What is evil? How can evil and a good-God possibly coexist? These questions plague my mind as I search for the answers. Recently I had to write a paper for my Theology Proper (Study of God) class. This is THE paper at Calvary. It isn't necessarily hard to write, but it is thought provoking. Here is my paper:
EVIL
Introduction
What is evil? It is experienced everyday by people in this world. It is intuitively known when something wrong has been done, the human conscience can attest to that. Many arguments against the existence of God are centered on the fact of evil. Atheism, for example, will place evil as the focal point on their attempts to prove that God does not exist. A study on the attributes of God does make it seem that evil and God cannot coexist. While all the answers cannot be answered completely, an atheist rebuttal to God concerning the existence of evil can be answered. It is the author’s intent to try to answer, while not perfectly or completely, some questions that people ask.
Evil
What is evil? Ravi Zacharias states that “evil is a violation of purpose, the purpose of your Creator.”
What is our purpose? To know our purpose, we must know our Creator.
He also states that “evilness is the outworking of believing a lie.”
That lie is the same lie that Satan gave Eve in Genesis 3:5, “when you eat from it (the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) your eyes will be open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.”
Satan told Eve that she would be like God, the same lie that people believe when they sin.
Sin is doing our will instead of the will of our Father who is in Heaven.
When we sin, our sin is in direct rebellion against God because it is placing our will above the will of the Father.
Evil and sin is in fact reality and it is not to be ignored.
Many worldviews do not take evil seriously.
They claim that evil is merely a figure of imagination.
“Theism affirms the reality of both God and evil.”
Herein lies the problem that must be dealt with, the coexistence of an ultimately good God and evil.
There are two kinds of evil that need to be discussed.
One is natural or physical evil, the other is moral evil.
Natural evil is the likes of natural disasters, things of this world that humans are not directly responsible for.
Moral evil is evil that we are directly responsible for.
While both of these evils need to be dealt with, they occur on a regular basis for everyone.
Questions are raised concerning both: Why does God allow natural disasters? Why does God allow two students to shoot up their school, killing many and then take their lives in the process?
Evil is reality and it is not to be ignored.
Moral Evil
Moral evil is evil that is performed willfully against another person.
There is a desire to hurt and harm them.
Norman Geisler states that “moral evil is explained by free choice.”
The author of this paper would agree somewhat with that statement.
Free choice is involved, of course, but there is an element of our totally depraved state that Norman Geisler misses.
Man’s choices were either God or selfish desire.
Man chose selfish desire and therefore became totally depraved.
Total depravity is the fact that “the sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God.”
Man will not choose God, but rather man will only choose himself over the things of God.
Moral evil is a product of our totally depraved nature.
Many misunderstandings have risen from this doctrine. One such is that good is not possible for the sinner, the sinner cannot perform a good deed. This is not true. Sinner’s can do good deeds. For instance, saving a life is a good thing and that the members of the Armed Forces do that on a regular basis. Many of these members are not saved believers, they are in fact totally depraved, nevertheless they save lives, an act that is good in and of itself. Simply put, their good deeds will not provide the way of salvation because our measure of perfection can never hope to measure up to God’s ideal for perfection.
All of the moral evil that is done is the human sinful nature.
The doctrine of total depravity is meant to teach that evil has “invaded each part of human nature.”
Thus moral evil is quite clearly directly related to sin.
As stated in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Sin is placing our will above the will of our Father.
Physical Evil
Physical evil or natural evil is evil such as natural disasters.
The things that we cannot control, such as the weather or earthquakes, are both examples of natural evil.
Again this evil is also brought about because of the fall of man and not because God has somehow created it.
Why does God allow these natural disasters to cause so much destruction? Why does God allow them period?
The natural disaster is merely the outworking of the effect that sin caused on the earth itself.
Sin is the ultimate cause of all evil, not God.
While we can understand why natural disasters occur, because of the laws of nature, we cannot understand why God allows them to the fullest extent.
The fact of the matter is that physical evil, while it should be dealt with in apologetics, ultimately it is not the problem but rather a product of what the problem is.
Satan
A proper discussion of evil requires some discussion concerning the origin of sin.
Who is Lucifer? First and foremost, essential to the Christian faith is that Lucifer has to be created.
Charles Ryrie states very well that “if Satan were not a created being then he must be eternal or self-existent, a dualism that is incompatible with monotheism.”
Satan has to be a created being otherwise he would be a god, the ultimate evil, right beside God, the ultimate good, and thus would eliminate many different attributes of God and distinguishing characteristics of the Christian faith.
The timing of Lucifer’s creation is unknown. Nothing is stated directly as to when he was created, or the rest of the angels for that matter. Since he was there at the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8) also in Job 38:7 as the “Sons of God shouted for joy” it is safely assumed that Lucifer was created before the creation of the world and mankind. The context of Job 38 is God explaining his sovereignty over the things of this world and he sarcastically asks Job “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Sons of God is referring to angels here though the term is used in Genesis 6:2 and there is dispute as to what exactly the author of Genesis is actually referring to.
