{"id":1028,"date":"2002-10-26T21:49:57","date_gmt":"2002-10-26T21:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/october-qwhy-bad-things-happen-in-gods-worldq\/"},"modified":"2014-02-02T07:59:23","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T07:59:23","slug":"october-qwhy-bad-things-happen-in-gods-worldq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/october-qwhy-bad-things-happen-in-gods-worldq\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bad Things Happen In God’s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 11 will long be the signal date for remembering that tragedy can happen, even in America\u2014one nation under God.\u00a0 The following has been my response, which I shared with my own church the Sunday before 9-11.\u00a0 I find the Christian\u2019s response to the presence of evil a mirror response to the question of atheism:\u00a0 \u201cIf God exists, why does He allow bad things to happen to innocent people?\u201d<\/span><\/h1>\n

Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote that the atheist \u201cdoes not want to believe in his mind what something within him keeps asserting.\u201d1<\/sup> Therefore the atheist continually either looks for logical arguments against God, or dismisses the whole thought, as Isaac Isimov once admitted, \u201cEmotionally, I am an atheist, I don\u2019t have the evidence to prove that God doesn\u2019t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn\u2019t that I don\u2019t want to waste my time.\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n

The perplexing dilemma for those who see evil as inconsistent with the idea of a good God, generally think in the following way.<\/p>\n

If God exists, He would do good.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bad things happen in this world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Therefore, God doesn\u2019t exist or is not good.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his landmark book, The Problem Of Pain<\/em>, C.S. Lewis recalls his own struggle when he was an atheist:\u00a0 \u201cIf God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what He wished.\u00a0 But the creatures are not happy.\u00a0 Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.\u201d3<\/sup> In other writings Lewis (agreeing with Lloyd-Jones) would say that the danger of such a hollow belief was always evident: \u201cA young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.\u00a0 There are traps everywhere\u2014\u2018Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,\u2019 as Herbert says, \u2018fine nets and stratagems.\u2019\u00a0 God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.\u201d4<\/sup><\/p>\n

In my own state of Colorado, we have heard it said, \u201cI don\u2019t see how God could allow such a thing as Columbine.\u201d\u00a0 For the last year we have heard the same searching question regarding the tragic loss of innocent lives during 9-11.\u00a0 But can we honestly think that our dilemma would be clearer if God did not exist?\u00a0 Do we really think the world would be a better place?\u00a0 The Psalmist insists that only a fool would say so (Psalm 14:1, 53:1).\u00a0 Unbelieving people have not replaced God with a more satisfying alternative nor a more moral control.\u00a0 To believe that there is no Ultimate Moral Being against which we measure right and wrong, usually brings people to moral degradation and despair.\u00a0 Malcolm Muggeridge said, \u201cIf God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place.\u00a0 It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, Hitler or Hugh Heffner.\u201d5<\/sup><\/p>\n

Christianity offers the way out of such a dilemma.\u00a0 God is indeed in control and there is a reason for all things that happen.\u00a0 Such confidence in God has always been a guiding light for Christian individuals, families, churches and nations.\u00a0 This positive response can be set forth as follows.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Evil does indeed exist<\/h3>\n

We have no argument here with the atheist or the moralist.\u00a0 Solomon plainly exclaims, The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good<\/em> (Prov 15:3).\u00a0 There are natural evils in the world such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and things that take people\u2019s lives\u00a0 [I ought to note that Christianity knows that the earth itself is not evil and that these things, being themselves consequences of an Adamic fall, are the absence of good].\u00a0 There are also moral evils such as murder, hatred, stealing and things that proceed from the fallen nature of mankind.<\/p>\n

The atheist is forced to define evil in terms of Relativism.\u00a0 To him, evil or wrong exist only because people decide to call such things evil or wrong.\u00a0 If society decides that killing is wrong, it is wrong for that society.\u00a0 Still today, some will not admit that 9-11 was morally wrong, PERIOD.\u00a0 To them a thing is only morally wrong if our culture says it is.\u00a0 Francis Schaeffer wrote, \u201cThe problem of our generation is a feeling of cosmic alienation, including the area of morals.\u00a0 Man has a feeling of moral motions, yet in the universe as it is, it is completely out of line with what is there.\u201d6<\/sup><\/p>\n

