Why does God allow evil? That
is likely the most common reason people have for rejecting God. They look
around the world and recognize it is messed up. People do horrible things to
each other, so they reasonably ask themselves, “If God is all-loving and all-powerful, how can there be evil?”
The answer to this problem is found in
2 Peter 3:9: The Lord does not delay His
promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any
to perish but all to come to repentance. It is God’s desire that all
people come to repentance, which is a
churchy way of saying He wants everyone to stop doing bad things and seek Him
instead. Obviously, everyone is not doing that. If it is God’s will that this
happen but it is not happening, what does that mean? It means we can choose if
we will turn to Him or try to find our own way through life. In other words, we
have freewill. We can make our own decisions and those lead us closer to or
further away from God.
Something closely tied to the concept
of freewill is that God wants us to choose to love Him. Without freewill we
would have no say in the matter. If God forced us to love Him, that would be no
different from rape. He would be forcing His will on us against what our own
will would had been if He had allowed us to have our own will. It would be
brainwashing at the deepest level. Even though it would be for our own good, it
would still be forced upon us.
Therefore, God must allow freewill so
we can choose to love Him. However, the cost is that people can make horrible
decisions which have devastating effects on others. Could God step in and stop
those actions? Yes, but actions are not the only thing God views as evil. Jesus
told us in Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard
that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be
subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother
will be subject to judgment.” So, for God to stop evil, He would have to
stop us from thinking evil. This gets us right back to having freewill. If God
controlled our thoughts, we would not have freewill.
In summary, the reason evil exists is
the same reason there is love: freewill. God allows us to choose to follow Him
or our own desires. The fruit of those choices are love and evil. So, for there to be no evil, there would also be no love.
That is too high a price to pay. Therefore, God chose to send Jesus to pay the
price for evil so we could experience the gift of love.
[Nothing here is original except
for the packaging of these concepts. I formed my thoughts about this question
from the Bible, and other authors such as C. S. Lewis, Timothy Keller, N.T.
Wright, and William Lane Craig.]
