Why Does God Allow Evil In His World?
Why Does God Allow Evil In His World?
Genesis 18:23-25
“And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? [24] Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? [25] That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Every since September 11; people have asked me “Why does God allow evil in the world?”
Now with the recent shootings at Virginia Tech, Colorado and now at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT. (20 children from ages 5-10 and 8 adults perished).
This is a question that is constantly asked by many people
Some people feel that since God is the Judge of the Earth, he ought to do right.
Can God make a rock so big, that He cannot lift it?
Can a Holy, Righteous God allow moral evil in the world and still be Righteous?
God can be moral and allow moral evil in the world.
If God is omniscience [all knowing]
Does God know what is going on down here?
If God knows what is going on down here, why doesn’t He do something about it?
If God is omnipotent [all powerful]
Does God have the power to stop it?
I assure you God does know what is going on.
And I assure you that God is all-powerful
I can also assure you that God is a God of love
But He is Holy and He is Righteous and it is not in contradiction to His Holiness and His Righteousness to allow evil in His world.
How do we know that there is not a God who created the world and is some kind of thing sitting up in Heaven watching what men do to one another?
How do we know that God is not a thing sitting up in Heaven and saying, what these 2 cars crash? And watching them hit and blow up
How do we know that God is some kind of thing that enjoys watching people being blown up?
You do not prove that there is NO God by proving moral evil in the world.
You can use that has an argument that there is not a good God, but you can’t use that as an argument that there is an all-knowing God, or an all-powerful God.
How does an all-powerful, all wise, all-good God allow evil in His world?
First we have to realize what kind of world we live in
We live in a fallen world that is not anything like God created it.
In the beginning, this world was perfect
In the beginning, there was no sin, no death, no pain, and no sorrow.
God provided everything for Adam and Eve.
God’s whole creation, moaneth and trivaileth.
We are not living in a world the way that God created it.
We live in a world of consequences.
We live in a world of order, and if every time that I would do this; the same thing would happen.
It is the Law of Gravity.
And the Law of Gravity works every time.
So no matter how many times I would drop this, the Law of Gravity is going to work.
If you violate that Law of Gravity, you will be hurt.
If you violate the Law of nature, you will be hurt.
If you fall from the Empire State Building, you will hurt when you hit the ground below.
2-part Hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, you will always have water.
Fire will always burn you, and if you mix certain chemicals together, they will explode.
The positive side of all this is; those Laws is what allows men to make or invent inventions that are useful.
If you put gunpowder to close to a fire, you will suffer the consequences.
We live in a world of consequences
We live in a world of order.
Fires, gravity, explosions, are the facts of life.
And we can invent because those things are here.
A world of cause and affect
Snake venom does kill
Poison kills
Viruses kill
Sickness kills
If you come into contact with any of these you will die.
The good thing is that if you have any of the symptoms that follow these, you can go to a doctor and he can look at you and by the symptoms, can tell what sickness you have, and how to treat the sickness.
We also live in a world of positives and negatives.
It is impossible for God to do opposites.
The little boy prays for sunshine to play ball
The farmer prays for rain to help his crop.
We live in a consequently world and that’s why there is evil, poverty, and famine.
Luke 13:1-5
“There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. [2] And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? [3] I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. [4] Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? [5] I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
There is always a cause and always an affect.
The ones that Pilate killed or the ones that the tower of Siloam fell upon were not more wicked than any one else.
They were the ones that were there.
There are positives, and there are negatives in this world and those things happen.
We live in a world not the way it was created.
We need to keep in mind that we live in a world of human choice.
God has given us free will.
We are not puppets on a string, dancing to a certain tune for God.
We have free will to choose.
God can create with free will and let us do what we want to do
Or God can make us puppets.
We live in a world of over 6 billion people and if people want to kill, they can.
If people want to drive by and shot someone, they can do that.
If people wanted to blow up a building, they can do that.
Why, because we live in a world of free will
God cannot give free will and not allow evil to be in the world.
Can God lift a rock so big that He cannot lift it?
You live in a world of free will and if people choose to do wrong, they can do that.
There are moral weaknesses
We live in a world of human choice.
A person can drink till they are completely drunk, if they choose to do so.
People can get a divorce if they choose to.
Kids can shot, stab, another person because we live in a world of human choices.
And that affects other people’s happiness.
In human relationships, people hurt because of cause and affect.
Most human sufferings are produced by man.
War has brought pain to man, and that is a result of man and not God.
It is the wars and the religions of man that keep man in the superstitions of this world.
The doctrine of reincarnation is what causing people to go hungry in India.
Over there they worship the cockroaches, and little bugs.
We send food over there and they allow the bugs to eat the grain because they believe in reincarnation and that might be their grandmother or one of their parents.
Instead of letting their kids have the grain, they feed it to their cows, which they worship as gods.
But when we see the pictures of their hunger, we say: “Why would God allow this to happen?”
God is not allowing that.
Man is doing that.
Famine is not always caused by drought or by floods.
Most famines are cause by men.
We live in a world in which involves the Laws of average.
You will eventually get sick
You will eventually get hurt
You will eventually die.
The Law of average alone will take care of that.
Eccles. 9:11
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
The Law of average.
The Law of chance.
The rich man will not always be on top.
The man of skill will not always be on top.
You can be the best race car driver in Daytona Beach, Florida, and you can line up at the starting line and take off and be the best racer in that race.
But that does not mean that you are going to win.
The Law of average alone would mean that there is going to be pain and suffering.
You cannot have a free moral world choices and not have pain and suffering.
People forget that there is a devil.
This world has an enemy and his name is Satan.
History proves it and each of our personal experiences proves it also that there is a devil in this world.
And Satan seeks to try to destroy us.
In closing I would like for to remember this
God chastens both individuals and nations.
And when God chastens, it affects all.
When Achan sinned, it cost his family a lot.
When Miriam sinned, it held back the whole nation of Israel from moving into the Promised Land.
When God chastens, it often affects other people then the person that is being disciplined.
Nations that forget God are chastened.
And when nations are chastened; the innocent people of that nation even down to the little child and even the unborn child of that nation suffer because the chasten hand of God is coming upon that nation.
The innocent suffer with the ones that are being chastened by God; in both individuals and nations.