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Why Does God Allow Evil
SacredScoop ^ | 04/07/08 | CottShop

Posted on 04/07/2008 1:28:28 PM PDT by CottShop

Why would a loving God allow evil? Probably one of the biggest issues regarding people’s objection to God, is the underlying feeling that God, ‘if He were God’, would not allow evil to affect so many people. Indeed, there is a great amount of terrible suffering in this world, and people naturally struggle with this important issue.

Some of the accusations leveled toward God that I see quite commonly go along the lines of “God must not be perfect (or omnipotent) if He wasn’t big enough to prevent evil from affecting us”, and usually people will extend this accusation to include something like “Why couldn’t God just have made a world that perhaps allowed sin, but made it so everyone would willingly choose not to indulge in the evil?”

At the root of all such accusations lies the real issue: “Even though we chose not to follow God’s good, I don’t like the fact that I now have to pay for our choice to disobey God, and I don’t like the fact that other people suffer either.”

I’ve seen a great many discussions that go through all manner of rabbit trail diversions, trying to explain away our capability and our deserved come-uppances, but they are all, as I said, just a diversionary attempt to avoid stating the true objections toward God: That Evil exists, we brought it on ourselves, and now we don’t like the results, and God should do something to bail us out immediately.

At this point, I’d like to be blunt, and this might come across as harsh and insensitive, but it is the absolute truth of the matter: We have no right to even exist and be offered an eternity with God our creator. We are the creation, and God has offered us a wonderful eternity if we will simply accept, but it was out of Grace that God even chose to give us this opportunity.

I don’t mean to brush aside the evil by suggesting a hand waving explanation of “Well, it’s just how God decided to do things, and that is that”, but as Glen says in the link that follows, God is being incredibly restrained in His perfect sovereign right to judge us as we ought to be judged. God has allowed evil to exist, as some of you might know, so that grace can abound all the more. Without evil, there would be no free will, and without free will, there would be no occasion for true love to exist. A love that demands that we not suffer, that demands that God act according to our limited understanding of issues far greater than we can possibly comprehend, is a selfish, shallow, “God must obey me before I’ll give my heart to Him” attitude.

This attitude coincidently, is precisely the attitude that Satan exploits, and feeds and causes to fester within us. It is an attitude that Satan Himself had when He decided He wanted God to Obey Him and make Him an equal to God. Our attitude about the situation of Evil is no different than Satan’s was 1000’s of years ago, only our attitudes are formed using different languages and accusations, but at it’s root, our attitude is the very same.

You might be thinking at this point “Oh come on. I would never expect God to obey me, I just think it’s unfair that He allows ‘innocent people’ (especially babies and young children who (haven’t yet had the chance to sin) to suffer horrible diseases or crimes, and die.)

On the surface, this looks like a perfectly humanitarian objection to the presence of evil, yet when carefully examined, we are in essence telling God “Look God- You have no right to allow people to suffer so miserably, and I will not obey Your command to accept Your Son as my Savior until You justify to me that Evil is truly necessary. Either You obey my demand, or I will go to the depths of hell willingly, as I will not serve a God that won’t abide by my inner sense of moralities.”

By stating something like the above, we are saying that our own ascribed moralities trump God’s moralities. In the following excerpt, a reader tells Glen that the bible is so disgustingly filled with violence and bloodshed, and ‘useless judgments.’ Take particular note of Glen’s careful discernment and appropriate answer to the two accusations at the following link (GlenMiller): http://www.christian-thinktank.com/evilgod.html

“—”Maybe we are getting closer to the issues here…I can detect two issues in this paragraph: (1) violence ‘caused by God’ and (2) divine judgments as being ‘senseless’…

On (1) you apparently consider it ‘evil’ for God to do violence (e.g. judicial execution, protection of the innocent), but it is not at all clear to me how you could support this view. I am not at all sure how creatures could have some absolute ‘right’ to restrict their Creator’s actions (good, bad, or otherwise)—the thought seems patently absurd to me. Maybe this a matter of the ‘senseless’ clause in (2) so let’s move on to that.

On (2), you assert that the divine judgments were/are ‘senseless’. This, of course, is a rather absolute statement of knowledge! Granted that you have been thinking about this for 40 years, I strongly suspect that God may actually have data / arguments / reasons that you haven’t had access to or have considered objectively. For you to asset that the judgments are ‘senseless’ MUST be restated more accurately as ‘I cannot see any sense in the divine judgments’—this is a huge difference and one MUCH MORE IN KEEPING with the limited epistemic faculties of humanity!

It would also probably be helpful for you to describe what kinds of judgments ARE ‘sense-ful’ according to your standards. Are judgments YOU make of people ‘sensible’? Why? What about the judgments you make of God or Christians or skeptics? How would YOU define ‘sensible’? I suspect (although it is early in our discussion and I could VERY EASILY be wrong) that your definition of ‘senseless’ is basically ‘that which you disagree with morally, or that which you cannot see a justification for’. Again, be careful that you are not being presumptive or rash in your conclusions.”

