe that there was a time when evil and suffering did not exist, and we believe there will come a day when they will be removed eternally from our presence. In the meantime, however, we believe that evil and suffering are part of God’s plan, and we trust that he will bring good out of them.

Romans 8:28 confirms this conviction more clearly than any other verse in the Bible. Some translations say that God causes all things to work together for good, and other translations say that all things work together for good. Either way, God is working in all things for good for those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. That doesn’t mean all things are good. It does mean that God will bring good out of all things.  

The story of Joseph provides a clear example of how God can work in all things for good. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. That wasn’t a good thing. It brought pain to Joseph. It compelled him, as a teenager, into a foreign country where he was forced to work as a slave. Think also of the pain it brought to his father Jacob. He thought Joseph was dead. The grief Jacob felt was terrible, as any parent who has ever lost a child to death can attest. But God’s plan included the evil action of Joseph’s brothers. God wanted Joseph in Egypt so he could oversee the storing of grain during seven years of prosperity which enabled people, the Israelites included, to survive the seven years of famine that would follow. And Joseph understood this, which explains why he said to his brothers, “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people” (Genesis 50:20). We know that ultimately God had an even greater plan in mind because if the Israelites had not survived there would have been no Jewish people out of whom Jesus could come. And if Jesus hadn’t come, there would have been no salvation for anyone. So God brought immeasurable good out of the evil actions of Joseph’s brothers. We should never underestimate what God can do.

The death of Jesus provides an even better example. Nothing more evil has ever happened in all the history of the world. He didn’t deserve anything except praise, thanksgiving, and worship. The last thing he deserved was death. Yet he was brutally executed on a cross. But just look at all the good that’s come out of that one evil event. The salvation of every man, woman, boy, and girl who has been or ever will be saved depends on it and could not be possible without it. To underscore its significance, we call the day he was crucified Good Friday, not Bad Friday. It seemed bad at the time. But looking back we see just how good it was. In the life to come we will see its goodness in ways we can’t even begin to imagine now.

So to all those who challenge our belief in an all-loving and all-powerful God who permits evil and suffering we respond that yes, he does permit them for now. But he is bringing good out of them. Let’s consider some of the good that he is accomplishing through them.

God uses evil and suffering to show us the consequences of our bad choices in hopes of leading us to repentance. God warned Adam, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). But how would Adam and those who followed him into sin get motivated to turn from sin unless pain and misery come as consequences of sin? Randy Alcorn writes, “People’s suffering from natural disasters, diseases, wars, and accidents demonstrates sin’s horrors. If life in a fallen world didn’t sometimes show us such dreadful consequences of sin and its curse, we might look at sin and wonder, ‘What’s the big deal?’ Without a sense of the misery it produces, we’d have no motive to turn from it.”[2] Alcorn also says, “God uses suffering to bring us to the end of ourselves and back to Christ. And that is worth any cost.”[3]

God uses evil and suffering to make us more productive. Jesus says to his disciples that God “prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit” (John 15:2). Pruning hurts. It hurts to let go of things like bad habits, ungodly attitudes, immoral thoughts, idols, and false securities. We think we need them. We enjoy them. We trust them. We find all sorts of ways to justify keeping them in our lives. But suffering works like pruning shears on a vine to cut out of our lives the harmful things that hinder productivity so that in the end we can be more productive for the kingdom of God.

God uses evil and suffering to prove the authenticity of our faith. In other words, evil and suffering reveal who the true believers are and expose those who aren’t true believers. In the parable of the sower (Luke 8:4-15) Jesus tells of four types of soil that seed can fall on. Each type of soil represents a certain personality that hears the gospel. The sad reality is that some hear the word and for a while look like true believers, but they either depart in a time of testing (v. 13) or the worries and distractions of life choke out the word in their lives and make these people unfruitful (v. 14). The important point is that apart from adversity, the true colors of such people would not be seen. On the other hand, evil and suffering also enable us to see the true believers, for they hold on to the word, endure, and bear fruit (v. 15). Obviously they face adversity too, yet they remain faithful, thereby displaying the genuineness of their Christian faith.

God uses evil and suffering to teach us to depend on him. When life is easy and going our way we tend to rely less on God and more on ourselves. But when life gets really hard and we are lying flat on our backs we find it easier to look up to God for help. Even the apostle Paul, despite all his remarkable skills and intellect, learned through adversity to depend on God. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 he speaks of being “completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” Paul tells us that God gave him a thorn in the flesh so that he would not exalt himself (2 Corinthians 12:7). He had to learn that God’s grace is sufficient and that God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). We must learn the same things, therefore God will use evil and suffering to teach them to us, just as he used them to teach Paul.

