Two Thoughts on the Problem of Evil
Perhaps you’ve heard this argument before…
“If God is omnipotent (all powerful), sovereign (fully in control), and infinitely loving, why does He allow evil and suffering to exist in the world?”
Those familiar will recognize it as the Problem of Evil. First posed by the Greek philosopher Epicurus around 300 BC and made popular by David Hume in the late 1700’s, theistic religions have wrestled with various forms of this argument for over two millennia.
I believe it’s probably the best logical argument against Christianity.
Given how common it’s brought up in religious debate, I recently challenged our family to think through their own answers as to why the Lord allows evil and suffering. It’s critical that we wrestle with this question. I wouldn’t want any believer to be unfamiliar with it since they will sooner or later be challenged with it–either by others or by their own thinking.
Over the years, Christian thinkers such as C.S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, and William Lane Craig have offered some pretty solid counter-arguments to the Problem of Evil. An introduction to the most common responses can be found here. In a nutshell, Plantinga argues that God would not allow evil and suffering unless there was a morally sufficient reason for allowing it. While the exact reasons may not be clear this side of heaven, we trust that the Lord is somehow using it to bring about His own eternal purposes. (I previously wrote about God’s use of suffering here.) While these philosophical counter-arguments provide compelling logical proof, it wouldn’t take much to find forms of suffering that we would have difficulty fathoming any redemptive value. Rape, genocide, and starvation are difficult to square with what we imagine the Lord’s will to be. For now, a full, unabridged explanation for why God allows specific sufferings remains a mystery shrouded in His sovereignty and eternal purpose.
Instead, we trust in His goodness, perfection, and grace. We trust the fact that, despite what we see in the world around us, that His is somehow making all things new.
Frankly, I don’t like to talk much about theology. Too often it fills the head rather than the spirit. But today I wanted to share a couple thoughts surrounding this question which also touch on several of the key ideas we’ve been discussing in First Things.
The Seed of Doubt
The means by which God executes His sovereignty are extremely complex. But behind this complexity are some relatively simple goals. The Lord has had these goals in mind since before creation. Paul collectively refers to them as the eternal purpose (Ephesians 3:11). (I wrote about the eternal purpose here.) So if the eternal purpose represents timeless goals and the Problem of Evil is intrinsically linked to God’s timeless character, you would expect there to be a connection between the two.
For those unfamiliar, the eternal purpose suggests that, before time began, the Godhead (Father, Son, and Spirit) jointly conceived a plan that would involve filling their Life into creatures not yet created. This life was the very Life of God (Greek ζωή (zoe)). Being divine, zoe life is the ultimate form of life. This life would be the best possible life. It would be perfect in every way since it represents God’s perfect will. Because there was nothing greater or more perfect than the Lord and His divine ways, no higher life could be attained. However, before this life could be dispensed, one question was asked. Maybe not in spoken words, but a question was nevertheless posed. In doing so, a seed of doubt was planted…
“Is zoe Life really the best life?“
“Are we certain that there isn’t something better than that?“
“Certainly it can be improved, right? We would hate to miss out on something even better…”
This would become the first question ever asked. It would also be one of the most important questions ever asked. One could suggest that this question was asked by Adam and Eve in the Garden, as seeded by the Accuser. One could also suggest that the question was first asked even earlier by the Accuser himself (Isaiah 14:12-14). But regardless of who first asked the question, the decision was made to try to answer it. Of course, the only way to answer it was to attempt to seek something better than divine Life.
Reframing Sin and The Curse
There are two types of suffering in the world.
The first type is natural suffering. This originates from things that are outside of man’s direct control. Natural disasters, disease, and unfortunate events have caused tremendous suffering for not only humans but for all of creation. We believe that natural suffering is a direct result of the curse of creation that was brought on by Adam’s sin in the Garden (Genesis 3).
To understand this type of suffering we need to reframe our understanding of sin. While we typically express it in terms of a religious list of do’s and dont’s, a much more thorough definition of sin is the misalignment between man’s action and God’s perfect will. If you’ve spent any time in Sunday School, you may have learned that the Greek word for sin is hamartia (ἁμαρτία) which literally means “to miss the mark”. The term was used in sporting events and military training when archers failed to hit the intended target with their arrow.
God’s perfect will is His expectation. When our moral decisions misalign with God’s expectations, we have sinned.
Adam believed the path to a better life was being offered through the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of course, to pursue something better than God’s perfect will is to pursue something other than His perfect will. So in seeking a life better than zoe life, he committed sin.
Today, we seem to have lost grasp of how utterly atrocious sin really is. Keep in mind Adam’s sin was the first sin committed in the material creation. God originally designed a creation without flaw. It was perfect. So to sin was not some mere moral infraction. Its effects were not strictly limited to Adam’s spiritual nature. To sin was to act against the grain of the Creator’s design for how the universe was intended to function. By attempting to answer the eternal question, Adam threw a heavy wrench into the precise gearwork of finely-tuned perfection. The rebellion in the Garden destroyed the natural order of what was good, precise, and perfect.
