Why Is There Evil & Suffering?
 

In light of the Christian worldview; suffering, evil, man’s inhumanity is all a result of the fall. In the beginning, after God had finished all of His work, He pronounced that everything was very good (Genesis 1:31 English Standard Version). It is due to the fall that pain, thorns, suffering, and even death were introduced to humankind (Diffey, 2015; Genesis 2:17 “Lecture 3,” 2017; Romans 6:23). Immediately after the fall of man, in Genesis chapter four, we are exposed to the first murder of a man (Genesis 4:8).

Paul stated that sin and death entered the world through Adam’s sin, and because of this, as well as the sins each person commits, everyone is a transgressor, sinful by nature, and under the just judgment of a holy God. (Diffey, 2015, para. 9; Romans 5:12-15; 18-21)

This concept or doctrine is labeled as original sin by theologians (Barry et al., 2015) and despite them being created in the Imago Dei, due to the fall we all now inherit a sinful nature (Romans 5:12). Through this rebellion and sinful nature eventually came the flood. God saw that man’s heart and thoughts were only evil, so He flooded the whole earth (Genesis 6:5). Even though God saved Noah and his family who were righteous before God, they still had a sin nature which is why the Bible says their condition still did not change and their hearts were still evil (Genesis 8:21). Later on, in the book of Isaiah, he pronounces anything a man can do regarding righteous deeds is like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord (Isaiah 64:6).

Theodicy & Evil

Theologians have come up with a term that deals with defending God who is good, loving, and all powerful but yet allows suffering (Cross & Livingstone, 2005; Sharpe, 2015). The term is called Theodicy. Etymology which is evil things that are morally wrong differs from Theodicy in that Theodicy is a defense for why evil exists even though we have an all-powerful, all knowing, loving God (Brooks & Neal, 2016). There are several types of evil: natural evil, moral evil, spiritual evil and eternal evil (Brooks & Neal, 2016). Most people recognize that there are two primary evils in this world. Natural evil which is due to catastrophes such as Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, diseases, etc. The other evil would be moral evil which 9/11, murder, lying, cheating, etc. would fall into. I would also like to open the idea that there are two other possible types of evils, the spiritual evil and also the eternal evil. If you believe in an open universe where the spiritual realm can come into the physical (Hiles & Smith, 2015), then there are spiritual evils we have to guard ourselves against (Ephesians 6:10-20). A Christian also believes in an eternal evil where evil will last eternity still in Hell (Revelation 20:10-14).  

Evil in this world can be explained due to the fall; humans wanted to know the difference between good and evil which is how evil entered this world (Genesis 3; Sharpe, 2015; Romans 5:12; 6:23). The fall extended even all the way down to creation itself (Romans 8:22). Even though evil does exist, one day God will make all things right again, and there will be a day when there is no death, tears, or pain (Revelation 13:8). God did not create evil, yet He willed it and ordained it all for His Glory (Job; John 9:1-3; Revelation 13:8; Romans 9:17).

Although we can point and easily say that such tragedies like 9/11 and Tsunamis are a direct result of the fall (Romans 5:12; 6:23), and that the fall affected God’s entire creation and not just man (Romans 8:22), we still are at another conundrum of why on Earth evil exists in the first place. St. Augustine of Hippo once came up with the idea that evil is merely the absence of goodness and was not created by God (Brooks & Neal, 2016). Just like darkness is the absence of light, light was created by God (Genesis 1:3), but darkness was not, it is simply the lack of light that God created. Evil is therefore not a created thing and therefore not created by God. So why does God allow it then?

But why?

