Why Is There Evil In the World?

Why is there evil in the world? Mankind, have been asking this age-old question since the beginning of time. Frankly, there is no simple answer to this question of Why is there evil in the world?  Evils such as the abuse of children, crime, disease, hatred, jealousy, murder, racism, rape, social injustices, suffering, terrorism, violence, and War are all realities which cannot be explained away. Why the innocent suffer and the wicked often prosper? Why do people get cancer and aids? Why are there earthquakes and hurricanes that destroy entire cities and communities? Why does mankind sit back and allow his fellowman to suffer when there are resources available to help? And why do people have to work so hard just to have enough money to barely feed and clothed their families? If God is just, then how can this be?

There is an answer to these WHY questions are found in the Bible. But it’s not an answer that most people would like to hear.

First, one must understand what is evil? Evil is contrary to God’s perfect will, but not his permissible will. Evil is the absence of good and where there is no good, evil will thrive. Evil is like rust to a car or rot to piece of fruit it spreads like wild fire or some cancer.

The reason there’s evil in the world is not because of God, but because God gave us the freedom to choose.

Now the potential for love outweighs the existence of evil, because you see, evil is only going to exist for a short time, but love is going to go on forever. All of the suffering and all of the death that we see in the world today are the result of man making wrong choices. God loves us and wants us to love him back. And how could we love him back unless we have the freedom not to love?

God could have made us like robots who do nothing more than say, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” But in this we would have been forced to do so and that wouldn’t be real love. Love is a choice. And if you have a choice you have the ability to choose not to love and that in itself is the nature of evil. Evil is choosing not to love. So when God gave us the freedom to choose, he gave us not only our greatest blessing, but he also gave us our greatest curse because we can choose to do right or choose to do wrong.

God allows evil to continue even though it is not his will. If evil were God’s will it would contradict his perfect and holy nature and everything he stands for and has told man not to do.

God has given humanity freedom of choice, having this freedom means that we can rebel against God and make choices that are contrary to His desires. Since we can say that evil is anything contrary to God’s perfect and holy will, then anyone who chooses anything contrary to God’s perfection is committing evil. But this is the risk of being able to have freedom of choice.  But how could this account for natural disasters and sickness that brings suffering?

Biblically, Adam represented not only all of his descendents but all of humanity and he was also the head of the created order since he was given dominion over the earth.  Therefore, when he fell, sin entered into the world for Roman 5:12 says “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” And with it the effects of being fallen spread to all the earth as well as to humanity.

God has done something about evil in the world through the person of Jesus Christ. By appearing in human form, Jesus showed us that we could trust him. Jesus is the tangible evidence of a God who is not only profoundly grieved by suffering, but who entered history to overcome death and evil.

And what did Jesus do while he was here on earth? He suffered! Jesus endured a suffering beyond all comprehension. He bore the punishment for the sins of the entire world! For all the evil that every one of us from the beginning has perpetrated, he paid the penalty. None of us can comprehend that suffering. Though he was innocent, He voluntarily took upon himself the punishment we deserve, why, because he loves us. It is like he was saying, “I know you don’t understand why I permit every evil. It’s not possible for you to understand yet. But just to show you that you can trust me, I’m going to suffer with you.” But there will come a day when the Lord will return and cleanse this world of all sin and all suffering.

In Revelation 21:4, it reads “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

©By: Dr. Christopher D. Handy

http://www.revchristopherhandy.com