And When Evil is Greater than the Good from it.....?

Alright, so it makes sense that good can come from evil, but there must be times when the amount of good arising from the evil doesn’t make it worthwhile.   Why doesn’t God eliminate that evil?

Well, first, you have no evidence that he hasn’t.   One of the lessons of the Book of Job is that he only allows certain evils and that he rules that certain others cannot occur.  If he allowed evil without limit this world would be a far worse place than you think it is now.

It is this loving nature of God that makes the question of evil so poignant:  if we are distressed by the evil we see, as we ought to be (II Peter 2:8), then how much more sensitive God must be to it!  And how much we ought to realize that he will not allow anymore evil than what is needed for his loving purpose!

We set ourselves up as judge of the evil that is allowed and decide that some shouldn’t be, but we have no view of the long-term.  Romans 8:18 is instructive on this: “I consider our present sufferings insignificant compared to the glory that will soon be revealed to us.”  There is a purpose in it that is often as far removed from our perception as is a parent’s purpose from the perception of a toddler who doesn’t get what he wants.

Good From Evil?

Alright, so Satan causes evil, but why did God create Satan?  That brings the blame back to God.

1.     Satan made the choices.  He also had freedom.  

2.     God didn’t create him evil.  We become as we behave.  In other words, habits form and we change and what we are is determined by the decisions we make. The more we choose something, the more we are that way.  This is why God doesn’t create instant character.  The more we choose something the harder it is to choose differently.

Love is like this.  It starts with freedom, yet its goal is to become unfree, to be unable to be any different.  I John 3:9: “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”²

Further, we have to remember that you can’t make an omelet without breaking the eggs.   I am sure God knew that Satan would or at least could become evil, but guess what….it’s all part of the plan, and the plan has good and glorious results.

If men and evil spirits cause the trouble, it seems like God doesn’t have much control, and if he doesn’t have much control he isn’t really God.

Before the creation he was all-powerful, being all that there was.  With the creation, he surrendered some of his power, or better, he delegated that power. Our freedom is an example of that delegation of power.  God is still all-powerful and could take back the delegated power anytime he chooses. 

Not every event has a God-ordained purpose to it, except that he allows it to happen to facilitate the character development afforded by the freedom delegation which allowed the event to occur.   If I get drunk and run over a child, why should we ask what God’s purpose in that was?   He didn’t cause it.  A lot happens without a specific purpose, but it doesn’t matter because the main objective in this life is to prepare for the next.  Resting in the security of God’s love, we need not be concerned about these events.  Rm 8:35: “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.” 

Even these wayward, accidental events are then taken by God as loose threads to be woven into the tapestry he has created.  The final picture will account for everything and it is wonderful.

Continued Discussion of Suffering...

At http://gordon-feil-theology.blogspot.ca/2017/01/why-all-suffering.html we explored the question of why Christianity has done so much harm, and we did so in the context of the value of freedom. Then we asked whether freedom is worth the suffering. Today we extend the discussion to ask…

If God knows the future, and if men are the prime doers of evil, why doesn’t he look ahead and see who will do the great evils and prevent them from being born?

1.     We are not in a position to judge what good comes out of what evil. God has a plan he is weaving.  He knows what has to happen.  Romans 8:20: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope”².  

2.     While I think God knows the future, I can make a contrary argument: if our premise is that a prime value is freedom, then God does not know before we are born what we will choose and what evil we will bring.  This means we create our own futures.  This is not what I believe though.  I think that we can be choosing and that God knowing what we will choose does not determine our choice.  In fact, him knowing the choice to which we tend can assist him in knowing what intervention to make to deter us from ultimately disastrous choices. There are a number of passages² in the Bible that some read to infer that God doesn’t know what we will do.

a.     Exodus 32 ¹⁴ So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

b.     1 Samuel 15 ^11a I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.

c.     Jeremiah 18 ⁷ At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; ⁸ if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. ⁹ Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; ¹⁰ if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.

d.     Jeremiah 26 ¹⁹ … Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, and the Lord changed His mind about the misfortune which He had pronounced against them?...

I think it is plausible too that God can operate at multiple levels.  On one level he can tell us to choose right over wrong and say that if we choose the one then something will happen, but if we choose the other then something else will happen, and then tell us that since we have now chosen this way, then the something will no longer happen.  At another level he can simultaneously know the outcome, and this doesn’t predetermine it. 

Yet, our question is why doesn’t God prevent the worst monsters from being born.  He may very well have!  There could have been worse than Hitler and Stalin who did not have a chance to occur.  As to the ones whom he has allowed, they served a purpose in the weaving of the tapestry of personal histories.  The day is coming when all tears will be gone and all will know that all things had a purpose.

How does God get off the hook for evils that do not arise from anyone’s decision (such as famines)?

Many have had their faith in God shipwrecked over this issue, but yours does not need to be. Consider the following.

1.     Much of what we call “evil” works out to good in the long run.

2.     Many of the “natural disasters” such as plagues and famines are man-made.  These arise from evil hearts.  Even many cases of deformed babies are from decisions taken by humans.

3.     Human freewill is not the only freewill. There are also Satan and demons --- malevolent spirits bent on hate and harm.

These arguments will sound to some skeptics like grasping at straws.  God has set things so that we have enough sensory and intellectual evidence to support our faith, yet with sufficient deficiency in that evidence to require faith as the real evidence.