To the believer however, all things are measured against a universal Moral Law.\u00a0 Adam first violated that law, and his descendents still do to this day.\u00a0 We also know the whole earth has been affected by those wrong decisions.\u00a0 To think that evil does not exist is like hitting one\u2019s head against a wall\u2014if feels so good when you quit!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

If evil exists, then good must also exist<\/h3>\n

Paul\u2019s argument is, When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves<\/em> (Rom 2:14).\u00a0 As soon as we say that 9-11 is bad, we have compared it to something that is good.\u00a0 Again, C.S. Lewis writes, \u201cThe moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other.\u00a0 But the standard that measures two things is something different from either.\u00a0 You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality.\u201d7<\/sup><\/p>\n

At this point atheists have tried to deny God exists by denying that there is such a \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 Nietzsche wrote, \u201cOnce the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him.\u00a0 To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing, and to esteem the entrails of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth.\u201d8<\/sup> But, as Geisler has written, \u201cHegel wrote that God is dead and Nietzsche took it seriously.\u201d9<\/sup> And so did Hitler, and every other mass murderer who, for at least a brief moment, believed that what he was doing is actually a service to the world.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Good is not incompatible with evil<\/h3>\n

How else could Job say, Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? <\/em>(Job 2:10).\u00a0 This is where the real disagreement with the atheist or agnostic lies.\u00a0 The thought that Columbine or 9-11 or the Holocaust could happen on \u201cGod\u2019s watch\u201d seems so inconsistent with God\u2019s nature that it drives some people to despair or even unbelief.\u00a0 Francis Schaeffer has shown how this happened with famous atheists:\u00a0 Charles Baudelaire said, \u201cIf there is a God, he is the Devil.\u201d10<\/sup> And Albert Camus said, \u201cIf there is a God, we cannot fight social evil, for He made it.\u201d11<\/sup> But to think like that is to make certain assumptions about God that are not so.<\/p>\n

The first is to assume that God can do anything! \u00a0That is, that God acts without limitations for purposes of this world.\u00a0 When God made a time-and-space world, He set Himself to certain boundaries.\u00a0 There are physical limitations.\u00a0 God does not make a square peg fit a round hole, nor make a valley without two mountains.\u00a0 [Christians know that at certain times God can intervene, and we call those miracles.\u00a0 But, by definition, they are intrusions from outside this world.\u00a0 That is why we do not call all wonderful things within time and space \u201cmiracles.\u201d\u00a0 If everything were a miracle, nothing would be a miracle]\u00a0 There are also moral limitations.\u00a0 God cannot lie or bare false witness against Himself.\u00a0 God also cannot make a free moral creature and then not allow him to choose the evil.<\/p>\n

The second assumption is that God always acts immediately when the evil occurs.\u00a0 He does not and this is not inconsistent with all we know about God\u2019s nature.\u00a0 God knew that the bad choice would have to be made (by Adam first of all) in order for free creatures to also make the right choice.\u00a0 This is why we have time and space.\u00a0 God is longsuffering so that we have time to repent (2 Peter 3:9).<\/p>\n

Every parent deals this way with his child.\u00a0 When a child misbehaves badly at a friend\u2019s house, he may wait until he gets home to mete out the punishment.\u00a0 If the misbehavior is small, he may correct it immediately.\u00a0 Sometimes he lets the natural consequences happen, as when the host corrects the child.\u00a0 In such cases, the child gets the punishment from the host, and also from the parent when he gets home. God does the same thing.\u00a0 The sinner suffers the natural consequences of a sinful world now, and also later, where he suffers eternally for his sin.\u00a0 Maybe the older disciplinarians understood this more than we, when kids got spanked at school and at home.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Good is greater than evil<\/h3>\n

When Abraham discoursed with God over the destruction of Sodom, for his nephew Lot\u2019s sake, he finally rested on the thought: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?<\/em> (Gen 18:25).\u00a0 He knew that God existed and therefore that God (being the ultimate Good) would ultimately win out over evil.<\/p>\n

The war between good and evil is not a civil war between equals, it is a revolutionary war between One who has the right to rule and a usurper.\u00a0 We do not live in a dualistic world of positive\u2014negative, yin\u2014yang, eternal evil\u2014eternal good.\u00a0 We live in a good world that has been spoiled by the entrance of sin and that God will eventually gain back.\u00a0 He will eternally punish the usurpers, reward the faithful, and return His creation to its original purpose.<\/p>\n

