How Can a Loving God Allow Evil to Exist?
by Tim Chaffey
The existence of evil in the world is a huge stumbling block for many unbelievers. Charles Darwin wrestled with this issue and apparently nobody gave him a satisfactory answer. This is a complicated issue that will take several articles to discuss. We will just scratch the surface of it here.
If God is truly a loving God as the Bible teaches then how can He allow so many horrible atrocities to occur [i.e. the recent tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people]. How can anyone believe that there is a loving God who is in control of this world? For Bible-believing Christians, this question is not as difficult as it seems; however, for Christians who have compromised with the idea of "billions of years" there is no satisfactory answer. Let's deal with this issue first and then we'll proceed to answer how God could allow evil?
It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that bad things happen in this world. A quick look at the nightly news will point this out (kidnappings, murders, etc.). Nature seems to be red in tooth and claw as predators brutally kill and then eat their prey. Again, how could a God of love allow this to happen? It is easy for us to place the blame on God. After all, He made everything so it must be His fault, right? Wrong. The Bible clearly teaches that when God had finished creating the world (at the end of day six) He looked at everything He had made and declared that it was "very good" (Gen 1: 31).
Here is the problem for Christians that have compromised with the "billions of years." They believe that predators have been killing their prey for millions of years. How could a God of love look upon this as "very good?" Especially when one considers that the Bible calls death an "enemy" (1 Cor 15: 26). Surely a "very good" world did not include millions upon millions of years of death, disease, and bloodshed. If this were the case then it would be fair for us to place the blame on God for the evil in this world; however, God is not the author of evil.
Indeed, God did create a perfect world. Genesis 1: 29 - 30 tell us that originally all of the animals and mankind were vegetarians. There was no death until Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3: 6, 19). As a result of man's sin, God cursed the world. One of the reasons He did this is so that man would not live forever in a fallen state. Instead, he would die and those who have placed their faith in Him will live eternally with Him.
So the evil that exists in this world is not God's fault - it is our fault. God gave Adam and Eve the choice to obey or disobey. Unfortunately, they chose to disobey and our world has been reaping the consequences ever since (Rom 8: 22). We look forward to the day when the curse will be done away with and there will be no more pain, sorrow, or death (Rev 21: 4; 22: 3). Until that day, keep serving the Lord.