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The Problem of Evil

(Greek font is GraecaII)

R.C. Sproul in his book, Chosen by God, wrote this: “Surely the most difficult question of all is how evil can coexist with a God who is both altogether holy and altogether sovereign. I am afraid that most Christians do not realize the profound severity of this problem. Skeptics have called this issue the ‘Achilles’ Heel of Christianity.’”

After I “had been a Christian for only a few weeks . . . the thought struck [me], If God is totally righteous, how could he have created a universe where evil is present? If all things come from God, doesn’t evil come from him as well?[His emphasis.]

Then, as now, I realized that evil was a problem for the sovereignty of God. Did evil come into the world against God’s sovereign will? If so, then he is not absolutely sovereign. If not, then we must conclude that in some sense even evil is foreordained by God. [All bold, my emphasis.]

For years I sought the answer to this problem, scouring the works of theologians and philosophers. I found some clever attempts at resolving the problem but, as yet, have never found a deeply satisfying answer. The most common solution we hear for this dilemma is a simple reference to man’s free will. We hear such statements as, “Evil came into the world by man’s free will. Man is the author of sin, not God.”

Surely that statement squares with the biblical account of the origin of sin. We know that man was created with a free will and that man freely chose to sin. It was not God who committed sin, it was man. The problem still persists, however. From where did man ever gain the slightest inclination to sin? If he was created with a desire for sin, then a shadow is cast on the integrity of the Creator. If he was created with no desire for sin, then we must ask where that desire came from.

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How could Adam and Eve fall? They were created good. We might suggest that their problem was the craftiness of Satan. Satan beguiled them. He tricked them into eating the forbidden fruit. We might suppose that the serpent was so slick that he utterly and completely fooled our original parents.

Such an explanation suffers from several problems. If Adam and Eve did not realize what they were doing, if they were utterly fooled, then the sin would have been all Satan’s. But the Bible makes it clear that in spite of his craftiness the serpent spoke directly in challenge to the commandment of God. Adam and Eve had heard God issue his prohibition and warning. They heard Satan contradict God. The decision was squarely before them. They could not appeal to Satan’s trickery to excuse them.

Even if Satan not only fooled but forced Adam and Eve to sin, we are still not free of our dilemma. If they could have rightfully said, “The devil made us do it,” we would still face the problem of the devil’s sin. Where did the devil come from? How did he manage to fall from goodness? Whether we are speaking of the Fall of man or the fall of Satan we still are dealing with the problem of good creatures becoming evil.

Again we hear the “easy” explanation that evil came through the creature’s free will. Free will is a good thing. That God gave us free will does not cast blame on him. In creation man was given an ability to sin and an ability not to sin. He chose to sin. The question is, “Why?” Herein lies the problem. Before a person can commit an act of sin he must first have a desire to perform that act. The Bible tells us that evil actions flow from evil desires. But the presence of an evil desire is already sin. We sin because we are sinners. We were born with a sin nature. We are fallen creatures. But Adam and Eve were not created fallen. They had no sin nature. They were good creatures with a free will. Yet they chose to sin. Why? I don’t know. Nor have I found anyone yet who does know.

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Therefore we must conclude that God foreordained sin. What else can we conclude? We must conclude that God’s decision to allow sin to enter the world was a good decision. This is not to say that our sin is really a good thing, but merely that God’s allowing us to do sin, which is evil, is a good thing. God’s allowing evil is good, but the evil he allows is still evil. God’s involvement in all this is perfectly righteous. Our involvement in it is wicked. The fact that God decided to allow us to sin does not absolve us from our responsibility for sin.

A frequent objection we hear is that if God knew in advance that we were going to sin, why did he create us in the first place? One philosopher stated the problem this way: “If God knew we would sin but could not stop it, then he is neither omnipotent nor sovereign. If he could stop it but chose not to, then he is neither loving nor benevolent.” By this approach God is made to look bad no matter how we answer the question. We must assume that God knew in advance that man would fall. We also must assume that he could have intervened to stop it. Or he could have chosen not to create us at all. We grant all those hypothetical possibilities. Bottom line, we know that he knew we would fall and that he went ahead and created us anyway. Why does that mean he is unloving? He also knew in advance that he was going to implement a plan of redemption for his fallen creation that would include a perfect manifestation of his justice and a perfect expression of his love and mercy. It was certainly loving of God to predestine the salvation of his people, those the Bible calls his “elect” or chosen ones.

It is the non-elect that are the problem. If some people are not elected unto salvation then it would seem that God is not all that loving toward them. For them it seems that it would have been more loving of God not to have allowed them to be born.”

Rebuttal by Bob Hill

Did God ordain evil? Remember what Sproul wrote. “Did evil come into the world against God’s sovereign will? If so, then he is not absolutely sovereign. If not, then we must conclude that in some sense even evil is foreordained by God. Many Christians in America believe this kind of fatalism. We had a strong Calvinistic Pastor in our denomination, the Grace Gospel Fellowship. His name was Don. He is now with the Lord. He was one of the strongest Calvinists in our denomination.

Don was always serious about his belief in Calvinism. One day I heard him ask a group of us at a pastor’s conference, “What did the Calvinist say after he broke his leg?” Pause. “I’m glad that’s over.” He was a funny man, also. Now that may be funny, but he really believed it. Do you? Is it true that everything that happens is ordained by God?

If this is true, He would ordain things contrary to His own will, because in 1 Ti 2:4, God “wills (qelei) all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Yet all men are not saved. Further, all Christians reject the will of God. Everyone of us have according to 1 Th 4:3-7, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.”

Further, if this were true, He would ordain some to perish contrary to His own counsel as revealed in 2 Pet 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not counseling (boulomeno") any to perish but all to have room (cwrhsai)for repentance.”

