Why is There Evil and Suffering in the World?

At our previous life group study, we discussed the "problem of evil" as it is popularly called, or "why is there evil and suffering in the world?" Some other ways to ask this question are, "why do bad things happen to good people?" or "if God is all-powerful, and all-loving, why is there evil in the world?" Anyways, this is a common question for a lot of people and it definitely prevents some people from believing in the existence of a good God.

Our group decided that it is possible for evil and suffering and a good God to exist at the same time. The reason for this is that God created us with free will and this free will gives us the ability to choose if we will do good or evil. God created us with free will because he wants us to be able to love Him and each other. If we don't have free will then we can not truly love. Just imagine if God created us with only the ability to do good and not evil. If this were the case, we would all essentially be robots under his control. If He did make us as robots that were forced to love Him, then it wouldn't really be love, would it? Love does not mean anything if it is our only choice. It only means something if we have the ability to choose to love or not to love and we choose to love.

"Well," you might ask, "what if God created us with free will, but then whenever anybody was going to do something evil, He would intervene and stop them?" Our group decided that if God created a world like this then we wouldn't really have free will. If He stopped us from committing any evils then we wouldn't really have a choice to do evil or good, we would only have one choice.

Another question that was raised in the book we are reading through was, "Is free will worth the possibility of such great suffering?" Well, let's think about this. We already decided that in order for love to be possible, evil must also be possible. Therefore, if great love is possible there must also be the possibility of great evil. This can then lead us to conclude that the amount of love possible can only be proportional to the amount of evil that is also possible. This is the nature of love. But yes, love is risky. Anyone who has given their heart to another person knows this. That person then has power over your heart to give you great joy, or conversely to cause great pain. So is it worth it? What do you think? If you have ever been hurt by somebody, did this cause you to stop loving anybody? Or did you eventually decide to try giving your heart again to someone else? Most of us will choose to try to find love again because of the transcendent joy that come with finding true love. Love is what makes life worth living. What would life be like without any love? What if there was no love or evil in the world, what kind of life would that be?

God took the greatest risk when he created this world because he has the greatest investment in it. His heart breaks every time that anyone in his creation is hurt or lonely. His heart cries when he sees the helpless being downtrodden. He mourns every injustice that takes place and He sees everything that happens. His heart also breaks every time we reject Him and his laws that are designed for our own good. The amount of His risk is best seen in the event of sending his own son to earth to die on a cross in order to save humanity from evil.

Another good response to this argument that I like is the one that Ravi Zacharias uses: The skeptic claims that the existence of evil and suffering proves that God does not exist. However, when you say that evil exists, you are also admitting that good exists. And if good exists then there must be a moral law. And if there is a moral law then there must be a moral law giver. Therefore, the existence of evil doesn't disprove the existence of God, but in fact proves that He does exist.

Why has the Church Caused so Much Harm?

This past week our life group started off with the question of why have so many atrocities been committed in the name of Christianity? This is a very valid question as we can all think of many evils perpetrated by the Church throughout history such as the inquisition, the crusades, and the witch trials. I'm sure that there are many others, too many to name here. This problem can be a tough stumbling block for many people to get past because the Church is supposed to represent God, right? Shouldn't Christians always act in a blameless manner if they claim to be God's people? Does the harm caused by the church invalidate the Christian faith? Or should we look at this a little closer...

Our first point that we made at our life group was that not everyone who calls them self a Christian is really a true follower of Jesus. We can call ourselves whatever we want to, but our true beliefs and motives can be seen by our actions. Even Jesus himself taught that your faith is shown by your actions (Matt 7:16-18). He also said that not everyone who calls Him their lord is a true believer in Matthew 7:21. Thus, we should be able to draw a distinction between those who use the name of Christ to advance their own selfish desires and those who truly are Christians by their actions. Augustine once said that you should not judge a worldview by its abuses. We should therefore, as Ravi Zacharias says, judge a worldview by the teachings and life of it's founder.

However, there probably have been some evils committed across history by "real" Christians. To this we responded that Christians are not perfect people and neither do we claim to be perfect. We still have to wrestle with temptations and sometimes we make the wrong choices. This is a clear teaching throughout the Bible, some examples being Romans 3:23 and 7:7-25. Therefore, on behalf of all Christians, may I ask for the forgiveness of the people who have been wronged by sins that we Christians have committed. We have sinned, we have been hypocritical and prideful and ungracious. I pray that we may change our ways and right the wrongs that we have committed.

Since we Christians are not perfect, we should be looking to Jesus instead. What did he teach? How did he live? Did he commit any evils? Is God really good and loving as he claims to be? God does not control his people, he has given us all free will, so we must all be held responsible for our own actions. We can't blame every sin committed by humanity on God and his sovereignty. To find out if he is worthy to be worshiped we must look to His character and His promises, and what Jesus did while he was on earth. (We will talk more about all this later).

In closing, let us look at how atheism as contributed to evils of history. Many atheistic dictators, such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao have killed millions more than anyone operating under the banner of Christianity. The fundamental difference between these two cases however, is that when "Christians" commit evils in the name of their religion it is contrary to what their teacher actually taught. But when atheists kill in the name of evolution or ethnic cleansing, it is the logical outworking of their beliefs.

The Hard Questions Faced

My wife and I just started a new life group (aka small group, aka bible study) at our house and are very excited about the topic we will be discussing. We wanted a topic that would interest anybody that might come, whether a christian or not, so we decided to study the hard questions against the christian faith. We will be using Letters From a Skeptic by Gregory Boyd as a guide to our study and a help when we may become stumped. This book was read by my wife and I almost two years ago and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a collection of letters written back and forth between a father (the skeptic) and son (the apologist) about the father's objections against christianity.

I hope to be posting a summary of our discussions, or at least my opinions on the topics, and hope that you will enjoy following along. I welcome your comments and questions and will try to answer them as best I can. Here we go...