This is part 7 of my Actual Good News series of articles on the topic of biblical soteriology (the study of salvation).
Please note that I’m including many of my scriptural references in the links (which are are the underlined words throughout the article), and they also link to studies with extended details that I couldn’t fit into the article, so please be sure to click all the supporting links in order to get the full picture, as well as all the Scripture references.
As one learns more about the theology of those of us in the body of Christ (not to be confused with the theology of those in the Christian religion who have mistakenly appropriated our title), they’re often extremely surprised when they discover our theodicy, meaning what we believe when it comes to resolving what’s generally referred to as “the problem of evil.” When they learn that we believe God is 100% in control of absolutely everything (because the Bible says that all things are indeed of Him, not just some things, and that He works all things after the counsel of His own will, not just some things), and that the evil which exists in the world is included in the “absolutely everything” (meaning the “all things”) we believe Him to be in control of, they tend to be very shocked at first.
Of course, most people will argue that God can’t be behind the evil in the world (despite the fact that He actually takes responsibility for the existence of evil, not to mention for the existence of “all things,” as we already learned) because they believe that would mean He must be evil Himself, or at least that He can’t be very good or loving. And if you look at the problem from a “forward in time” perspective (meaning, if you begin with what you assume it would say about God if He actually is behind the evil in the world, especially the evil which exists in the form of unmerited suffering, and work your argument forward from there), it’s easy to understand why someone would conclude that God just can’t be behind it.
However, if you instead take a look at the problem from a “backwards in time” perspective (meaning you begin with the fact that evil, especially evil which includes unmerited suffering, exists in the world, and then work your way backwards to figure out why that is), you’ll discover that none of the other possible reasons for the existence of said evil are any better (and that many are far worse) when you really break the options down. Because the fact of the matter is, the world does contain unmerited suffering — huge amounts of it — which is to say that people suffer for all sorts of reasons that they can’t be directly blamed for, such as babies who are born with painful diseases, or people who lose their homes to unforeseeable natural disasters, or even people who lose loved ones to disease or accidents, among the vast number of other kinds of suffering that nobody chooses to endure.
And while it can be argued that “evil” doesn’t have an ontological existence in and of itself, as some like to point out, and that the form of evil we experience as suffering technically only takes place in our minds (which means that, if we didn’t care about the results of these events, we wouldn’t suffer, and hence evil wouldn’t exist in that form), the way our brains are wired means that these catastrophic events being experienced by our minds do still cause us suffering, so from that perspective, evil does still exist. But beyond that factor, there’s also the definition of “evil,” which is really just any action (or, I suppose, inaction) which is “harmful,” “calamitous,” or “causes damage or destruction,” and these things not only do happen (so from that perspective, evil definitely does exist as well), but the Bible says that God Himself does many of these things which bring about destruction and calamity too.
Even after reading all that, however, most Christians will still deny that “all things” are indeed of God. And because of this, we have to ask them the question (although, even if they didn’t deny what Scripture says, it’s still a good question to consider): “What are the possible reasons for the existence of evil, especially in the form of unmerited suffering, in a universe created by God?” Well, the following nine options are the only reasons I can think of that could possibly answer this question:
- God doesn’t want this suffering to occur (meaning He doesn’t actually enjoy witnessing it happen), but it all happens against His will because He’s powerless to stop it. This option could only be the reason if God isn’t actually omnipotent, which basically means He wouldn’t actually be Almighty God, so it’s not technically a valid option at all, but for the sake of completion, I’m including it in the list anyway.
- God does want this suffering to occur (meaning He enjoys witnessing the suffering), which works out well for Him because He would technically be powerless to stop it if He didn’t enjoy watching it happen. This is just another variation of the last option which removes God’s omnipotence altogether (while also making God out to not be good and loving either), so it’s really just as invalid as the last one and doesn’t even deserve consideration, so we’ll leave it at that.
