If God is both all-powerful and absolutely good, why does He allow evil?
If God created everything, why
would He create evil?
This question views evil as if it exists
independent of good. Evil without good
is like a hole without the ground around it.
Evil is the absence of good or the corruption of good (Romans
3:20;
4:15; 5:13; 7:7-10).
The same logic argument asks, “Since God is light and is present
everywhere, why is there darkness?” The
statement God is light (1 John 1:5) is a figure of speech meaning knowledge
comes from God. We can restate the
question, “Since God is all-knowing and present everywhere, why is there
ignorance.”
Ignorance allows us to learn. Similarly, a deficient and corrupt character
gives room to develop a character based on Christ’s example (Romans
8:29).
To have good character one must want to be good. Otherwise, goodness is pretense rather than genuine.
Couldn’t God create people to
choose good each time?
If no one ever chose evil, then would doing
good really be a choice? For people to
choose to be good, the choice to be bad must be real. How could the choice be real if people couldn’t
choose otherwise?
What does God value so much that
He allows evil as a choice?
Merely the ability to choose isn’t worth
allowing evil. What does choosing grant
that’s important enough for evil to exist?
God values the intrinsic person (1 Peter
1:6-11).
He wants a person to desire to follow Him. He wants a person to be motivated by the same
motives that motivate Him. Each time
parents have a child there’s a risk that the child might rebel against the
parents. Yet, parents still take the
chance because they desire children who love them, who are obedient and loyal
to them. Parents could try to force
their children to be that way. But, even
if they had the ability to do so, it wouldn’t be the same as children who
choose to love. A wife can buy her own
presents, but it isn’t the same as when her husband buys them for her.
God makes it as easy as possible for us to
choose integrity. He came to us as a
perfect human being to die as a sacrifice for our sins, but we must choose to
receive this forgiveness. He sent His
Spirit to live in us and desire good within us, but we must allow Him to
permeate our lives.
Similar to the question of evil is the
question about suffering:
Why
does God, who is both all-powerful and perfectly good, allow suffering?
©2004 Perry Vernon Webb. You may quote this page in part or the whole
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