Is God Unable or Unwilling to Stop Evil and Suffering?

 

Introduction

One of the most popular objections to Christianity raised by nonbelievers is the existence of evil.  If God is all powerful and loving, why does He allow evil?  Did God create evil?  Is God really not powerful enough to stop evil, or is He really not as good as Christians claim?

God's Judgment

Why won't God put a stop to evil? The quick answer is that He has already done that, many times, as recorded in the Bible.

Noah

Genesis chapters 6-8 records the well-known story of Noah and the flood.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.  (Genesis 6:5-14 ESV)

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. (Genesis 7:1-5 ESV)

And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. (Genesis 7:21-24 ESV)

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:20-22 ESV)

God saw that men were evil and so He brought judgement on mankind and destroyed all except the family of the one righteous man. He then declared that he would not do that again.

Sodom & Gomorrah

Another well known example of God putting an end to evil, in a more localized way, is in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapters 18-19.

Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” (Genesis 18:20-21 ESV)

The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground...And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. (Genesis 19:23-25,27-29 ESV)

God withheld judgment on the wicked cites until Abraham's nephew Lot was brought out, and then he destroyed the cities with fire.

Egypt

When God delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, He accomplished this in part by bringing seven plagues of judgment on the Egyptians, as recounted in Exodus chapters 7-12.  The last was the most severe, which finally convinced Pharaoh to relent.

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. (Exodus 12:29-30)

God judged Egypt for their evil enslavement of the Israelites, demonstrating His power in contrast to the false Egyptian gods.

Final Judgement

God not only has in the past dealt with evil, but he will once and for all deal with it, as made clear in Revelation 20-21, not only dealing with all evil but setting all things right again for those who have put their faith in Jesus as savior, repenting of their evil ways and desiring only what is good.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

  

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”  (Revelation 20:11-21:8 ESV)

God's Mercy

Jonah

As recorded in the book of Jonah, God sent Jonah to Nineveh to call out their evil ways. There are many lessons in the story, but one that is directly relevant to the topic of hand is the demonstration of God's mercy on those who will repent.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:1-2 ESV)

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”  When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:1-10 ESV)

Jonah went reluctantly to Ninevah, an enemy of Israel, and to his surprise, the king and the people repented, and so God did not bring judgment at that time.  God in His sovereign will show mercy to those who have committed evil acts if they will turn from their wicked ways. 

God's Grace

Free Will

God created mankind with free will because God desires love and relationship with His creation. Without the will to choose, we could not choose to love. If we have the will to choose, we may choose evil. God didn't create evil, but by creating creatures with the freedom to choose, He created the potential for evil, which we have actualized through our choices.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:16-21 ESV)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15 ESV)

Perseverance

...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5 ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)

God's Love

The Crucifixion

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”  (John 19:1-3 ESV)

They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.  So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.  (John 19:15-18 ESV)

Crucifixion is one of the most torturous of execution methods mankind has ever devised, and it was perfected under the Romans, who employed it to keep the populace under control.  For Jesus to have died in that manner, after already having received a flogging that would have nearly killed him, would have been horrendously excruciating (a word which means "out of the cross because of how painful crucifixion was).  Even more than the physical pain of crucifixion for Jesus was the separation from intimate communion with the Father, something they had experienced for all eternity as part of the perfect triunity within the godhead.

By taking on so much pain, suffering, and loneliness in His death, as punishment for sins that He didn't commit, those being the sins of every one of us, he has experienced the punishment due to all the evil every committed by mankind so that we don't have to.  God didn't create evil, but he anticipated and devised a solution for evil and so suffered consequences of evil greater than any of us have or could.

God is not indifferent to the evils we face. In fact, He willingly took the pain upon himself on the cross knowing that some would still reject that gift, but wanting all to have the opportunity to know Him personally and spend eternity in His loving presence.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 ESV) 

Would the world be a better place without God?

John Lennon's popular song Imagine suggests that a world without religion would be a better place.

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people

Livin' for today

Ah

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Livin' life in peace

You

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

It is true that many wars have been fought in the name of religion, and yet that doesn't mean that to remove all religion would lead to a world of peace.  The Soviet Union tried to eradicate religion and indoctrinate children with an atheistic worldview, yet under Stalin, millions died through mass murder, forced labor, and famine, at least 9 million and as many as 60 million. In the much smaller country of Cambodia under Pol Pot, nearly a quarter of the population (1.5 to 2 million people) died in a period of only 4 years of genocide.

If there is no God there is no good or evil. Atheistic naturalism, which presumes no divine source of life or meaning and relies on wholly random, undirected development of life into creatures whose very thoughts are the result only of biochemical processes giving an illusion of consciousness and free will, can not offer an objective definition of good and evil, but rather only a subjective and fluid definition within cultural contexts.  Even those contexts are, themselves, illusionary if life is merely organic matter and thought, emotion, and feeling are entirely products of chemical reaction with no metaphysical mind or spirit, and certainly no meaning to life other than survival. 

Cultures that once practiced ritual child sacrifice, such as the Canaanite worshipers of Molech that the Israelites destroyed at God's command, thought that what they were doing was moral and for the greater good of society. That was not something they got from God, but rather it was something people devised in an attempt to make sense of the world in which they lived, absent a relationship with the true God.

The Soviet Union under Stalin, Cambodia under Pol Pot, or Nazi Germany under Hitler, easily rationalized the killing of millions of people by horrific means, with a philosophy of the ends justifying the means.  Why did God not stop them? He did stop them, through the actions of nations such as the United States, Great Britain, and others as instruments, just as God raised the armies of nations to conquer powerful nations under judgement as described in the Bible.  It may not have been soon enough for our tastes, but God has a much bigger view of reality than we do, so we can't really know why.  

Why doesn't God prevent natural disasters?

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, and other phenomena cause much suffering.  While these phenomena are not necessarily the result of human choices, the suffering can be very significant. Even random incidents that affect individual people seemingly with no correlation to guilt or a poor choice can cause one to wonder why God would allow that.

First, we must recognize that God is sovereign and therefore has both the ability to stop these things from happening but also the omniscient knowledge of the big picture impacts that we can not see.  For example, out of great disasters can emerge tremendous acts of caring, unity, and personal sacrifice that God desires of people. Also, through suffering many come to recognize their dependence on God and their inability to control their own lives alone, ultimately bringing them to faith or strengthening their faith in the process.

We must also recognize that any who suffer and die in those situations, as terrible as that may seem, are not without guilt or deserving of death.  In fact, that is why Jesus came, to save sinners.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26 ESV)

Conclusion

Is God unable to put a stop to evil and suffering?  

God has put a stop to evil many times before and will do it again. Anyone powerful enough to create the universe, all of time and space, with all of its expansiveness and complexity, including complex life, is capable of stopping evil.

Is God unwilling to put a stop to evil and suffering?

God has shown a willingness to put a stop to evil through global and more localized judgment.  More importantly, He has provided a means by which we can escape from our own tendency toward evil through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  

He has also assured us that He will put an end once and for all to evil and suffering in the eschaton, but not before providing people every opportunity to repent and turn to Him.

Why does God allow evil?

God created people (and angels before that) with free will, an ability to choose to love God and to worship God, as well as an ability to reject God and to live apart from God. Many who reject God have chosen to do great evil.

God allows evil to persist for now to allow people the opportunity to repent and be reconciled to Him. Jesus revealed that in a parable:

Matthew 13:24-33 (ESV)

The Parable of the Weeds

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:36-43 (ESV)

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

What we do know is that God desires for none to perish and all to come to salvation, and yet he allows us to make our own choices.