12th March, 2005

JIM REIHER

Christians are sometimes accused of being idiots. We say there is an all powerful and all loving God who made us and wants to relate to us.

But some people who are not believers look around at the world and say: “An all-powerful and all-loving God? You have got to be joking!”

Their reasoning is not too bad, really (I will argue that it is not thorough reasoning, but it is still not too bad - as far as it goes). It goes like this: if God is all powerful then He could stop all the evil and suffering in the world. If God is all good - all loving - then He would want to stop all evil and suffering in the world. So because there is evil and suffering in the world, then either God is not all powerful or He is not all loving. He can’t be both.

How do Christians respond to that? We do so in a few ways.

But first let me toss in a quick aside. The modern critic is a strange mix of logic and emotion. The same person who asks “Why is there suffering and evil in the world?” might - in another breath - say that there are no absolutes; no right and wrong.

When asked opinions about moral or ethical issues, the contemporary answer is that anything goes - “You Christians can’t say that one thing is right and another is wrong. How dare you say that certain sexual acts are inherently wrong!” And so relativism reigns.

But the same person - in another breath and at a different time - will also ask: “How can God allow evil and suffering?” And so now there is such a thing as evil.

If all is relative, then one’s perception of evil and suffering is relative too. If there is no right or wrong - then how can we say that a person dying from a tidal wave is any more ‘evil’ than a person dying from a heart attack? Why is the death of someone by knife wounds any more evil than the death of someone by old age? People are simply having different relative experiences.

Those critical of Christianity reveal that they do not really believe that all things are relative as soon as they ask the question: “Why is there suffering and evil in the world?”. That very question reveals a belief in good and bad; right and wrong; justice and injustice. Otherwise we are simply talking about one person's experiences verses another person's - equally valid - experiences.

And I agree with that presupposition. There is good and bad, evil and suffering, in the world. Everything is not relative.

So we are back to our first question: why does an all powerful and and all loving God allow evil in the world?

I think that our critic has a certain amount of logic in their argument: an all powerful and all loving God should wipe out evil and suffering - right?

Well, the argument does not develop itself far enough. Sometimes some arguments seem smart and make sense until we get more information about the component parts.

Let me give you an example. I heard a story of the tragic death of an elderly woman: two reliable people reported it quite differently.

Person 1: The elderly woman was standing at a bus stop when the approaching bus suddenly went out of control and hit the woman - she died on the road a few minutes later.

Person 2: The elderly woman was in a car which got hit by another car - she was thrown through the windscreen and killed when she hit the road.

Upon hearing these two reports, it would be logical and seem very reasonable to draw the conclusion that at least one of the reports is wrong. Right?

But the story (which is a true story by the way) needs more fleshing out, more details. What really happened to the old lady?

She was standing at a bus stop, when the approaching bus suddenly went out of control and hit the woman - she was critically injured. A motorist who saw the accident stopped immediately and not knowing first aid, bundled her into his car. In a panic he drove out into the flow of traffic but was not checking the oncoming traffic carefully. He was hit by another car and the injured woman was thrown through the windscreen and killed when she hit the road - just a few minutes after the initial accident with the bus.

So which story was right and which was wrong? Clearly both were partly right. Neither was trying to be deceptive. But both did not explain other things that needed to be explained, to eliminate the apparent inconsistency.

I would suggest that the same is true of the simple logic being applied to the nature of God. Yes, He is all loving and yes, He is all powerful. But He is more than both those things too. And the definition of love needs to be explored.

The Scriptures reveal much about the multi-faceted character of God. Besides being all powerful and all loving, He is also completely holy, just, merciful, all-knowing, and one who desires to relate to the humanity He created.

When we add these thoughts to our original two thoughts about God, they open up possible explanations as to why He tolerates suffering and evil to occur in His world.

Think about the last point I just mentioned: God desires to have a relationship with His created beings. God created us and wants to have fellowship or communion with us.

In the Biblical Genesis story, it says that all that God made was “good”. Humanity is described as not just good, but rather “very good”. Humanity is the crowning joy of God’s creative work.

People are valuable and wonderful. Christians should always have a high regard for human life. We reflect something of our maker in our own make-up!

Sometimes that ‘image of God’ within humans is blurred and almost blotted out by our evil and cruelty. But it is never completely lost. And even the most gross of all evil persons still has a kernel of the image of God within them.

But the Genesis story tells us more. It goes on to talk about Adam and Eve.