- God doesn’t want this suffering to occur (meaning He doesn’t actually enjoy witnessing it happen), nor does He will it to occur (meaning He isn’t actively behind it in any way), and there’s no ultimate greater good that comes out of the suffering, but while He has the power to stop it, He decides to just sit back and let it occur naturally anyway. This option maintains God’s omnipotence, but it indicates that He isn’t very good or loving, since He could have stopped it but chose not to, even though there’s no good reason for letting it happen, and He doesn’t even want it to occur to begin with.
- God doesn’t want this suffering to occur (meaning He doesn’t actually enjoy witnessing it happen), nor does He will it to occur (meaning He isn’t actively behind it in any way), but while it would be within His power to stop it, the suffering (which must be naturally occurring in some way) somehow does work out for the greater good of those who experience it, so He simply sits back and lets it all play out. This seems even less likely than any of the other options so far, when you really think about it. The idea that every single instance of unmerited suffering (out of the trillions of cases or more of it occurring throughout human history — not to mention throughout the history of animals, who also did nothing to deserve the suffering they go through, and yet they do suffer, as anyone who has ever owned a pet can attest) could possibly somehow work out for the greater good of every being who ever experienced it without God ultimately being behind it is statistically impossible (you’d probably have a better chance of winning the lottery jackpot every single week of your life than of this somehow happening to be the case), so this option isn’t even worth considering.
- God does want this suffering to occur (meaning He enjoys witnessing the suffering), and although He doesn’t will it to occur (meaning He isn’t actively behind it in any way), and while it would also be within His power to stop it, because the suffering (which must be naturally occurring in some way) somehow not only does work out for the greater good of those who experience it, but also because He enjoys watching us suffer in the meantime, He sits back and lets it all play out. This option has the same statistical impossibility as the last one, so it’s also not worth considering, but it also has the additional problem of meaning God isn’t good or loving, making it doubly untenable.
- God does want this suffering to occur (meaning He enjoys witnessing the suffering), although He doesn’t will it to occur (meaning He isn’t actively behind it in any way), and while there’s no ultimate greater good that comes out of the naturally-occurring suffering (other than God getting what He wants), and while He could stop it at any time, He sits back and lets it happen because He enjoys it. This option would obviously mean that God isn’t very loving, so it isn’t really an option either if we’re trying to maintain that God is loving, but I’m including it for the sake of covering all of the possible reasons that suffering might exist in a universe created by God.
- God does want this suffering to occur (meaning He enjoys witnessing the suffering), and He even wills some, if not all, of it to occur (meaning He’s actively behind some, if not all, of it), and while there’s no ultimate greater good that comes out of the suffering for those who are experiencing it, He makes sure that some, if not all, of it occurs because He enjoys witnessing it (I say “some, if not all, of it” because some of it might also be incidental to His actively making it happen, but He must enjoy watching that particular suffering that He didn’t cause too, or else He wouldn’t let it happen as well). This option would also mean that God isn’t loving, and it definitely would mean He’s evil, so it isn’t really an option at all if we’re trying to maintain that God is good and loving and not evil, but, like all the other options that don’t really deserve consideration so far, I’m including it for the sake of covering all of the possible reasons that suffering might exist in a universe created by God.
- God does want this suffering to occur (meaning He enjoys witnessing the suffering), and He also does will it to occur (meaning He’s actively behind it) because He knows there’s ultimately a greater good for all of us that will come out of the specific suffering He causes each of us to experience. This is getting close to the actual reason, but it would mean that God wouldn’t actually be loving, so it can’t quite be the answer we’re looking for.
- God doesn’t want this suffering to occur (meaning He doesn’t actually enjoy witnessing it happen), but He does will it to occur (meaning He’s actively behind it), because He knows there’s ultimately a greater good for all of us that will come out of the specific suffering that He causes each of us to experience.
