Why Would a Loving God Allow Evil

To recognize that evil exists one must agree that good exists as well. There is no way to know darkness unless one has seen the light, no way to know cold unless one has felt the heat, and in the same respect there is no way to view something as evil unless there is already an understanding of what is good. The presence of good and evil requires an objective moral law to distinguish between the two and therefore establishes the reality of a transcendent moral lawgiver who initiated the standard and imparted the power to choose one or the other.

The foremost virtue in life is love, and true love can only be expressed if there is freedom to prefer it. To stop all evil would require God to remove the endowment of freewill and deny human beings the choice to "love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19), which is what He desires. The greatest gift also comes with the possibility of the greatest disaster when love is violated and the consequences follow. If someone takes a life, then a grievous violation has taken place, great suffering has been inflicted, and that life cannot be restored naturally. Nevertheless, God can restore that life eternally and render the ultimate justice. The context of eternity presents the possibility of an explanation, but without eternity the problem remains unsolved. Additionally, the consideration of evil is usually in reference to an action or event that affects a person or a group of people with the assumption that their personhood has intrinsic value. However, a person cannot have intrinsic value if they are only the result of time + matter + chance, because they are reduced to nothing more than a collection of chemical processes in motion. The only way a person can be of value is if they are the creation of the One that has infinite value who bestows that worth.

The issue of evil and the associated suffering is pervasive and extends into the moral dimension as well as the natural dimension. A moral evil is considered to be a negative incident caused by the malicious action or inaction of a person towards themselves or another person; such as lies, theft, and murders. They are found in varying degrees throughout all societies and proves that there is something very wrong with human nature in the current form as the battle rages within each person between selfishness and selflessness. Moral evil and suffering are not proof that God is absent from the world, but proof that He is absent from our lives. Rejecting God will not necessarily make someone an evil person, but without Him there is ultimately no reason to choose what is good because true accountability has been removed.

Comparatively, a natural evil is a negative event that occurs spontaneously without the intervention of a person; such as earthquakes, wildfires, and tsunamis. The occurrence of natural evil is not necessarily an indication of divine punishment or retribution upon a certain area or group of people for a particular reason because God “makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Rather, natural disasters are further evidence that the world is in a fallen state and “that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22). Undoubtedly, we live in the tension of a broken world awaiting renewal, but the natural laws currently in operation can be purposeful. Significant lifelong moral and spiritual growth can be experienced through various crises because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). Although this is not the best world, the promise is given that ultimately God will eliminate evil and restore all creation to the design that He intended. Romans 8:21 states, “the creature itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God”.

The presence of evil and suffering should expose the fact that human beings cannot be the solution to the problem and instead point us to the need for a Savior with greater power than our own. God’s will is that we would choose to have a relationship with Him rooted in love. Although He does not cause evil or suffering, “for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man” (James 1:13), it can be used to draw a person to Him in a world that seems absurd without Him. Psalm 119:67 declares that “before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word”. To even ask the question of evil, or any other question, is the result of being free to ask and the freedom to ask is the freedom to love. When the choice is made to love God, then trust is placed in the One who has the supreme wisdom to masterfully weave everything together into a beautiful tapestry that will eventually make sense and shape us into who He created us to be.

“For I determine that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us”

Romans 8:18