Lucifer is an angel as Ezekiel 28:14 states “you were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there” (NASB). There is an enormous amount of information that we can gather from this single phrase in this passage. There are implications that God created Lucifer as God is the one who placed Lucifer in the position he is in. This places God in a position of authority over Lucifer, and as the Supreme Authority as Creator, Lucifer has to be created. The other implication is that Lucifer is a part of the order of angels called the Cherubim. The phrase “anointed cherub” initiates the thought of authority over the rest. Again that authority is only something that can come from God. He was the highest archangel in heaven before his fall.
Lucifer, before his fall, was in quite the position of authority as granted by God. Lucifer demonstrates that he has a will as seen in 2 Timothy 2:26 and Isaiah 14:12–14. The fact that Lucifer has a will demonstrates how easily he fell. His position of authority that he was placed in led to his demise as he wanted to be “like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14).
The First Sin
Lucifer’s sin is referred to twice in God’s Word. Once in Ezekiel 28: 12–19 and the other time in Isaiah 14: 12–14. Lucifer’s sin was pride as stated in Ezekiel 28:17 “your heart was proud because of your beauty.” His pride was the downfall, causing Lucifer to desire to be like God when being like God is not a possibility. Lucifer’s rebellion is stated in Isaiah 14 with the five “I will” statements that Lucifer makes desiring to be “like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). This sin was what got him cast out of Heaven.
The exact timing of Lucifer’s sin is unknown and disputed among theologians.
This speculation concerning Lucifer’s fall is directly related to when sin actually entered the world.
If Lucifer’s fall truly explains how sin entered the world than “the fall really explains how sin entered the human race.”
Lucifer’s sin should not be taken lightly. It is seen pretty clearly that sin cannot be in God’s presence, though there is some dispute about that in some of the Biblical passages, such as Job 1:6 where the fallen Lucifer is seen in the presence of God. Nevertheless our sin is in direct violation to God’s perfection and the ramifications for sin are clearly seen when God kicked Satan out of heaven. The sins we commit have consequences and God will punish the sinner.
God and Evil
The only potential edge that atheism has on theism is this very problem of evil.
How can a good God and evil co-exist?
Of all the arguments that atheism brings to the table, only the problem of evil brings possible proof if their arguments are correct.
But “the very fact of our outrage at evil is a clue that we are in touch with a standard of goodness by which we judge the world as defective, as falling drastically short of the mark.”
The very notion of an absolute moral standard to judge by gives insight to God and his existence.
God did not create evil.
“God is not the author of sin.”
His very nature abhors evil, thus the reason for Lucifer’s banishment from heaven when he committed the first sin (Isa. 14:13–14).
God and sin could not be together, therefore God, the omnipotent being, cast out the created being.
Evil did not catch God by surprise. He is omniscient. He knows everything from eternity past to eternity future. Nothing catches God by surprise. This begs the question, why then did God allow evil in the first place? Since he knew it was coming, why was it allowed? Free will comes into play here. God did not just create the angels in Heaven or the human race without free will. However after Lucifer fell, God made the angels choose either God or Satan. Once they chose, now they are stuck in that decision for all eternity, whether they followed after God or Satan.
If free will is involved, which the author of this paper believes there is, than the potential for evil in the created universe is the concluding answer.
Yes, God created his world with the possibility for evil to exist, and being omniscient he knew that.
Why then did God create the universe and the beings existent? The answer lies within God’s glory.
The believer is called to glorify God in all they do (I Cor. 10:31) and the ultimate purpose of history is the ultimate glorification of God through his sovereignty.
Another answer, though the atheist may not like it, is found in Deuteronomy 29:29 which states “secret things belong to the Lord our God.”
There are things that we cannot understand and we need to realize that as a fact.
“God knows a good purpose for all evil, even if we do not.”
God’s Attributes
Many different attributes of God do not allow for sin.
His holiness, namely, allows us to measure a standard of ethics and morals that people can look to.
Holiness is a “term for the moral excellence of God and His freedom from all limitation in His moral perfection.”
Another such attribute is God’s sovereignty.
God’s sovereignty is defined as “the one who has created all things by His powerful word, has the right to rule with absolute authority and will do as He pleases within His holy nature.”
His sovereignty seems to be in question with the presence of evil.
According to sovereignty, if God created all things, evil is something created, therefore God created evil.
That assumption is wrong.
Evil was not created.
The means for evil was created through the ability of free will within God’s created beings.
Lucifer made a choice, he let his pride get the best of him and thought that he could become like God.
Once cast out, Lucifer then went to tempt God’s most important creation, mankind.
He succeeded and thus sin and evil entered into mankind.
Creational Attributes
God created everything perfect.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… God saw all that he had made – and it was very good” (Gen. 1:1, 31).
However there is a difference of perfection between the Creator and the created.
The majestic holiness of God, described as him being “absolutely distinct from all His creatures, and is exalted above them in infinite majesty”
is a holiness that the created beings cannot obtain.
The created perfection that can be obtained is an ethical holiness that is defined as the “perfections of God, in virtue of which He eternally wills and maintains His own moral excellence, abhors sin, and demands purity on his moral creatures.”
This holiness is the holiness that Adam and Eve were created with.
However this holiness was something they could lose due to their free will.