Glen has the particular gift of seeing through the veneer in questions, and getting to the root of objections in a patient and respectful manner. I’ve read a few of his dissertations on difficult issues asked by honest inquiring minds, and he has a way of making us see what it is that we really object to in a way that gently coerces our deepest root feelings to the surface.

Glen brings up a good point in this link. To some, the bible might seem filled, or at least the majority of it, filled with unkindness, Evil, pestilence, sufferings etc, and some might argue that love is rarely expressed in God’s word, yet let us not forget the tremendous sacrifices of Christ, the prophets, the apostles, the offer of forgiveness etc.

The emailer in the link above then gets to the core of his objections and tells Glen that he thinks God is unfair for killing babies, drowning ‘innocent’ people and animals, etc. Let’s take particular note of Glen’s response here:

“Now I think we are getting into your issues. What I see surfacing are some assumptions that you need to justify, in my opinion…

For example, you are making an assumption that God is ‘evil’ to drown what you call ‘innocent animals’. What, in your opinion is a ‘guilty’ animal? What moral standards are YOU aware of that you render upon God that requires him to ‘force’ every animal to die a ‘natural death’ (whatever that is?!)…

When God made animals, in what way was He obligated to them? When they die of ‘natural causes’ (e.g. ‘in their sleep’) in what sense is God ‘less’ (or ‘not’ ) guilty than if He has them drown in a flood or die from a tree-fall or get eaten by a predator? Or is God ‘morally required’ to have them ‘live forever’?!

While I would agree that I would find it offensive if God made animals (with requisite nervous systems) to simply torture them (cf. Proverbs 12.10 A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.), I consider that RADICALLY different that God making animals, demonstrating His goodness to them by a natural life-cycle and preservation of the species, and eventually causing cessation of consciousness. I don’t see this as evil as all; in fact, I have to consider it evidence for God’s goodness…

Now let’s take the case of human life. In what ways is God morally obligated to us? When we die of ‘natural causes’ (e.g. ‘in our sleep’) in what sense is God ‘less’ (or ‘not’) guilty than if He has us drown in a flood or die from a tree-fall or get shot by a violent criminal? Or is God ‘morally required’ to have us ‘live forever’?! (and what would be you privileged base of data to support a position on the above? Your ‘common sense’ , ‘moral intuitions’, ’statistical piety of your subculture’?)…”

Pretty powerful stuff here. Glen then goes on to show that we accuse God not based on God’s obligations as ruler of everything, but rather mistakenly based on our knowledge of Christ the redeemer, the perfect example of sevantude. Christ became our example of good, and we then assign what we think to be good to a God, the ruler of everything, an attribute that is inappropriate for an omnipotent God.

Every judge must judge absolutely (or at least they should, many do not, and judge unfairly- disobeying their creed and disobeying God in the process). God, the ultimate judge, will and does judge absolutely. Sin can not coexist alongside God’s supreme Holiness- it just simply can not. He must judge, and He must do so judiciously and fairly. God knows the past present and future, and He knows each person’s heart past present and future, and His judgments are based on that knowledge. Those cities that were wiped out in the Bible, were not the ‘innocent’ civilizations that people try to make them out to be when they argue that God acted unfairly, killing many ‘innocent’ babies, children and people. These cities were the worst of the worst- sacrificing their babies to false gods, killing people who believed in God. Their hearts were entirely evil (and would have been entirely evil had those innocent children’ been allowed to grow up- remember God knows the TRUE hearts of every person past present and future, and He is not fooled by their false exterior appearances- God looks into the hearts where no man can see)

I know that this is only a partial explanation of why God allows evil, and I’ll be glad to expand on this further in another post if any of you have questions, but I think that reading through the link above will begin to honestly answer many of the objections of those who honestly seek an answer.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Reference; Religion
KEYWORDS: evil; god; punishment; sin
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To: spunkets
His purpose was to give the gift of life as a being equivalent to Himself. That included the power to create life. It wasn't a robotics class project.

Then you would agree that God is not all powerful, at least to the extent that he can not defy logic? For example, God is unable to create perfectly obedient humans without those humans ending up as robots?

61 posted on 04/07/2008 9:15:25 PM PDT by timm22 (Think critically)
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To: timm22
No one can defy logic. They can choose to ignore it, pretend it and believe in and promote falsehoods, but they can't defy it.

"For example, God is unable to create perfectly obedient humans without those humans ending up as robots?"

The creation of perfectly obedient beings are robots and unlike their creator.

