Why Does God Allow Evil?
We’ve all witnessed and experienced evil in its various forms. There is no shortage of wickedness in the world. People experience pain; people experience abuse; people experience injustice and all kinds of wrongdoing.
When bad things happen we all at some point ask the most obvious question: WHY!?!
WHY does God allow bad things to happen? Why does God allow evil? Why does it seem as if evil is winning the battle?
Even the atheist or agnostic person will ask the above questions. If God exists, why evil?
IF GOD EXISTS WHY DOES HE ALLOW EVIL?
It’s important to note that God is always good. God never created evil. God is not the author of evil but God does allow evil for these 3 basic reasons:
1. We Live in a Fallen World
God originally created a perfect world. The world that God created was without evil; He created a world without pain; He created a world without suffering. The Bible says that God saw that all that He made was good (Genesis 1:31). Therefore the world was perfectly made.
However the status of the perfection ended because of the sin of Adam & Eve who chose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24). It’s from that time – because of sin – that the world was affected to the point that we experience pain, suffering, evil and even death. We are all sinners because we fall short of God’s standard of righteousness (Romans 3:10; Romans 3:23).
Now someone might ask – Why did God allow Adam & Eve to sin? Why didn’t God prevent Adam & Eve from disobeying Him?
These questions bring us to the second reason why God allows evil – FREEWILL.
2. We All Have Freewill
It’s not in our human nature to be controlled like robots or machines. When God created us, He created us with the ability to make our own decisions. We all have the ability to make good decisions and we have the ability to make bad decisions.
Freewill is the ability to make your own choices.
The important thing to note is that God does not interfere with our freewill. God of course persuades us to always make the right choices but God does not force us into making a particular choice. God allows us to use our freewill.
In Deuteronomy 30:15-19 God tells us that we have the freewill to make our own choices but He does urge us to make the right choices.
Therefore when evil happens – when bad things happen – it’s because people make bad & evil choices.
When we have a society or culture where people cheat, murder, lie or are selfish, there are consequences to such behavior. Therefore people abuse their freewill and make evil choices.
3. God Can Use Evil To Fulfill His Plan & Purpose
The story of Joseph is an example of God using evil to fulfill His own divine purpose and plan. Joseph experienced injustice and evil and rejection by members of his own family. Yet because of his trials Joseph grew spiritually and God used Joseph’s experiences to mold him into the type of man that God wanted him to be.
Joseph eventually says to his brothers who had once tried to kill him by saying “… You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…” (Genesis 50:19-20).
GOD IS IN CONTROL
So even though God allows evil, let us remember that God is in total control of every situation. There is nothing that happens in our lives or in the world that God is not aware of. Nothing surprises God no matter how bad.
Also it’s important to note that even though evil exists – evil itself is temporary. God will one day put an end to every form of evil and wickedness.
