• Why believe in God?
• Why is there evil and suffering?
• Why then does God allow evil?

Why believe in God?

Perhaps the most compelling reason to believe in God is simply by observing ourselves and the world that we live in.  The fact that we exist means that one or both of the following is true.  Either 1) something came from nothing, or 2) there's something in the universe that had no beginning.  There is no other explaination.  We had to come from something (obviously).  And that something had to either come into existence from nothing, or it had to exist forever.  This holds true regardless of whether you espouse creation or evolution as being the source of the universe.

So, it seems far more reasonable to believe in God than to believe that anything else has existed forever.  Just the same, it seems far more reasonable to believe that only God could take nothing and make something out of it.  Without God in the picture, our existence just doesn't make sense.

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Why is there evil and suffering?

The Scriptures teach us that God created us in his own image.  This means that we were made to take on or reflect his character.  God's character encompasses everthing good: love, kindness, patience, mercy, peace, purity, etc.  He is genuine. 

Because God is genuine, he made us with a free will -- the ability to excercise that genuine character.  Creating us without a will would violate his genuine character.  Take love for example.  It would hardly be genuine if we were forced to give it away or if we could take it from others at will.  Love is not an involuntary response to insctinct.  Rather, it is an intentional act of the will.

The catch is obvious.  The very will that chooses to reflect the character of God can also reject it.  That's just what happened with man.  And in excercising his will against God's will, Adam sealed the destiny of all mankind.  Because of sin, God withdrew himself from man.  Darkness is simply the absence of light.  Death is the absence of life.  So it was in God's absence that sin and terror established its stronghold in the world.

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Why then does God allow evil?

Doesn't God have the power to prevent evil?  Couldn't he at least stop acts of extreme evil like child abuse, rape, and murder?   It seems hard to believe that God having all power could just sit and watch such blatant acts of malice.

There's no doubt about it.  This one's a tough question.  A few points will help to answer it.

First of all, God's genuine character meant that he made us with the ability to choose.  And this means the ability to choose that which corresponds to his character: good, or that which violates his character: evil.  And all malicious evil can be traced back to the voluntary choices of our own will or the will of someone else.  God is not accountable for our wrong choices.  We are.

Second.  We find it easy to rate evil -- to put it on a scale.  Speeding is a lesser evil than cheating.  Cheating is a lesser evil than stealing which is less so than assault, lesser than murder, serial killing, genicide, etc., and everything in between.  With God, however, evil is evil.  We do not hold a coupon booklet that allows us 5 free cheatings, 3 thefts, and 10 lies, and after that, the Judgment.   Therefore, we cannot suggest that God prevent the grave evils of the world without also preventing our lesser evils.  Quite honestly, we show our arrogance by even posing the question because we're suggesting, "God, stop the really bad stuff that others do, but leave me with a little space to be human."  We can't have it both ways.

This brings us to a most important point.  You see, it is a good thing for us that God does not dispense what we deserve for our acts of evil.  Rather than give us what we deserve, God offers us a "way out" through his son, Jesus Christ, who took upon himself our deserved punishment.  By simply trusting in God to save us because of Christ's death on the cross, not only are we granted forgiveness but are also given a new nature with eternal benefits.

Understanding this, the question is not so much "Why does God allow evil?" as it is, "Why does God allow evil to be forgiven?"  Now that, my friend, is a difficult question indeed.

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