Some people see the curse in the Garden to be God’s selected punishment against mankind for their rebellion. In a sense it was. But I tend to believe that the curse was also what logically follows when the “immovable object” of man’s rebellion meets the “irresistible force” of the Lord and His immutable harmony with a perfect universe.
Given the above, I’m not entirely convinced that the ‘curse’ is something that God could just snap His fingers and make disappear before the appointed time. Am I saying that God is not sovereign? No, I believe He’s completely sovereign. But I tend to believe that the curse of creation is intrinsically linked to God’s immutable nature. Just as God’s nature demands that forgiveness require sacrifice, mankind’s choice to rebel demands a curse. The natural suffering mankind continues to experience may not be so much a punitive and intentional act of God, but a natural consequence of mankind’s misalignment with His perfect will. Natural suffering is the “shards” that continue to pierce our feet after the universe was shattered. The shattering was caused by Adam’s attempt to pursue something better than zoe life.
I believe the Lord is gracious in that He minimizes the effects of the curse as much as possible while still using it to accomplish His eternal purposes. I also believe that His Body (the church) takes an active role in mitigating the curse’s effects through her ongoing ministry to the suffering. But unfortunately, the effects of the curse are something that we will have to deal with until the Lord restores His Kingdom in fullness. Despite what appears to be a losing battle, Paul gives us a glimpse of hope waiting for the believer when the Lord once again makes all things new…
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Romans 8:18-19 (ESV)
For the believer there will come a day when even the most heinous suffering will, in an instant be a distant memory. Until then, this promise helps us endure. It’s the message we carry to a suffering world.
The Grace of Self Discovery
The second type of suffering is caused through the acts of other human beings. In some cases this suffering is direct and intentional (sometimes called evil). In other cases, it’s simply through the carelessness, unforeseen consequences, and second-order effects of imperfect human decision-making. But in either case, if we isolate and examine the root motivation behind much of humanity’s ill-fated choices, much of it boils down to trying to pursue something greater than God’s perfect will found in zoe life. This said, a second though regarding a why God might allow a certain degree of man-made suffering to exist is to provide every opportunity for humanity to discover for themselves that there is nothing better than zoe life.
When we face a moral decision, it’s as though each of us is brought back to the Garden to eat of either the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (which we discussed here). Which tree do we eat from? Do we follow divine life? Or do we rely on the ill-fitting tools of philosophy, human reasoning, and “science” to guide us? But rather than save us from our own poor decisions, the Lord allows humanity to see and experience the consequences of being in charge of their own moral decisions. He allows us to be our own gods so that the question posed thousands of years ago through countless iterations can be answered with ultimate finality. For until it is answered mankind as a whole will not concede self-rule in lieu of divine rule.
Now you might be wondering, “Would God allow so much suffering just to make a point?”
Given the weight of God’s eternal purpose, I think He would allow it. It’s such a critically important question for every human being to answer. It’s the question that caused creation to rebel against its Creator. It’s the question that we ask ourselves every time we make a moral decision.
A quick survey of the last 6,000 years of human history reveals endless suffering. Much of it resulted from when very intelligent, well-intentioned people in power believe that they have a solution to the world’s problems that falls short the perfect will found in the Lord’s divine life. While humanistic solutions might provide short-term relief with some positive effect, ultimately, the choices will always delay, compound, expand, or accelerate evil and suffering. Nuclear proliferation, the war on terror, the legalization of drugs, open-ended government assistance, and the devaluation of human life are a few of many examples.
Someone else might be thinking, “Humans will likely never concede self-rule. Why should God then rub our noses in it?“
I tend to agree. I think it’s more likely that Jesus will return in the midst of human travail rather than collective human agreement that God was right all along. But I don’t think agreement will be necessary. When mankind has, despite their best human efforts to achieve divine life without a Divine Source, the question will have been answered.
The first question ever asked was whether zoe life is the highest life attainable. Unfortunately for most, it will also be the last question ever to be fully answered.
A Shared Suffering
Of course, I could be wrong about these ideas. They’re just my thoughts. You can take them or leave them.
Regardless of the reasons why God allows evil and suffering, it’s no small comfort knowing that we don’t experience this suffering alone. As John R.W. Scott and Peter Kreeft argue, the answer to the question to the Problem of Evil is not found in a logical syllogism, but rather in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Lord did not isolate Himself from suffering. He experiences it along with us, not separate from us. In fact, He freely chose to experience the worst parts of the curse and the actions of imperfect men on our behalf. And in some mysterious way, He continues to experience suffering through the trials of His Bride in whom He dwells (Acts 9:4; Col. 1:24; Phil. 3:10).