God uses evil and suffering to mature our faith. “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4). As you look back on your life as a Christian, when were the times you grew the most? Most likely it was during times of hardship and suffering. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist who was imprisoned for writing derogatory comments about
Stalin wrote,

It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts…

I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!”[4]

Jerry Bridges tells of someone who assisted a moth that was struggling to emerge from its cocoon, not realizing that the struggle was necessary for the moth to reach maturity. The viewer snipped the shell of the cocoon which allowed the moth to exit the cocoon with little effort. The consequence was the moth came out with its wings all crimped and shriveled. The wings remained weak and the moth was doomed to crawl all the days of “its brief life in frustration of ever being the beautiful creature God created it to be.”[5]

James assures us that struggle against obstacles isn’t just good for moths; God uses struggles to bring us to maturity. The next time you face obstacles remember that God is using them to make you more mature.

God uses evil and suffering to develop our perseverance. The Christian life is not just about getting saved. It’s about living for the Lord throughout all the phases and stages of life until you draw your final breath and enter your eternal reward. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “run with endurance the race that lies before us.” Paul says in Romans 5:3 that “we also rejoice in our afflictions because we know that affliction produces endurance.” Jesus says in Mark 13:13, “And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.” And James 1:12 says, “A man who endures trials is blessed, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”

Evil and suffer tempt us to turn away from God and not persevere. But those who persevere through the hard times and remain committed to the faith will receive reward for all eternity. So determine to persevere. Heed the warning of the writer of Hebrews 2:1-3, “We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment,how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”   

God uses evil and suffering to mold us into the image of Christ. Jesus endured much evil and suffering in his earthly life, so why should we expect to bypass them? He said plainly and clearly, “You will have suffering in this world” (John 16:33). But the suffering isn’t without a purpose. Its goal is to make us like Christ. Paul says in Romans 8:29 that believers are predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. It’s important to recognize that a few verses later Paul talks about the suffering of Jesus (vv. 32, 34) as well as various kinds of suffering believers may experience (v. 35). It seems that his point is that we need to accept that God often uses our suffering as the means by which he forges us into the image of Christ.

The History Channel has a show called Forged in Fire, a reality show that pits four blade smiths in competition with each other in a three-round elimination contest to forge bladed weapons. To make their knives they have to heat the metal and then beat it to force it into the shape they want. Then they plunge the heated metal into water or oil to cool it and solidify its hardness. Then they grind the metal to make it sharp. If the metal could talk, no doubt it would confess that the abuse the blade smith’s put it through is very painful. But such pain is necessary to forge a useable blade. In the same way, God uses painful experiences in our lives to achieve his goal of making us like Christ.

God uses evil and suffering to showcase his glorious attributes. The ninth chapter of John opens this way:

As He was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples questioned Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him” (John 9:1-3).

As the story unfolds we learn that God’s work was to heal the man (v. 7) and also to give him the courage to confront the hypocrisy of the religious leaders (vv. 30-33). God also brought the man to believe in the Lord and worship him (v. 38).

Here, then, we see the power, love, and forgiveness of God in ways we couldn’t if evil and suffering were not present in the world.

God uses evil and suffering to make us more compassionate toward others. There’s nothing like losing a spouse to cancer, watching your son or daughter go through a divorce, or having your house burned up in a fire to make you more sympathetic towards those going through similar adversities. Painful trials are like water that flows continually over jagged rocks. Eventually those rocks become smooth.

God uses evil and suffering to make us yearn for the new heaven and the new earth. Paul writes in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed in us.” He’s not minimizing our present sufferings but he is maximizing the greatness of God. He is expressing confidence that God can and will bring good out of all things.

We can only catch a faint glimpse of how glorious our eternal home with God is going to be. The Bible assures us that it will be free from evil and suffering (Revelation 21:1-4). I love the way C. S. Lewis tries to portray it in the final book of his Narnia series, The Last Battle. Aslan, the lion in the story who represents Christ, speaks. Lewis puts it like this:

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.^[6]

One day evil and suffering will come to an end. Now God is using them to advance his redemptive purposes in the world. Glory be to God.