As far as I can tell, those are the only logical options available to us as to why unmerited suffering occurs in a universe created by God (yes, it’s possible there might be some slight variations of the above that I missed, but even if so, I don’t think that any of them would be at all tenable without devolving the options into absurdity, and I definitely can’t think of any that make sense and are also superior to any of those options, so I’m leaving it at that), and when you look at the suffering that exists in the world beginning from this perspective, it seems to me that option 9 is the only one that actually maintains God’s existence, as well as not only His omniscience, omnipotence, and sovereignty, but also His good and loving nature, because it tells us that not only is He behind it, but that He’s doing it for reasons that are in all of our best interests (although it’s important to point out that option 9 can only be true if it’s also true that nobody will actually be punished without end, since otherwise the majority of the suffering that people experience doesn’t end up working out in their best interests after all).
Of course, when considering the above, or even when trying to think of an alternative option that I might have somehow missed which you do believe is superior to any of the options in that list, it’s important to keep in mind that there’s little-to-no moral difference between being omniscient and omnipotent yet choosing not to stop the unmerited suffering and actively being behind said suffering in some way, so if you’re going to go with an option where God could have stopped it but chose not to, you’d better have a good reason for that option which does work out for the greater good of all those who are experiencing it.
Now, as for the question of what the greater good actually is that might explain why God did it this way, the fact of the matter is, we could simply say that we don’t know, and this would be a perfectly good answer to give (because, since option 9 is the only possible option that makes any sense, we could legitimately just trust that everything will work out for the best, even if we don’t know how or why that is right now). That said, those of us who are in the body of Christ do have an answer which we believe to be true, one which is often referred to by us as “the contrast principle.” Basically, the conclusion which most of us have come to is that one can’t truly and fully appreciate good without first experiencing evil (referring to all the various forms of evil, of course, and not just suffering, although suffering is definitely included), and likewise, that we can’t fully understand and appreciate God’s love without having first experienced a lack of His love, or at least the feeling that we’re not experiencing it (similarly, we would argue that we can’t fully understand and appreciate His grace without first experiencing sin). If this doesn’t seem to make sense at first, think about how one can appreciate the warmth of being indoors in a heated building after being outside in the cold much better than they would be able to if they’d never actually experienced cold weather (or vice versa, with being able to enjoy the cold generated by air conditioning if one lives in a part of the world which is always hot, and how they wouldn’t appreciate that relief from the heat if they lived in a part of the world which was always cold). So basically, while it definitely isn’t fun in the short term — as we experience the suffering — by the end of the ages we’ll all thank God for the suffering He put us through, because we’ll all appreciate our existence at that time much more than we could have if we hadn’t ever suffered (so, with that in mind, we need to remember that God isn’t doing this to us, but that He’s actually doing this for us, even though we might wish He’d stop already in the meantime).
Of course, in response to this, the argument is often made that God could have simply created us with the necessary knowledge of good already present in our brains at our birth, and that He didn’t have to make any of us suffer at all (or have to allow any of us to suffer, if you prefer). And while I have to think that He technically could have created us with whatever knowledge He wanted us to have already in our brains (He is God, after all), as it turns out, He didn’t create us with this knowledge already in our heads. And since He didn’t, He must have had a good reason for not doing so, which means we have to once again work backwards from that fact and ask ourselves what that reason is. And when you do so, since unmerited suffering still exists, everything I included in the list of options still stands as well.
The fact of the matter is, God didn’t seem to create us with any conscious knowledge in our brains at the time we’re born at all, but seems to instead want us to have to learn things as we grow, either through study or through direct experience (or, really, through a combination of both study and experience). As for why God did it this way, there could be multiple reasons, but one possible reason is that, if we didn’t actually experience it ourselves, our understanding of both good and evil would simply be academic rather than experiential, and based on the way that God did create us (having to learn many things through experience), the most logical conclusion seems to be that experiencing suffering will lead to a better possible outcome or outcomes (with the appreciation of good likely being at least one of these outcomes, if we’re right about the contrast principle) than simply having the knowledge already in our heads at the time of our birth could have.