62 posted on 04/07/2008 9:25:36 PM PDT by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: CottShop
...God must not be perfect

Perfection is the fulfillment of the designers intent. Absent knowledge of the latter, the former can never be a coherent concept.

63 posted on 04/07/2008 9:32:31 PM PDT by csense
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To: CottShop
I don't know why God does what He does.

But I do know this. I can build a voice activated doll who will obey my commands unquestionably until it dies a natural death. But that doll will never love me or have faith in me like my grandchildren do. Or not.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

64 posted on 04/07/2008 9:39:48 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (El Nino is climate, La Nina is weather.)
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To: jwalsh07

good response Walsh- sums up the free will pretty well


65 posted on 04/07/2008 10:24:30 PM PDT by CottShop
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To: Elsie

[[Damned if I know!

I’m just some old clay myself]]

Chicken- lol :)


66 posted on 04/07/2008 10:26:20 PM PDT by CottShop
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To: Texas Songwriter

yoiu bring up a good point- free will in and of itself is not evil- As you said- Adam had free will and each day the garden was put to bed God said it was good. Before the fall, This was the ultimate freedom- to have the free will, yet to choose to do the good- not being slave to sin, not being weak and giving in to sin.


67 posted on 04/07/2008 10:31:20 PM PDT by CottShop
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To: timm22

[[Yes, this is an area where my head starts to hurt and I have trouble even coming up with words to express what I am thinking. Perhaps these are the areas where having faith is really important.]]

It’s ok to look and try to figure out- but eternity is somethign that- like you- makes my head spin too much- just when I thiunk I’m gettign close to understand it, it slips off further into the distance lol-


68 posted on 04/07/2008 10:34:25 PM PDT by CottShop
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To: fr_freak

“It sounds like you have a lot of faith. Some are not so lucky. Some people would love to have complete faith in God and not have to worry about the little things anymore, but can’t quite seem to get there.”

Oh, I still have questions and often waiver. Still “worry about the little things.” Just came to the conclusion one day that there are things I can’t and won’t understand. Maybe that’s a cop-out.


69 posted on 04/08/2008 1:01:38 AM PDT by gate2wire (Even when you know, you never know.)
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To: fr_freak

re: eternal damnation - I believe that this term means “separation from God for eternity.” And does not mean that the damned will be “burning in tortuous pain forever,” but forever separated (DEAD) with no chance of existence ever again. God does not take pleasure in suffering. The Bible speaks in terms of “the second death.” The unsaved will be judged & condemned to the SECOND DEATH, and will be fully aware of the eternal gift they’ve lost during the judgment. Some will resurrect to LIFE, but many to DEATH. Death is death. There will be no consciousness left to suffer.

“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the *SECOND DEATH.* And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

“For God son loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not *PERISH*, but have eternal life.”


70 posted on 04/08/2008 2:54:44 AM PDT by Beloved Levinite ("BUTTER OR JAM, MS. HILLARY ROTTEN!?!?!? YOU'RE TOAST!!!!!!!!!! "(haaaa...))
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To: fr_freak
per·ish –verb (used without object) 1. to die or be destroyed through violence, privation, etc.: to perish in an earthquake. 2. to pass away or disappear: an age of elegance that has forever perished. 3. to suffer destruction or ruin: His valuable paintings perished in the fire. 4. to suffer spiritual death: Save us, lest we perish.
71 posted on 04/08/2008 3:00:51 AM PDT by Beloved Levinite ("BUTTER OR JAM, MS. HILLARY ROTTEN!?!?!? YOU'RE TOAST!!!!!!!!!! "(haaaa...))
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To: timm22

Well, one concept that has been bugging me, has to do with God’s “selection” of “the ELECT.” The Bible says that God chose his ELECT (the one’s to be saved) from before the beginning of time. So he already knew & knows who will repent & accept Christ & eternal life.

If *I* were God (yuck, yuck) I think I’d want to have a button on the remote labeled *SURPRISE*!! I’ll have to ask HIM about that one! ;)


72 posted on 04/08/2008 3:16:46 AM PDT by Beloved Levinite ("BUTTER OR JAM, MS. HILLARY ROTTEN!?!?!? YOU'RE TOAST!!!!!!!!!! "(haaaa...))
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To: onewhowatches

Not in my lexicon ... intercessory prayer is petitioning the Great I AM to be particularly merciful to someone for whom you are making intercessory prayers.


73 posted on 04/08/2008 6:18:05 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: MHGinTN
Not in my lexicon ... intercessory prayer is petitioning the Great I AM to be particularly merciful to someone for whom you are making intercessory prayers.

In other words, you're second-guessing God's initial decision not to be particularly merciful.

74 posted on 04/08/2008 8:15:29 AM PDT by onewhowatches
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To: onewhowatches

The screen door must be broken ...


75 posted on 04/08/2008 2:00:37 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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