So, while these thoughts were not collected as an answer to the school shooting, they might give us some perspective on evil in general and where God stands in all of this. I'm offering this, not as a response to the tragedy in Newtown, but as some helpful ideas to wrestle with what see going on around us.
William Hasker has said, "For at least a century and a half, the existence and prevalence of evil in the world has been generally recognized as the single most formidable obstacle to theistic belief." In other words, more people might believe in a good and just God if not for all the evil they see going on around them. I give these 5 potential answers for the problem of evil as a way in which we might reconcile the presence of evil with the reality of a loving God.
1. The Experiential Factor
One important question to ask it, "How do I define evil?" We live in a day and age where whatever I experience or believe is the most true thing that exists. This is true also of what we would call evil. We consider evil anything that is bad, harmful, or damaging to others. Yet, what one culture considers evil may be considered normal in another culture a hundred years later. The point is, sometimes, in complaining about evil, we are merely saying that God isn't running the world the way we think He should from our perspective.
Scripture defines evil not as something that is bad or wrong, but as anything that is contrary to the will and nature of God. Take for example Adam and Eve in the garden- eating an apple wasn't bad, hurtful, or damaging, BUT it was contrary to the voice of God.
So, the first possible answer to the problem of evil is to make sure that we define evil appropriately, based on something higher than our own personal experience.
2. The Evidence of Creation
The problem
of evil is based on the idea that a good and loving God would make a perfect
world. But consider the marks of God’s creation before Adam and Eve sinned. (From Douglas Hall)
-Loneliness- “it is not good for man
to be alone.”-Limits- we are limited in existence, power and intelligence.
-Temptation- an unholy desire to exceed limits and become gods
-Anxiety- in Eve, a fear that she didn’t have everything she needed for life
Couched in
every one of these is the prospect for suffering. Suffering which God allowed
for.
But we would
all agree that these “evils” exist for our own benefit- loneliness that we
might draw near to others, limits that we might stay safe and value life,
temptation in that we are free to exercise free will, and anxiety which teaches
dependence on God.
An all
loving and all good God created this way! Struggle is
part of creating life- how we learn to become fully human! And in this
struggle, there will pain, and perhaps even things we would describe as evil.
The second
possible answer to the problem of evil is seeing the evidence of creation.
3. The Existence of Good
Ho w do you
know something is good? No one argues
that we should do away with good. No one suggests we should stop being kind, or
loving or gracious. But how would we recognize any of these things without the
potential for evil?
You have heard how scientifically,
“Dark” and “Cold” do not exist.
-
Darkness
is only the measure of the absence of light
-
Coldness
is only the measure of the absence of heat
-
We
know dark and cold experientially but only through these do we also experience
the goodness of light and heat.
A third
possible answer to the problem of evil is recognizing at as the absence of
good. We experience evil, but only because we also know what is good.
4. The Elevation of Free Will
Most of the
arguments of evil I hear relate to gratuitous acts of violence or unjust
suffering.
“Why did God
allow Hitler to live?”
“Why didn’t
God stop the drunk driver before he drank?”
“Why didn’t
God stop _________________.”
So, in other
words, we want God to step in and disrupt human free will when we think its
obvious that He should do so. We see certain times and decisions that God
should make, and the fact that He doesn’t causes us to doubt his existence.
Have you
ever hurt someone? Maybe you shouldn’t have been born! Maybe God should have stopped you.
"But I’ve
done lots of good!" we say. "I deserve to live."
So now
again, WE are the standard of what God should do.
But God has
prized and valued our free will- our ability to choose Him or reject Him, to
choose love or to choose hate, to choose peace or to choose evil- so much that
He treats us all the same. He soveriegnly chooses to keep his hands off.
I heard a
speaker telling his story, and he was crying out to God, “God, why didn’t you
keep me from this abusive person?” And he heard God say, “You can’t see how
much I kept off you.” We only see
what God does allow. Does that mean it’s good? No necessarily.
If anything, gratuitous and unjust displays evil ought to cause us to redouble our efforts
to preach the Kingdom and spread the Love of Christ, so that more and more
people will freely choose to follow Him and surrender to his rule. Which
by the way, how significant is it when we choose to love Him? In light of the
freedom God allows for each one of us to choose evil, how awesome is it that we
can actually find Him?
The fourth
possible answer to the problem of evil is seeing how highly God values our
freedom- our freedom to choose Him. God refused to create obedient little
robots.
5. The Example of the Cross
In John 1:18 we read, "No one has ever seen God, but the unique One, who is himself God, is near to
the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.”
Never has
God been more clearly revealed than on the cross. If we want
to know how God feels about evil, the cross of Jesus is the clearest answer. He permitted
this evil to happen, but He gave his very life to overcome the evil that was at work. Honestly, for me faith falls apart without the cross. But in the cross, I see God's answer to the problem of evil.
The fifth
possible answer to the problem of evil is to point to the cross of Jesus Christ
and say, “That’s how God feels about evil.”
May these potential answers help you to process the evil that you encounter on your journey.
And may you know His peace-
Nick
