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| Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen to Me? |
The Problem of Evil
Problem of Evil
This is an e-mail I wrote to a teen in June of 2001 about the problem of evil in the world.
Hey _______,
I appreciated your last e-mail. Those were some very honest questions and I have struggled with many of them myself throughout my life. The first struggle I heard you say was that you had a hard time believing in God because there is so much evil in this world. How can a good God allow evil? That question is one that has been asked since people started to think about God. It is called, "The problem of evil". The basic argument goes like this:
If God is all-loving He would hate evil.
If God is all-knowing He would know how to eliminate evil.
If God is all-powerful He would be able to eliminate evil.
But there is evil.
Therefore, there is no God
- or -
God lacks one of the qualities listed above.
Maybe God is not all-loving and simply does not want to get rid of evil because he likes it for some reason.
Or
Maybe God is not all-knowing and just doesn't know how to stop evil.
Or
Maybe God is not all-powerful and cannot stop evil - He wishes He could, but He can't.
Or
Maybe it's all of the above. Maybe the God who created this universe is mean, stupid and weak and that's why there is evil in the world.
I hope that made sense. Anyway, I want to suggest to you that there is another conclusion that can be made here. I would restate the problem like this:
God is all-loving - and hates evil
God is all-knowing - and knows how to eliminate evil
God is all-powerful - and able to eliminate evil
But there is evil
Therefore, God must be using evil to accomplish something even greater that we cannot understand with our little minds.
I think that it makes perfect sense that if there really is a God who created this entire universe - there's going to be some things I don't understand about Him. I mean, think how massive God would have to be if He created the universe with its trillions and trillions of stars and galaxies! And here I am with my tiny little brain and I say, "Well, I don't understand what He's doing so He must not exist." In fact, it would feel incredibly odd to me if I was truly able to comprehend everything about God. That's the first sign of a man-made religion - when everything makes perfect sense. How can we talk about such a massive God and hope to understand everything about Him? If there is no mystery, no concepts that are hard to grasp - it proves to me that it was made up by people.
If you have a bible, look at the book of Job. The story of Job is about how God allowed all of Job's children to get killed, his cattle stolen and his house destroyed all in one day, and then he got sick too! His own wife advised him to curse God and die. That's how bad it got. At the end of the book of Job this poor guy calls out to God and asks, "Why? Why did you let all this happen, God?" I think that's a reasonable question that we would all probably want to ask. In chapter 38, God answers. But look at what God says. Does He explain it all to Job? Nope. He says,
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!"
And God goes on and on with questions like this. It's like God had to put Job in his place and remind him just how small he was and just how big God is. God didn't explain himself, he basically said, "Look, you don't even know what you're talking about. You're just a little human. Do you understand how I created this universe? I don't think so. So what makes you think you'll understand the answer to why I allowed all this to happen to you? It's so complicated that if I explained it all to you your little human brain would explode!" These can be hard words to accept, but they can actually be comforting when you realize that there really is such an awesome and amazing God looking out for you. Just so you know, at the end of the book God gave Job back twice as much as he had before and blessed him incredibly. So why does God allow bad stuff? The answer is, "We don't know - but we do know from the Bible that God loves us and desires the best for us, so we should just trust him and serve him anyway."
