mattnews.biz — The Problem with Evil
The biggest hurdle for Christians to overcome is this question of where does evil, pain, and suffering come from? If God is good, and all powerful, and loving, why did He create evil, and why does He allow it to flourish? However looking to God as not only responsible, but somehow the orchestrator of evil is misguided and wrong. Today I want to present my theory on where evil, pain, and suffering originate, and why it is allowed to permeate our world today.
So I’m all caught up on my “must listen to” podcasts. I have about three podcasts at a time that I have to listen to every episode, and the rest are fillers for the in between. I hope my podcast can fill one of those roles for you, because I know not everyone digs talking about the Bible, but that’s kinda what I like to do. So, I’m all caught up on my “must listen to” podcasts and I notice that Ben Shapiro has interviewed Ravi Zacharias.¹
Ravi Zacharias is a leading apologist, right now, and currently tours around schools doing Q and A sessions where students can ask him and his panel questions and they respond. The subject matter is, usually, the existence of God, because that’s what the art of Christian apologetics is, from the Greek, ἀπολογία (apologia) meaning a verbal defence. Ravi Zacharias tours college campuses giving a verbal defence of Christianity through logic and reasoning, and Ben Shapiro had him as a guest on one of his “Sunday Specials” saying he was the most requested guest, which leads me to believe that Ben’s listeners are, more than likely, made up primarily of Christians, because if you were to ask your friends in the non-Christian sphere if they know who Ravi Zacharias is they will probably not. Ben Shapiro being an Orthodox Jew, and Ravi Zacharias being a Christian Apologist, I was interested to see how the conversation went on. I only made it about five minutes into the program.
Ben asks Ravi what was one of the most difficult debates he has ever been in. Ravi Zacharias also debates in public forums against other thought leaders, usually Atheist, debating whether the existence of God is reasonable. Ravi points out to Ben that his most challenging debates are usually in his open Q and A forum, and he goes into explaining the usually lines of questioning he would engage in these forums. He stated that the two questions he receives the most frequently are, how could a good God allow pain and suffering and the question of moral authority, and Ravi believes these two are connected, and I feel the same. Ravi goes on to tell this story (listen to the clip on my podcast).
I understand Ravi’s argument of the need for a moral law giver to legitimize an individual’s worth. It’s a great argument that causes us to think, but to its own detriment it really only addresses that, for there to be evil there has to be a good and for there to be good there has to be someone that lets us know what good and evil is, however, the answer to why evil exists despite the existence of an ultimate moral law giver isn’t addressed with this answer.
At this point I pause the podcast and as I’m driving I’m thinking about this question, because I feel as though, as far as I know, it hasn’t been answered. Where did evil, and suffering come from? The reason it’s probably never been answered is because, at least from a Christian perspective there are many different opinions on the origin of evil. See it’s fairly simple so say, well we know there is good and there is a moral law giver that tells us good from evil. That’s something that Christians can easily agree on, but where the evil part came from is a little lengthy and difficult to process, let alone explain. It may be simple enough to say, “from Satan (or the devil)”, but then that circles back around to, “Well who made the devil?”
The question of an origin to evil and suffering is one that relieves humanity from responsibility. We didn’t create ourselves, so we cannot be responsible for the existence of evil, however if there is a being that brought everything into existence and evil exists, well then either all the blame falls on him or he, himself, doesn’t exist. If there is a defect with the product it’s not the products fault, it’s the manufacturer’s. I don’t think this way, because I do believe that God is good, perfect, and He would not create evil and suffering, however I do believe He could create an environment that would oblige autonomy. This is the hypothesis I would like to present.