God is what we call a \u201cnecessary\u201d Being.\u00a0 He is not contingent on anything but Himself.\u00a0 All else is contingent on Him.\u00a0 Aquinas said, \u201cTherefore, we cannot but admit the existence of some being having of itself its own necessity, and not receiving it from another, but rather causing in others their necessity.\u00a0 This all men speak of as God.\u201d12<\/sup><\/p>\n

It would be practically impossible to talk at all if we could not compare good and evil, right and wrong.\u00a0 Our minds are made to think in terms of non-contradiction, seeking the good above the evil.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

God is Good<\/h3>\n

Jesus reminded His hearers that There is none good but one, that is, God<\/em> (Matt 19:17).\u00a0 Francis Schaeffer, during the unsettled atheism of the \u201860s, wrote, \u201cIt is not that this is the best answer to existence; it is the only answer.\u00a0 That is why we may hold our Christianity with intellectual integrity.\u00a0 The only answer for what exists is that He, the infinite-personal God, really is there.\u201d13<\/sup><\/p>\n

If evil exists in this world, then good must also exist so that we may call evil bad.\u00a0 Since that is so, good is the better thing and evil is the bad thing.\u00a0 And if there is any good at all in the universe, it is given by God who is the Ultimate Standard for all good and evil.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

And So . . . .<\/h3>\n

In order for God to have a heaven populated by free-will beings, it was necessary to have this world first and to let us make our choice.\u00a0 Having fallen into sin, our only choice now can be imputed righteousness through Jesus Christ.\u00a0 If we choose Him, we will still endure the \u201clight affliction\u201d of this life, but live forever in heaven, not in hell.\u00a0 I choose to think that God is working all these things together for good for those who believe.<\/p>\n

Truth forever on the scaffold,<\/em><\/p>\n

Wrong forever on the throne;<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet that scaffold sways the future,<\/em><\/p>\n

And behind the dim unknown,<\/em><\/p>\n

Standeth God within the shadows,<\/em><\/p>\n

Keeping watch above His own.14<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Notes:<\/address>\n
1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, quoted in a biography by Tony Sargent, The Sacred Anointing <\/em>(Wheaton:\u00a0 Crossway Books, 1994) 136.<\/address>\n
2. Quoted by Henry and John Morris, The Modern Creation Trilogy<\/em>.\u00a0 A CD book from Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA.<\/address>\n
3. C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain <\/em> (New York: Macmillan, 1962) 26.<\/address>\n
4. C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy <\/em> (New York:\u00a0 HBJ, 1988) 191.<\/address>\n
5. Quoted by Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage <\/em>(Brentwood, TN: Wogemuth & Hyatt, 1990) 25.<\/address>\n
6. Francis Schaeffer, He Is There And He Is Not Silent<\/em> (Wheaton:\u00a0 Tyndale, 1972) 23.<\/address>\n
7. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity <\/em> (New York:\u00a0 Macmillan, 1960) 25.<\/address>\n
8. Nietzsche, Friedrich.\u00a0 Thus Spoke Zarathustra<\/em> (New York: Penguin Books, 1978) 13.<\/address>\n
9. Norman Geisler, Philosophy of Religion,<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974) 52.<\/address>\n
10. Francis Schaeffer,\u00a0 27.<\/address>\n
11. Ibid, 28.<\/address>\n
12. Aquinas, Summa Theologica <\/em>Q3, Art 3 (Chicago:\u00a0 U. of Chicago, 1952) 13.<\/address>\n
13. Francis Schaeffer, 15.<\/address>\n
14.\u00a0 James Russell Lowell, in The Present Crisis<\/em>, written during the Civil War.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 11 will long be the signal date for remembering that tragedy can happen, even in America\u2014one nation under God.\u00a0 The following has been my response, which I shared with my own church the Sunday before 9-11.\u00a0 I find the Christian\u2019s response to the presence of evil a mirror response to the question of atheism:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[178],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-sin-world-evil"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Bad Things Happen In God's World - Aletheia Baptist Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/october-qwhy-bad-things-happen-in-gods-worldq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Bad Things Happen In God's World - 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