It’s a very old question about God allowing awful wars and tragedies and not intervening to save the innocent suffering.
Searching the Internet for material about God allowing evil I came across this 64 minute video below and found it thought provoking – even thought it’s from am Americal right wing Christian preacher.
For those who do not want to watch it I will give his bullet points:
– 1. There are three kinds of evil – Natural evil (natural calamities) moral evil (people) and supernatural evil (Satan etc)
1. Evil exists.
2. God exists.
3. God allows evil and designed it into his his plan for the universe.
4. God takes full responsibility for evil.
5. God will evil to exist.
6. You can’t get God off the hook of being responsible evil and and he does not want off that hook.
7. God created evil for his own glory.
8. God punished his own son on the cross to satisfy his own righteousness.
9. God reveals himself in darkness.
10. The cross was God making up for the sins of humanity by an infinite God punishing another infinite being.
11. God has the right to put his own wrath and anger on display.
12. The greatest evil that ever happened in history – the murder of Jesus was part of God’s plan.
13. Wrath and mercy necessitate evil.
14. God is in control of evil.
15. Evil’s day will be over when God wants it that way.
MY RESPONSE
One of the hardest things I have had to deal with as a priest was trying to answer the question: “Why does God allow evil? Why does God let bad things happen to good people”?
John McArthur’s response in the video is that there are no good people. Only God is good and the rest of us are all fallen sinners.
That seems to suggest that any evil that happens to us is well deserved?
EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL ANSWERS
When we try and answer the question of God allowing evil, our answers can often be based on our emotions – like how we felt about Putin bombing a children’s hospital this week.
Can we have an academic or intellectual answer that is not affected by our emotions?
When it was asked “Where was God when all those people perished in Auschwitz some Christians answered: He was in the gas Chambers with the victims”?
Was that a trite answer?
QUESTIONS TO MYSELF
1. Do you believe in God?
Yes.
2. Do you believe that God created everything including evil?
If evil exists, and it does, then God had to create it, as I believe he created everything.
3. Why did God create evil?
I don’t know. But if God created evil, and God is all-Good and all-Knowing, he must have had a perfectly good reason for creating evil.
4. Why did God not create a perfect universe with perfect people in it so that there would be no natural, moral or supernatural evil?
I don’t know.
5. Can good come out of evil?
I believe it can. Suffering elicits compassion and aid from others. Illness inspires doctors to find cures and treatments.
6. Does witnessing suffering and evil in the world make you faith in God weaker?
No. On the basis of my lived life and faith I don’t just believe God exists. I “know” he does.
However, I think if I was God I would spend my time promoting Good and blocking evil and suffering.
And I can’t understand why God does not work that way. I suppose that’s why I’m not God and He is?
There were times in my life when I begged God to rescue me from suffering and evil, and he did not answer my prayer and allowed the bad things to happen to me.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 