Now, even after reading all of the above, some will still assert that, if this is true, then God must be evil, regardless of the points I’ve made that would suggest otherwise. But in light of the fact that God didn’t create us fully formed with the knowledge of good and evil already stored in our minds, whether or not the contrast principle is why God did things this way, Him willing unmerited suffering, among other forms of evil, to exist must still be the best possible way to do things. Think about it: Since we do exist in a universe where we’re born without any knowledge, having to learn things as we grow, if God truly is sovereign, good, and loving, then the sort of universe we currently exist in, including all its suffering (merited or otherwise), must result in the best possible outcome for us, meaning the best possible outcome for all of us must come from living in a universe where we begin knowing nothing. And since it exists, this would also have to mean that evil and suffering are unavoidable in this particular sort of universe. Of course, the contrast principle could still potentially be a beneficial side effect of this sort of universe as well — or could perhaps be a required principle, based on the fact that the best possible way for us to get to the best possible outcome is to live in a universe of growth and learning and processes and suffering rather than one where we come into existence fully formed with all the knowledge we need already in our brains and with no suffering — but either way, since this is the way the universe is, and since we’re assuming that God indeed is sovereign, good, and loving, because those nine options I listed are still the only logical possible reasons for the existence of unmerited suffering (outside of the possibility of God simply not existing, of course, but I’m writing about “the problem of evil” from within a theistic framework here), I would argue that we’ve now determined this assumption of theirs that God must be evil if He’s actually behind this has to be incorrect (and, in fact, somewhat blasphemous) and that it’s time for them to discard that idea. Because when we look at it from the “backwards in time” perspective, they’re still stuck with those nine options and only those nine options, and so they’ll have to decide which of them they want to believe.
And this is why those of us in the body of Christ are able to understand that God can cause (or create) evil without being evil, as long as the evil exists for good reasons. As I already mentioned, “evil” really just means “calamity” or “destruction” (or “that which causes suffering,” as I’ve been using the term in this portion of this series of articles) anyway, and we already know that evil can be done to serve a greater purpose. And the potential “contrast principle” isn’t the only good purpose it can be done for. As another such example (one which might be more applicable to humans right now), one could amputate a gangrenous limb — causing much suffering, unmerited suffering even, if the patient didn’t do anything to cause the infection, which is the exact form of evil we’ve just been discussing — in order to keep it from spreading, ultimately saving the life of the patient. This is yet another proof that evil can be done to bring about a good outcome, and that doing or causing evil definitely doesn’t mean that the one doing evil necessarily is evil, or even that evil acts are always immoral (and for those who would insist that this action isn’t evil because it saves the patient’s life, it still involves causing damage to a part of the patient’s body, and causing suffering to the patient, so it still falls under the definition of “evil”). Now, some people, hearing this example, have claimed that this idea makes God out to be abusive, insisting this would mean that God was thinking, “Healing is so inherently great and desirable that I will get everyone in the world sick just so that I can eventually heal them,” to which I would first respond by saying that bringing God down to a human level there — similar to the way Job did — isn’t necessarily the wisest way to go, but also that, based on the fact that we do go through unmerited suffering, in light of the fact that the nine options I listed still remain the only options, it might be time for them to accept that perhaps it could be true that it is better for us to have experienced both the “sickness” and the “healing” than to not have experienced them, and that this isn’t actually abusive at all, since it ultimately works out in our best interest; and, in fact, that it would really be less loving of God to not have done so.
And with all that in mind, I maintain that this solution to the problem of evil is really the only possible option, at least if you don’t want to go with atheism as the reason behind the unmerited suffering that we all experience at one point or another in our lives (which is technically a tenth option, and you’re free to believe that if you prefer, but that option gives us far less hope than option 9 does — in fact it offers no real hope that our suffering has any meaning at all — so I’m sticking with option number 9 because I prefer an option that provides us all a promise of a better future, and also makes the unmerited suffering we all go through actually have meaning). However, if you think you can come up with another option that you believe I missed, one which actually does work as a better theodicy than option 9, please do let me know.
That said, it isn’t just evil that God is responsible for. If Scripture is to be believed, He’s ultimately responsible for “all things” (at least from an absolute perspective), which would also have to include sin too (unless sin somehow doesn’t fall under the category of “all things”). In order to learn my justification for this claim, however, you’ll need to read the next article in the series.
Please click here for Part 8 of this series.