It doesn’t take long to look around and know there is evil and suffering in the world. Turn on the TV or radio, buy a paper or magazine, log on to the internet or even your cell phone, and “BAM!” there it is in your face. From war to terrorism, from genocide to slave trade, from starvation to aids, from murder to theft, from domestic violence to divorce, suffering and evil is all around us!
The nagging question that has gripped people for centuries is, “Why does God allow evil and suffering?” If God is all benevolent, all powerful, and all knowing, why doesn’t he put an end to the pain and misery that millions experience everyday? This is probably the greatest hurdle for atheists to get over, and it has become their greatest arsenal against Christianity.
This is a difficult question to answer, and no matter what answer is given, it seems too simple and inadequate to really do justice to the question itself. Very often, the answers given to the question of suffering and evil do not give respect to those who are suffering. Sometimes, the answers given make the victims into perpetrators who are guilty of causing their own pain and misery. While it may be true that suffering and evil can be the result of poor choices, it is also true that suffering and evil plague the innocent. Injustice such as this has caused one person to say, “If God is God, he is not good. If God is good, he is not God.”
Some do make God the blame for evil and suffering. Since, the existence of pain and misery cannot be adequately dealt with by logic and reason, well, someone has to pay the price for evil’s existence. So, God becomes the one to bear the brunt of the punishment. Yet, this is nothing more than making God the scapegoat because we as finite human intellectuals have reached the full extent of our own logic and reason. (By the way, since the enlightenment we have made our ability to reason an idol. Logic has become the God of modernity, and we have suffered, to some degree, because of it. Uuummmm, very interesting, to say the least.) If we take God out of the picture, as an atheist would, then who would be the cause of evil and suffering? Well, the answer would be humanity since there would be no God to point the finger at. Now, if we place God back into the picture, could we not still say that in some capacity humanity is still responsible for pain and misery, evil and suffering. Yes, of course, we could make that very conclusion.
I, for one, do not pretend to understand pain and misery, evil and suffering. I have no pretense I have figured it all out. My answer will probably raise more questions, and we will be back at square one; however, in my opinion, I believe we should stop asking the question of why evil exist in the world. We should stop putting the blame on God, and we should begin working with God to stop evil and suffering in the world.
And here we are, back to the call God has given us. We are blessed to be a blessing. We as believers can put a sizeable dent in the existence of evil and suffering if we would truly live out God’s vision for us, to be a blessing to others because he has blessed us. Isn’t that just wonderful? We need to quit asking God why he allows evil and suffering because, in my opinion, he does not allow it, but he is actively involved in eradicating it from his creation, and at the close of history, he will complete this very act. We, as believers and humanity as a whole, need to point the finger at ourselves and ask, “Why do I allow evil and suffering?” That is the question God is asking us; however, he is also saying, “Turn from practicing evil, turn from causing others to suffer, place your trust in me, and join me in being a blessing to others as I bless you.”
I ask you to answer the call of God to bring about the end of evil and suffering. Pray with me for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and begin to work with me in ways to do the same.
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