The Problem of Evil, Part 0

“How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?” (Hab 1:2-3).

How can a good, sovereign God allow evil and suffering in the world? I said before that this is the final exam of Christian theology and apologetics. Now that we’ve covered all the bases, we should be able to address this difficult topic.

The Bible doesn’t pretend this isn’t a problem. All of Job and Habakuk as well as several Psalms and some passages in the New Testament address the question in one form or another. The scriptures do not give us a nice, pat answer, though. Instead they give us a big God.

Just about every post of this project could be a book; that’s doubly true about this. There are many good books written on the topic, and it’s worth everyone’s time to read a few. Everyone will be touched by this at some point.

The problem with the problem of evil is that it’s more than an intellectual problem. Yes, it’s a conundrum philosophers debate ad infinitum, but when it comes home, it attacks the heart more than the mind. When that happens, all the books in the world won’t help. We have to prepare our hearts and minds beforehand.

The intellectual problem has been called the “armchair question” — the question we ask when we’re sitting in our comfortable chairs wondering why God allows evil things to happen over there. “Why does God let children starve in Africa?” The heart problem has been called the “wheelchair question” — the question we ask when we’re suffering, wondering why God let this happen to me. “Why did God let my baby die?” To the best of my meager ability, I’ll speak to both in turn.


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