Morgan Leeper
Evil in the world is a very confusing topic and gets even more confusing when you throw in an
all good, all-powerful God. Many people either try to blame God for evil in the world and say He
is not a good God or they try to ignore God’s existence saying, “There is no God.” The problem
of evil is trying to comprehend how God “can allow” evil to be in the world. Evil comes in two
different forms, natural evil and moral evil.
Natural evil is the events occurring in the natural world that is outside of our control. Such things
as natural disasters fall into this kind of evil. Moral evil comes from the activities of people.
Such as Adam and Eve disobeying God and eating the fruit of the Tree. These two evils are not
separated however they are very connected. Natural evil is the consequence of moral evil. Moral
evil is the sins that we commit on a daily basis. God has given us a free will to choose what we
do, we choose to sin and bring evil into this world. God has allowed us to have free will because
if He didn’t we would simply be automated beings and our worship and actions in essence would
mean nothing. Therefore, natural evil is a result of the sins we commit and the evil we bring into
the world. For example when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were thrown out of the Garden
of Eden, a perfect paradise, then they had to cultivate the land and the land worked against them.
[1]
Leibniz tries to explain the problem of evil in that God is not responsible for evil because He
wills the best for us. God being all knowing knows which world is the best. Being all-powerful,
he can create that world and being all good, he does actualize the world. Other theodicies explain
that God created the world we live in to build up our souls for eternity in heaven. A world with
evil and sin is the only way to build up our souls and God uses evil to bring about good. Another
uses the free will, saying that God could not create a world with free will and without sin. If it
had no sin, we would have to free will and if we have free will, there will be sin and evil because
we have a sinful nature and are not perfect.[2]
Since a theodicy is a response to the logical consistency of the problem of evil, it must in itself
not be contradictory. I believe there is no one answer to the problem of evil and that we shall
never know the right answer until we are with God. However, we can speculate and try to come
up with an explanation. I believe that God gave us free will, so that we may choose to believe in
him and worship him on our own accord. We can not be perfect like Jesus; we stumble and sin
because of our sinful nature and free will to choose. So by sinning we bring moral evil into this
world and as a result of that we cause natural evil. God is a good God, but perhaps not in the
sense that we think. God is a good God in the sense that He will always do what is holy and
righteous and bring glory to himself. For us this may not always seem good.
For example, if someone deals with a personal experience of evil, such as a parent dying. We
may not see that as something good, but then again we are always caught up in right now. We
have a hard time seeing how God could use this to reach others and bring glory to himself.
Remember Job and all the terrible evil that befell his family and his life, yet he would not rebuke
God for it. In all that he went through, he still saw God as a good and loving God. Some people
maybe be very immature and lacking in knowledge, just because they dispute a certain belief
doesn’t mean that they are attacking God. Perhaps they are attacking what they do not
understand and perhaps neither one of us is right. God is so much bigger than the evil around us
and we need to be able to see that.
Word count: # 732
I really like your essay, especially pointing out that we can’t always recognize God’s good as
really being good. I remember times in the mission field when something would go terribly
wrong, like perhaps an accident, and I would initially think it was just the devil trying to hinder
my efforts. But then God would use that event in a way to bring glory to himself, usually in the
form of meeting a new group with whom to share the gospel or making a new connection for
some resource that the ministry needed. It is so very true that we are incapable of seeing things
from God’s perspective. It’s just as it says in Isaiah 55:8, his ways are much higher than ours. I
also appreciate your view that disputing a certain belief doesn’t mean one is attacking God. My
attitude previously was that it did, but your attitude seems much more merciful and Christ-like,
allowing that they may just not know what they’re doing. It’s similar to Jesus asking God to
forgive His crucifiers saying, “...for they do not know what they do.”(Luke 23:34 NKJV) I stand
corrected! Thank you.
