How can I believe God is good when evil is everywhere?
The question is asked in two very different tones — sometimes as an attack, sometimes as an honest ache. One writer notes that the sceptic asks it "fiercely and arrogantly," imagining it will finish off Christianity for good, while the same question is asked "timidly and wistfully by the troubled Christian." The answers below are aimed at the second kind of asker.
God is not the author of evil
The starting point is that evil is not God's product. But this raises the obvious follow-up: why then allow it at all? One writer answers by pointing to what the alternative would have been — beings with no capacity to choose.
A. J. PollockThere is only one answer to be given. God is not the author of evil, but He has allowed sin for His own glory. He did not create creatures who were incapable of choosing between good and evil, otherwise He would have created mere machines — infinitely more wonderful than motor cars and aeroplanes, but still on the same level.
That same writer admits the answer leaves gaps: "we are still left with incomplete knowledge on the subject," and that will not change while we are on this earth.
Where the world's misery began
If God did not start the evil, someone did. One writer traces the world's suffering back to a decision made in Eden, and to the ruler humanity chose instead of God.
J. T. MawsonGod is good, ten thousand times ten thousand voices bear witness to His goodness, but the world as such has rejected God, and despised the riches of His goodness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that His goodness would lead them to repentance (Rom. 2:4) — and has chosen to follow Satan, the adversary, instead of God. In Eden Adam listened to the voice of Satan and turned his back on God, and by that act of disobedience sin entered into the world, and death through sin.
The goodness that is still running
Evil is loud, but it is not the only thing happening. The ordinary supply of life keeps arriving, and it arrives regardless of whether anyone says thank you.
J. T. MawsonHe makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, and He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. He turns the very miseries that result from man's inhumanity and injustice to one another into good for all those who turn to Him, so that their sorrows often become their greatest blessings... "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Why God holds back
Many people want God to step in and sort the world out. One writer points out what that would actually cost — and it would not stop at the people we want punished.
J. T. MawsonGod does not intervene in the affairs of the world, because if He did the whole unregenerate world would be involved in judgment, and this He does not desire. Judgment is His strange work.
The same writer answers the charge that God is simply a distant spectator by pointing to what Jesus said about the smallest creatures:
J. T. MawsonFrom the lips of Jesus we have learnt that not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice; that He whose word upholds the mighty worlds He has formed cares for the weakest, and in our thinking the most worthless, of His creatures... It shows us that He is not distant and indifferent when His creatures suffer.
The cross settles it
If you want evidence that God is good, commentators point you to one event rather than to an argument. There, the worst evil and the deepest love met.
An Outline of Sound WordsIn the cross there has not only been displayed the triumph of God over sin, but the manifestation of His perfect, infinite and eternal love. Love has triumphed over all the hatred shown in the rejection of Jesus, and God's goodness over all the evil.
Evil is not permanent
The present arrangement is temporary. Writers distinguish the coming age, when evil is held down by force, from the final state, where there is nothing left to hold down.
Hamilton SmithIt will be a scene "in which righteousness dwells." Every form of corruption and violence, lust and lawlessness marks the present world; lasting righteousness will mark the new creation. It will not be the reign of righteousness as in millennial days, which implies the presence of evil to be held down. In the new scene, evil having been dealt with, righteousness will dwell.
Seeing God through the evil
Until then, faith is not asked to pretend the evil is small. It is asked to look past it to the One above it.
J. N. DarbyFaith pierces through the felt evil, does not wish to be insensible to it, but by faith gets to Him who is above it, and can bring in His goodness even into this present scene.
Summary
- Origin — Evil did not come from God. He allowed the possibility of choice rather than make creatures who were "mere machines," and man used that choice against Him in Eden.
- Evidence — Goodness has never stopped running: sun, rain, and kindness to the ungrateful, with sorrows themselves turned into blessing for those who turn to Him.
- Proof — The cross is where the case is settled — the worst hatred met "His perfect, infinite and eternal love," and goodness won.
- Patience — God's silence is restraint, not indifference. Full intervention now would sweep in "the whole unregenerate world," and He does not want that.
- End — The delay is temporary. A new creation is coming where evil has been dealt with and righteousness simply dwells. Meanwhile faith looks straight through the evil to the God above it.