Topic: Evil and Suffering
Short answer: God allows evil for a time because He is patient with sinful people, giving them opportunity to repent. But He is not indifferent to evil: He will judge it completely, and through Christ He will ultimately defeat sin, suffering, and death.
We should not treat evil like a small issue. The Bible does not pretend suffering is easy. But the Christian answer is not simply, “God allows evil because something good may come from it.” That is true, but it is not the whole answer. The deeper answer is that God created a world where love, obedience, worship, and moral choices are real.
God created human beings as morally responsible creatures who could genuinely obey Him or rebel against Him. Mankind chose rebellion, and sin entered the world. God certainly has the power to stop any evil action, and at times He does restrain evil. But if God immediately prevented or judged every sin, that would not only include the sins we consider especially terrible. It would include our sins as well. The question “Why doesn’t God stop evil?” eventually becomes, “Why doesn’t God stop me?” And the answer is mercy. God is patient with a sinful world because He is giving people space to repent.
At the same time, Christianity does not teach that God is indifferent to evil. God hates evil more than we do. The cross proves that. God did not stay far away from suffering; He entered into it. Jesus Christ came into this broken world, was betrayed, mocked, beaten, falsely accused, and crucified. The worst evil ever committed, the murder of the sinless Son of God, became the very means by which God brought salvation to the world. That does not make evil good, but it shows that God is powerful enough to defeat evil without being guilty of it. The cross tells us two things at once: sin is so serious that Christ had to die to save us from it, and God is so good that Jesus was willing to die to rescue us from it.
So the Christian answer is not, “Evil is not a big deal,” or “We always know the reason.” Many times we do not know the reason. The Christian answer is that God has not ignored evil, God has not excused evil, and God has not lost control of evil. God is patient now, but He is not passive forever. One day, God will judge all sin and all wrong. Evil will not ultimately escape His justice. Every hidden thing will be brought to light, every wrong will be answered for, and every injustice will be dealt with by a perfectly holy and righteous God.
But the Christian hope goes even further than judgment. God does not only promise to punish evil; He promises to remove sorrow. For those who belong to Him, the end of the story is not pain, death, grief, or injustice. The Bible says God will wipe away all tears, and there will be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. That means God’s final answer to evil is not just explanation, it is redemption, judgment, and restoration. He will make all things right.
Key passages: Genesis 3:1-19; Romans 5:12; Romans 8:20-22; Acts 2:23; 2 Peter 3:9; Revelation 21:4
Discussed during a Wednesday Evening Bible Study
Recent Comments