From the Bible, we see repeatedly that God wants men to be free to accept His plan of salvation. For instance, God wrote in Psalm 32, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah”

Does God want us to sin so He can then forgive us? As this Psalm continues to develop, you’ll see the answer is a resounding, NO!! “6 For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found;” When is that? It means, before the trouble starts, so get into God’s word and concentrate on loving Him. We will leave this Psalm for awhile until we develop a few other biblical concepts/

A free will being brought sin into the world. Remember, Sproul wrote: “The most common solution we hear for this dilemma is a simple reference to man’s free will. We hear such statements as, “Evil came into the world by man’s free will. Man is the author of sin, not God.”

Further, he wrote, “Herein lies the problem. Before a person can commit an act of sin he must first have a desire to perform that act. The Bible tells us that evil actions flow from evil desires. But the presence of an evil desire is already sin.”

But is Sproul right? Let me ask some more questions. Why did God create a being who could sin? Why didn’t God create a perfect being, one who couldn’t sin? For example, let’s look at satan’s history. satan was perfect in his ways from the day he was created. In Eze 28:15,16 it says, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.” How can we account for the sin of the devil? Where did his sin originate? Sproul thinks God predestined satan’s sin. But I think it came from himself.

He had the perfect environment to encourage holy character. Eze 28:14 tells us about his environment. “You were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.” It can’t get any better than that. He experienced no external temptation or evil influence. His position was the best you could expect to foster holiness. Then, where did the devil’s sin originate?

As we look at Scripture to get our answer, we see that the reason for sin, desire. The reason for wanting to be like God is the desire for glory. Jam 1:14 “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” He has not sinned yet. How could I say that? I can because Christ had desires different from the Father’s, yet He was sinless because He conformed His desires to those of the Father. Mat 26:39-42 says, “He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’ 40 Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, ‘What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.’”

Now the reason for sin, desire, is different than the cause of sin, which is lack of self control. Between this desire and the sin, we have a free being under obligation to keep his desire in the control of his reason. Therefore, the individual himself becomes the cause of sinful grasping after God’s glory. This is substantiated by Jam 1:15 “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Something else we must see is this: The word for lust in the original is also translated desire. We see that clearly in a few biblical examples: Phi 1:23 and Gal 5:17. First Phi 1:23, “For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire [epiqumian] to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” Gal 5:17 “For the flesh lusts [epiqumei] against the Spirit, and the Spirit [Verb occurs one but is used twice.] against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you may not do the things that you wish.” Further, we see that it was his own desire. It wasn’t put there by God. In fact, God’s desire in 1 Th 4:3 is, He wants us to be godly.

But we and satan must rely on God for this quality in our lives. We must always look to Him for completion, to fill that void that is in every created man or angel.

Now, I believe even satan’s first thought could have been innocent desire. And from James, we saw that it occurred before sin. But, in satan’s case, and most of the time in ours, too, it resulted in sin. Therefore, this reason for sin can’t be sin. Remember, Christ had desires and was tempted to fulfill these desires. At least, that’s what it says in Heb 2:17-18 & 4:15, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Heb 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

No matter how severe the lust (desire) may be, if one resists the inclination and does not consent with his will, there is no sin, only temptation. If that were not true, then God could not have inspired James to write, Jam 1:12: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Therefore, the reason for sin must be innocent, innate inclination. The cause of sin is executing this inclination independently from God. We are described in Isa 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

From this, we can see that God could not have given Adam a more perfect will. Because of this fact, we are completely responsible for every sin we commit. We can’t say, “The devil made me do it.” Instead, we can see that sin is the action of turning to our own ways rather than looking to God for help to do what He desires.

Why did sin originate? I can’t find a good reason for it, for there is none. But an occasion, a reason why it was committed, and is committed, I think, must be traced to the necessary nature of free agency. In other words, the love of conscious freedom in a free moral agent comes in conflict with the necessary restraints of God’s law. Remember, Paul was inspired to write Rom 7:7, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’” And the commandment he is referring to is, “You shall not lust [ouk epiqumhsei" the verb form of desire that is also translated covet when desiring someone else’s things.].

Therefore, the act of sinning is inseparable from free agency under the restraint of God’s law. Every spiritual or human being in the universe who sins, sins solely because he dislikes the restraint of law and shrinks from the self denial necessary for obedience. This is the occasion for sin. The real sin is the disobedience itself: the determination to break the law and have his own way. Therefore, all created free moral beings will have the same inclination to throw off the restraint of law. That’s why, to continue our reading of Psalm 32, God pleads, in the 9^th verse, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.”

When I read all of the repent passages that refer to God changing, I believe we can see that God did not know the future free actions of free agents. Remember, R.C. Sproul wrote, “We must assume that God knew in advance that man would fall. We also must assume that he could have intervened to stop it. Or he could have chosen not to create us at all. We grant all those hypothetical possibilities. Bottom line, we know that he knew we would fall and that he went ahead and created us anyway.” But we do not have to assume that! God showed us His character in passages similar to Jer 3:6,7 “The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: ‘Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. 7 And I said, after she had done all these things, “She will return [The Verb is, qal imperfect, third person feminine singular] to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.” God said “She will return to Me. But she did not return.” It couldn’t be any clearer than that.

Thankfully, Jesus Christ provided redemption for evil by dying for our sins. God showed His love by sending His Son who willingly died for us. Rom 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He loves you and wants you to receive His loving sacrifice. He wants you to have glory, but that can only come through His Son. We can have His glory in our lives, now, after we get saved. 2 Co 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Then in heaven, when we’re with Him, we will have abounding glory. Rom 9:23,24 “and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” Rom 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” He wills all to be saved, but He doesn’t want a bunch of bridled mules which must be forced to go the right way. He wants you to be with Him in glory!