To be honest, this has not been an easy thing for me to say in my life. There have been many times when I have gone through hard times and I have shaken my fist at God and cried, "Why God?!" However, I think I understood it a lot clearer when I took my son to the doctor to get his vaccination shots a few years ago. He was about one year old at the time and I laid him down on the doctor's table as he cooed at me and smiled. Then the nurse came in and asked me if I would help by holding him down. I felt sick. As a father, it was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. I felt so horrible as I leaned over this little baby and placed my hands on top of his arms and chest and held him down so the doctor could stick that needle into his little thigh. When she stuck him he looked up at me with such an expression of confusion and pain and hurt. "Why Daddy? Why are you doing this?" All I could do was just hold him down and whisper over and over, "I love you, Nathan, and it will be over soon. I love you, Nathan, and it will be over soon." I couldn't explain to this child the concept of vaccinations. He was one! He would have just looked at me and drooled on himself. There was no way that he could get his little brain to understand that there were these life threatening illnesses that this shot was preventing. All he knew was that this lady was sticking him with something that really hurt, and I was helping! The most I could hope from this little one year old son of mine would be that he would look at me and think, "Well, Dad, it certainly looks like you've gone completely insane and I have no idea why you are allowing this lady to stick that sharp thing into my leg, but I do know that you love me, so I will trust you and obey you anyway." That's why I kept whispering, "I love you, Nathan, it will be over soon." I knew he couldn't understand why, but if he understood that I loved him, maybe he would trust me anyway. And he did.
Now, let's treat my son's doctor visit like we did with the argument above about God and evil. We would say:
If Giles loves his son he would hate for his son to be in pain.
If Giles is smart he would know how to avoid his son being in pain.
If Giles is strong he would be able to stop the nurse from causing his son pain.
But Giles' son is in pain.
Therefore, there is no Giles.
or
Giles lacks one of the qualities listed above.
Maybe Giles was just not strong enough to stop the pain. Baloney! I could have beaten the snot out of that nurse if I had wanted to. She was just a little lady. I could have pounded her into the floor tiles! But I didn't.
Maybe Giles was just not smart enough to know how to avoid the pain. Whatever! I took my son to the doctor's office. I could easily just pick him up and walk out. I knew that.
Maybe Giles just did not love his son and liked him being in pain. Come over here and say that, buddy! I love my son more than my own life! His pain caused me deep and lasting pain. He has no memory of that doctor's visit anymore, but it still pains me whenever I think of it. I would have gladly taken those shots for him if I could have.
So there must be another conclusion. Here's how I would restate the problem:
Giles loves his son - and hates for his son to be in pain.
Giles is smart - and knows how to avoid his son being in pain.
Giles is strong - and could stop the nurse from causing his son pain.
But Giles' son is in pain.
Therefore, Giles must be allowing that pain in order to accomplish something even greater that his son just cannot understand right now with his little brain.
Bingo. And the best thing for my son to do is not to hate me or doubt me, but just trust me that I love him and obey me anyway. All throughout the Bible God is telling us that He loves us deeply. John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible, starts off "For God so loved the world ..." Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Ephesians 2:4-5 says, "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ..." Over and over in the Bible God tells us that He loves us, but He never explains why He allows evil. I think the reason is that just like my little son Nathan, we cannot understand why. Our brains are too small. So instead of trying to explain, God just tells us over and over, "I love you, it will be over soon." The whole book of Revelation is a book telling us that someday all of this pain will be over and God will make it all right again. "It will be over soon." We need to simply have the wisdom to say, "God, I don't know why you're allowing all this bad stuff to happen, but I do know that you love me, so I'll trust you and I'll obey you anyway."
So why does God allow evil? I don't know. That's my answer. BUT, I do know that God loves me. so I will trust Him and obey Him anyway.
Well, this has been a rather lengthy answer to your question on the problem of evil, but I hope that it at least gives you some food for thought. As if you don't already have enough to think about with finals and everything! Actually, as far as answers to the problem of evil go, I think this is rather short! There are countless books, big books, written on this subject!
Just give this question some deep thought in the mean time. It is an excellent question. Like I said, I have struggled with it in my life too. I don't like saying that I don't understand something. This may be hard for you too since you say that you like scientific things that can be proven. Well, I'll deal with that in my next e-mail. For now just think about whether or not you can accept the idea that there could be a God who loves you and desires the very best for you, but still allows evil in this world. I'll talk to you later.
Giles
Copyright © 2000, Giles Davis Enterprises. All Rights Reserved
Created on 10/01/2005 09:51 PM by Giles
Updated on 10/12/2005 08:04 PM by Giles
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