Now I am not going to get all hung up about the literalness or not of the story of Adam and Eve. I refuse to play that game. It is not as important as the point that is made in the story. And the point is awesome!

God created a perfect paradise, free from suffering and evil. It was His intention to have a world free from suffering. But God also created Adam and Eve - He created them to have fellowship with Him and to enjoy his creation. And they were given a gift in their very make-up - they were given free will to choose whether to follow God or whether to go their own way.

Now if you know the story, you know the outcome - they chose to go their own way. They ate the fruit they were forbidden to eat and they suffered the consequences: suffering and evil entered the world.

But think about this: God created a perfect world with his “very good” humans in it, but a part of the “very good” nature of the humans was the potential to do wrong: free will.

But God is all powerful and all good: He created a wonderful thing when He created humanity with free will - He created a very good thing.

Free will is very good. It allows us to respond to God or not, willingly. Not by compulsion. Not because we are programmed to do so. But willingly.

Our critic might say that God would have been better off just creating robots - programmed creatures who can not decide anything other than what is programmed into them. That way there would be no evil.

That's true. But there would also be no relationship. And God is one who wants relationship. It is not easy to really enjoy the company of your Pinocchio puppet. But a real little boy? Now there is the potential for real relationship!

Of course to have relationship with a real person with their own will means that the person might reject you and run away and join a street fair or get swallowed by a whale! But relationship is worth the effort and worth the pain.

And it seems that God chose relationship over robots. He chose to give us free will with the potential for evil rather than not have relationship at all.

Relationship is consistent with love. God is love - He is all loving. And so He wants relationship to share the love in. But that relationship has the potential for evil and suffering.

Think again about the story of Adam and Eve. When they used their free will to disobey God and go their own way, certain things resulted: paradise was lost (they had to leave the perfect garden); pain entered the world (pain in childbearing and strenuous work); death entered the world (the first murder took place soon after); and, thorns and thistles grew (nature was thrown out of balance).

In other words, humanity's relationship with God was disrupted, humanity's relationship towards one another was disrupted, and, nature was thrown into a state of imperfection.

In other words suffering pain and evil had entered the world. And problems with nature would result. And, it’s important to note, suffering and evil had entered the world through the sin of humanity, not the plan of God. When natural disasters happen, the creation itself that is out of harmony with God, is “groaning in birth pangs”. When a person does evil and others are hurt, the results of sin are being felt.

Yes, an all powerful God could stop it and turn us all into robots without any will. Yes, an all powerful God could have prevented it and made us robots from the start without any will.

But an all loving God who desires relationship was prepared to allow good and evil to both exist in this world, because love is greater than perfect order.

Think about the criticism that says "Well, God should intervene and stop all evil and suffering”.

Firstly - if God was to put an end to it, now, then He would have to put an end to us - now - too. None of us are perfect. And each imperfect human being - multiplied by some six billion - makes for a lot of imperfection and suffering and evil in the world! God would need to wipe you and I out as well if He was to eliminate evil from the world.

Secondly - one day God will fulfil the desire being expressed by the critic. He will at some point in the future end all suffering and evil. There will come a day when he does bring it all to an end. But it is not just yet. (Consider Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.)

Evil grows up in the world along with good. There are Mother Teresa's and there are Adolf Hitler's. But the day will come when it will be brought to its climax.

God is patient - in the meantime, He wants more and more people to willing turn to him. As it says in the Book of Second Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but wanting everyone to come to repentance." (Consider also Revelation 21:1-4.)

God hates evil and its effects in the world. He will get rid of it one day in the future. But in the meantime he permits it to be in our world along with good, so that people can respond to him in a free-will decision that is not programmed. He wants humanity to turn to him and is delaying the final day for that reason. But the day will eventually come and then all evil will be done away with once and for all.

When that day comes - will you be able to stand? A Christian is not a perfect being. A Christian still makes mistakes. But a Christian is forgiven in Christ because of the love of God and the gift of His Son - Jesus paid the penalty for sin, and those who follow Him receive his covering. God accepts us because of the work of His Son and our link to Him.

By being a disciple of Jesus, we can improve our lives and contribute less personal evil to the world and we can be accepted by God on that final day. Jesus really is the answer to suffering and evil in the world.

Jim Reiher (BA (double major in history), BA in Theology, Dip Ed. MA in Theology (Hons)) is a full time lecturer for Tabor College Victoria, lecturing in church history and New Testament; and also has speciality interest areas in women’s ministry, creative ministry, and the New Age movement.

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