After the fall, the image of man was seriously distorted and marred.
Man’s choice, his sin that was directed against God alone, was the reason for the fall of mankind.
“God and sin are not merely uncomfortable partners, they are utterly irreconcilable, and the advent of sin meant man’s total ruin.”
Before the fall, man was had a communication with God.
The ethical holiness in man allowed for communication with God in his majestic holiness.
In Genesis 3:8, though right after the initial sin of eating from the tree, God was walking in the garden, this is to assume that Adam had a communion, an intimate relationship with God.
God walked amongst Adam before the fallen state.
That relationship was broken and now because of our sin, man could no longer have a communion with God.
“Man had no means of atoning for his sin, no power (or even desire) to remedy the defects of his nature.”
God had to initiate on the atoning sacrifice. In the Proto Evangelion, God promises restoration through Christ who will “attack your (Satan’s) head, and you will bruise his heal.” Christ’s attack on the head of Satan is a fatal blow. The “bruising of the heal” was done on the cross where Jesus suffered and died for the sins of the whole world. Though Jesus died, he conquered death by rising again, three days later and ascending to heaven (Heb. 2:14, I Cor. 15:3–4, Acts 1:9). This initiation by God allows a totally depraved, sinful individual to have access to him through his grace.
Created Holiness
There was a choice made. God gave Adam and Eve a command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The choice was made by Eve, who then gave the fruit to Adam who also chose to eat it. In that single act, the ethical holiness that they were created with vanished and sin entered into the human race. As Romans 5:12 states very clearly “just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned.”
Thus God did not create an evil world or evil beings. He created us as perfect in ethical holiness, but man failed to keep and maintain that holiness by sinning, rebelling against God. God was not directly involved in the beginning of our sin nature. Rather he provides a way to defeat the sin nature through Jesus Christ. Paul writes to the Galatians and in Galatians 5:1, Paul writes “for freedom Christ has set us free.” Later on in the chapter in verse 13, Paul warns to “not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh.” Peter similarly tells us to “live as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil” in 1 Peter 2:16. This freedom is no longer the binding of our sinful nature. Believers set free through Christ’s death and the indwelling of the Spirit. Romans 8:9–11, Paul explains that believers are dead to sin, “but the Spirit is your life” (vs. 10).
God’s involvement in evil is redemption for mankind from evil. He did not create evil, though the means for evil was through a created being. God’s sovereignty has allowed for evil to be a part of this world and only by his mercy is evil not destroyed. This statement seems odd, but there is truth. The question is often asked: Why doesn’t God wipe evil off this earth? The answer is this, because all creation would be destroyed. Because of the fall, all creation is now affected and evil is present in all of creation. To get rid of evil is to destroy all creation, and essentially start over, if the Lord so desires to do that. It is by his mercy that he withholds his wrath for a later time until all the elect are gathered.
The majority of people who ask this question are unbelievers, their destruction is the answer to their question if they want evil to be destroyed. God is withholding his wrath in order that the very people who ask that question can come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Defense
As stated above, the author believes that the world was created by a all-good God who was not involved in the creation of evil.
God is all-knowing and knew that evil would therefore exist.
In his sovereignty, he had a plan for evil and the ultimate defeat of evil.
What is there to be done of evil? How do believers fight it? Ultimately our answers for evil rely on the defense of God and his attributes.
We must understand, what we can, about God in order to defend evil.
While that understanding of God’s attributes is possible, “to comprehend Him fully we would have to equal or superior to Him.”
Since he created us, comprehension of God to the fullest is not possible because he is greater than his creation.
Conclusion
The problem of evil is something that must be dealt with. Too often Christians will shove evil under the rug and ignore it. The proper answer to the problem of evil is a good study of theology proper, the study of God and his attributes. This problem will not be completely understood by mankind. One must come to acceptance about that fact if they want to be satisfied by the answers they receive.
God did not create evil, but allows for evil in his sovereign will. God has a purpose for evil to still survive for this long, but Revelation 20 makes it very clear as to what will happen to evil as Satan will be defeated and those whose names are not written in the book of Life will be “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15).
Barth, Richard C. Basic Bible Doctrine. El Cajon, California: Christian Services Network, 2007.
Ferre, Nels F.S. Evil and the Christian Faith. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947.
Geisler, Norman. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1999.
Kreeft, Peter and Ronald Tacelli. Handbook of Christian Apologetics. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1994.
Little, Paul E. Know What You Believe. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, 1970.
MacArthur Jr, John. The Power of Suffering: Strengthening Your Faith in the Refiner’s Fire. Wheaton: Scripture Press, 1995.
Ryrie, Charles. Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth. Chicago: Moody, 1999.
Smith, Timothy. Class notes of Jakob Schmidt in TH 220, Bibliology, Theology Proper, & Pneumatology. Calvary Bible College, Spring 2012.
Strobel, Lee. The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.
Wenham, John W. The Enigma of Evil: Can We Believe in the Goodness of God? Grand Rapids: Academic Books, 1988.
Zacharias, Ravi. “The Mystery of Evil, the Sovereignty of Good.” RZIM, www.rzim.org.