Regardless of what view you hold for Theodicy, my reaction to such evil in this world helps me live my life for God with a hope and a future of restoration back to God’s original creation. This would be without sin, death, suffering, pain or evil (Revelation 21:4). Here are a few reasons which present perhaps why God allows evil:

  1. To manifest our true spiritual character: God allows suffering to show us how deep our faith is when a crisis hits. Look at the story of Job or Paul in his thorn in the flesh. You learn a lot from a man when he suffers rather than when things are going well (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-5). Deuteronomy 13:3 says, “for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

  2. God uses suffering and trials to humble us: Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 12:7, "To keep it from exalting myself." Paul went to heaven at one point in his life and came back, but told everyone that his thorn in his flesh was to humble himself. God did this so he would not boast. Sometimes we may get carried away with our faith and think we know it all or maybe think we are higher than another believer if we go through certain things. God does not want this for us in our lives so he may bring or allow hardship to humble us.
     
  3. God uses suffering and trials to show us His Grace: God tells Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 "My Grace is sufficient for you.” Sometimes we tend to want what we think we need in this world. All too many times it is not what God wants for us in our lives, and in difficult times God may tell us this very same thing and make us come to realize how great God's Grace is. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
     
  4. God uses suffering and trials to draw us to Him: Paul went to God three times to ask him to take away his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8). Sometimes if everything is going great in our lives, we tend to forget about God or go to church less, pray less, and study God's word less. With trials in our lives, it brings us to our knees, and it leads us to prayer, deep meaningful prayer, deep study of God's Word, and fellowship with other believers (Psalm 25:16-18).
     
  5. God uses suffering and trials to perfect His Power: God says My power is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). God wants us to the point where we have no self-confidence, no self-esteem so we know it is all God.
     
  6. God will use suffering and trials in our lives to comfort one another: We see an example of this when Jesus tells Peter that once he comes out of this trial, he will need to strengthen his brothers (Luke 22:31). We also see in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that since God has comforted us in our troubles, we then can now comfort others.
     
  7. God will use suffering or trials in our life so that the work of God might be displayed: Jesus said in John 9:1-3, "As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? Jesus answered, It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him." Sometimes God will allow trials and suffering to bring Glory to his name.
     
  8. God will use suffering or trials to give us more of an affection to think about our eternal destiny (Psalms 121; Romans 8:18): As we are going through hardship, trials, difficulties, and suffering we know that none of these things will be in Heaven and that just makes us realize how great God is and how wonderful Heaven will be. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 Paul says, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
     
  9. Sometimes we will suffer or go through a trial because it is a consequence of a bad decision: It says in Galatians 6:7 that, “We will reap what we sow.” Also in Hebrews 12:7-11 it says, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons."
     
  10. Lastly, if you are going through suffering or a trial then you will know you’re a child of God: You see this throughout scripture, but some examples of this are found in Hebrews 12:6 & 2 Timothy 3:12.

References

Barry, J. D., Bomar, D., Brown, D. R., Klippenstein, R., Mangum, D., Sinclair Wolcott, C., … Widder, W. (Eds.). (2016). In The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Brooks, P., & Neal, D. A. (2016). Theodicy. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). In the Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev., p. 1609). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Diffey, D. (2015). Departure from wisdom. In A. DiVincenzo (Ed.), The beginning of wisdom: An introduction to Christian thought and life. Available from http://lc.gcumedia.com/cwv101/the-beginning-of-wisdom-an-introduction-to-christian-thought-and-life/v2.1/#/chapter/4

Hiles, J. S. & Smith, A. F. (2015). Introduction: A starting point for wisdom. In A. DiVincenzo (Ed.), The beginning of wisdom: An introduction to Christian thought and life. Available from http://lc.gcumedia.com/cwv101/the-beginning-of-wisdom-an-introduction-to-christian-thought-and-life/v2.1/#/chapter/2

Lecture 3. (2015). CWV-101: Christian Worldview. Phoenix, AZ: Grand Canyon University.

Sharpe, J. (2015). Experiential obstacles to wisdom. In A. DiVincenzo (Ed.), The beginning of wisdom: An introduction to Christian thought and life. Available from http://lc.gcumedia.com/cwv101/the-beginning-of-wisdom-an-introduction-to-christian-thought-and-life/v2.1/#/chapter/9