My theory, if you will, has two parts. One part addresses morality, that is actual evil/selfish intent, and the other addresses pain and suffering. Adam and Eve taking and eating the fruit is viewed as the “original sin”, but there are a few reasons why I believe this is a misconception. I don’t have time to really go in depth on this subject, but I believe there are spiritual beings present before the creation of the earth and Adam and Eve that make up what is known as the Divine Council. When God says, “Let’s make man in OUR image,”² I believe He’s talking to his Divine Council. I believe God created these beings, and I believe He created them with the capacity to feel emotions, just like humans, and just like God Himself, because I believe that these spiritual beings are also divine image bearers just like us. Just as God has the capacity to feel jealousy these spiritual beings feel jealousy the same way. God creates man to rule over the fish, and birds, and livestock, and to subdue and cultivate the earth, and these spiritual beings grow jealous. (If you’re interested in where I’m getting these views I want to direct you to two sources found in the footnotes).³ ⁴
Now God has the capacity to experience a jealousy that is free from sin, because He created the spiritual beings and the humans. This is why when He gave the law to Moses He says, “Honor your father and mother.”⁵ The honoring of father and mother is a reflection of honoring the one who gave you life. But these spiritual beings grow jealous and they sin because this jealousy causes them to rebel and dismiss the wisdom God gives by defining the act of creating humans as bad. God did not place this rebelliousness with in the spiritual beings, but He created beings that had the capacity to live autonomously and instead of living in obedience with God they turned away from Him and defined good and evil for themselves, and they tempted these humans into falling with them. Seeing the tree was good for food, delightful to look at, and desirable for obtaining wisdom she took and ate.⁶ Eve’s temptation wasn’t just choosing food to eat, but that the fruit would make you “like God.”⁷ You’ll be able to define for yourself what’s good and what is bad.
God created in His image with the capacity to not only live with independence, but to experience emotion as He does. The presence of ill-intent and selfishness comes from within us. The created beings corrupt the freedom and emotion that was given to us. We have to take personal responsibility for the existence of evil in this world. What about pain, suffering, and natural disasters?
In Genesis 1 God creates the Heavens and the Earth, and in most English translations the Bible continues in verse 2 saying, “Now the earth was formless and empty”.⁸ Some translations say formless and void. The Hebrew phrase here is תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu wabohu) best translated as “wild and waste” and is used primarily to denote a desert wastelands.⁹ We also see in Genesis 2 that there was no vegetation and this chapter says because it hadn’t rained and there was no one to cultivate the land.¹⁰ So we see this presence of a wild, disorderly wasteland that covers the earth and has no vegetation. Just like the beings were created to function independently I believe the earth was created this way as well. Not exactly like a clock maker, but similar in the respect that the earth has the capacity of autonomy, and a part of that is chaotic nature. The metaphor of chaotic waters is used greatly to denote the chaotic nature of the world in the Bible.¹¹
In verse 8 of Genesis chapter 2 God plants a garden in the east, and he places the man he has made there in the garden with all the vegetation. The Garden of Eden is also seen as the mountain of God.¹² This was the place not only of vegetation and life, but also the place where Heaven and Earth met. We can equate it to Mount Olympus, the meeting place of the gods. After Adam and Eve are tempted they are expelled from the garden and barred from ever reentering, separated from the tree of life, and driven out into the chaotic wild and waste.
I know this explanation of the origin of evil, pain and suffering won’t suffice for a lot of people, but the question still remains, why does God allow these things to continue? I don’t know. I can only answer that I think it has something to do why He created things the way He did in the first place. I think it has something to do with created beings that have complete independence to choose how they wish to live and choosing Him over everything else amidst the chaos and wild, amidst their own emotions and desires these people whom He loves choose Him and aren’t forced to participate with Him.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIMwWtt_EVQ
[2] Genesis 1:26
[3] The Unseen Realm by Dr. Michael Heiserhttps://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Recovering-Supernatural-Worldview/dp/1577995562/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1JL701LYY81WA&keywords=the+unseen+realm+michael+heiser&qid=1564156703&s=gateway&sprefix=the+unseen%2Caps%2C170&sr=8-2
[4] The Bible Project Podcast — Jul 16, 23, 30; Aug 13, 20, 27; Sep 3, 10; Oct 8, 15, 2018 https://play.google.com/music/m/Igd6a4dq27mvazkffc7jtplzn7y?t=The_Bible_Project
[5] Exodus 20:12
[6] Genesis 3:6
[7] Genesis 3:5
[8] Genesis 1:2
[9] Exploring My Strange Bible — Torah Crash Course Part1 1 — Genesis https://play.google.com/music/m/Dgxvndlbhpnnlms3gojiqsunv5i?t=Torah_Crash_Course_Part_1_-_Genesis-Exploring_My_Strange_Bible
[10] Genesis 2:5
[11] The Bible Project — Apr 23, 2018 https://play.google.com/music/m/Dph4y6whm2vtpcckx7uycjq4bie?t=Design_Patterns_in_the_Bible_Part_4_Chaotic_Waters__Baptism-The_Bible_Project
[12] Ezekiel 28:14
