Transcript: Why Does God Allow Evil?

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL?

A Study Guide 

“Whatever happens on this planet is allowed by God, nothing has ever caught God by surprise.” - Dr. Bruce A. Little

 

I.               THE QUESTION

-       If God is an all knowing God and all-loving God why didn’t God intervene in some way?

II.             THE FACTS 

God gave man the power to choose good or evil.

Free agency is a mark of human beings as such. All humans are free agents in the sense that they make their own decisions as to what they will do, choosing as they please in the light of their sense of right and wrong and the inclinations they feel. Thus they are moral agents, answerable to God and each other for their voluntary choices. (J.I. Packer, Concise Theology)[i] 

III.           THE OPTIONS

-       To avoid evil, man could no longer choose. 

-       If there was no choice there would be no love. 

-       If someone is forced to say, “I love you,” we all know that’s not love.

-       Love is a choice.

The sin, of men, was rendered possible by the fact that God gave them free will: this surrendering of a portion of His omnipotence … because He saw that from a world of free creatures, even though they fell, He could work out … a deeper happiness and a fuller splendour than any world of automata would admit[1] (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)[ii]

APPLICATION QUESTIONS 

If God is all-knowing and all-powerful what should our response be to Him? (Hint: Deuteronomy 6:5)

If we respond incorrectly to God is this evil? (Hint: James 2:10, Romans 3:10-18)

What is the penalty for an evil action? (Hint: Romans 6:23)

Should God allow or overlook our evil actions? (Hint: Proverbs 11:21, Psalm 5:5)

How is God justified in demonstrating grace and forgiving evil men? (Hint: Romans 3:23-26)

RECOMMENDED FUTHER READING: 

If God, Why Evil?: A New Way to Think about the Question, by Norman L. Geisler

Deliver Us from Evil: Restoring the Soul in a Disintegrating Culture, by Ravi Zacharias

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, by John Piper and Justin Taylor

THE ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF EVIL

God creates universe (“good”)

God creates man with the ability not to sin

For love to be genuine, God gives man a free will

Man’s choice

He obeys God                                                  He disobeys God

Result                                                                Result

No Fall                                                               Fall of man

Satan had no power in the world                      Satan influences world

World not subject to sin                                    Sin enters world

Mankind remains innocent                                Sin enters humanity

Mankind in fellowship with God                         Mankind separated from God

Mankind continues to live in paradise               Mankind expelled from the garden

No physical death                                             Physical death

No evil or human suffering                                Evil and human suffering                         [iii]

WHY GOD ALLOWS HUMAN SUFFERING

God gives man a free will

Man’s chooses sin

If no moral consequences                                 Moral consequences

No reason to stop sinning                                  Man is accountable for actions

Sin continues unabated                                      Man knows sin is evil     

Man turns away from God                                 Man depends on God for reconciliation

Man is eternally lost in sin                                  Man can be redeemed from sin by accepting Jesus

No remedy for human suffering                         Future life where human suffering is absent    [iv]