If there is a God, Why So Much Evil & Suffering?
We can rightly blame Satan for all these bad things, but who created him? If the Almighty knew that Lucifer would become the devil and end up deceiving millions into suffering and death, why was he made in the first place?
Think of it another way: suppose you know, without a doubt, that a certain individual is going to kill someone in the next 10 minutes, would you not try your level best to stop him from committing such an atrocity? Well then, why doesn't our God do the same by stopping millions of evil events that happen every day under the sun: terrorism, accidents, deadly diseases, earthquakes and floods disasters? Especially considering that He knows about the things centuries before they happen. Do you know that this is always the challenge that atheists bring to Christians? They believe there is no God because, if He were there, He would show up and stop all this suffering so that everyone lives in prosperity and peace. And you know what? It's a valid point too.
Some believers— in a sincere attempt to explain away this—are quick to say, "God cannot violate our free will." Which means the Almighty is simply hand-tied to stop wickedness, for example, to prevent a grown man from rapping a child, because, apparently, human freewill has all power, even the Eternal One cannot touch it. The first problem is that God, being the Omnipotent, cannot be restrained by anything, including the so-called free will. Secondly, "violating one's freewill" is not as bad as the murder of another human being. Therefore, we cannot say it's good that you did not stop a suicide bomber, because you did not want to violate his free will. So the free will argument, at least to me, does not make sense.
Here is my answer to all this: when I read my Bible, I see that the Almighty knows everything from beginning to end, and that He has pre-planned how everything must work out (Isa 46:10). Hence Satan and sin-committing Adam were not created by mistake. There is a grand purpose to it all. Take for example, how the devil was given full permission to kill Job's children and all his livestock. So my overall understanding is that God's purpose was to allow the existence of evil so He could display His redemptive attributes, such as His grace, love, and even His wrath. How would we understand that there is something called the mercy of God, if there was no sin for Him to be merciful about? How would we know that God hates and judges sin if that sin hadn't been committed in the garden? So yes, God ordained that event where someone murders 10 people, yet He Himself is not the cause of that evil. A good Christian brother says it this way, "God ordains all that comes to pass, but He never commits sin. He is sovereign over everything, including human evil, yet He is morally pure in His nature. The tension is resolved by understanding that God governs evil without becoming evil."
The second point is that, as much as God may have created and foreknown about that person who does the suicide bombing, He still holds him guilty for his crime, and will punish Him accordingly. That means human responsibility remains. People do evil, because — as James says —"they are led and tempted by their own desires." Hence every sin will receive just punishment. Yet the Almighty still overrules our evil acts and, through them, accomplishes His divine will. I have a few Biblical examples to explain this further.
Jeremiah 25:8-9,12 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation..... Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD.
Explain: God, speaking through the prophet, calls Nebuchadnezzar "my servant" that He would use to bring destruction and death to Jerusalem. Then after 70 years, that same King of Babylon would be punished for the sin he committed in destroying Jerusalem. Let that sink in.
Here is another one...
Acts 2:23 - This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
This is the story of our Lord. It tells us that His death on the cross was "according to plan and foreknowledge of God", yet he was killed by the "lawless" hands of men. So who was responsible for killing Jesus? Answer: God ordained the event; lawless men carried out the act! It means then that God "uses" evil to accomplish His purposes and plans, yet He, Himself, remains holy with no evil in Him. "God is light and in Him there is no darkness," says your Bible. On the contrary, man is responsible for all the wickedness they commit and would be punished accordingly. You may say to me, that does not make sense at all. Yes, in fact, one has said that the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man are parallel lines that go together but will never meet. God has ordained whatsoever comes to pass, from the beginning to the end, including bad things, suffering, murder and death, yet man will always be morally accountable for their individual actions.
There is another important thing that we overlook. That is, God actually restrains evil, not the other way round. Which means, based on our sin nature, if God were to allow us to do as we please, this world would be a horrible place to live —talk about hell on earth. Yet God restrains it through the means of human conscience and the moral laws of our communities. Speaking of governing authorities, a policeman, for example, Scripture says "he is God’s servant for your good", that is, to restrain you from doing more harm to yourself and others (Rom 13:4).
Summary. In case you didn't understand anything in this article, at least take this: we cannot understand everything about the Eternal One. He is beyond our human mind. But I hope we agree that nothing takes God by surprise, nor is there anything that can divert His eternal will for our lives. Therefore, whatever "cruel" thing happens to your life, He has allowed it to happen, for what purpose? Only He knows. At the same time, we are all individually accountable for our actions and will be judged accordingly, including the devil himself. In the meantime, let us be thankful for the lives He has given us, continue praying for His grace in our day-to-day endeavours and thrive to do good in whatever department He has stationed us. That is how he can make this world a better place to live in.
Sinothi Ncube
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