The Problem of Evil, Pt. 2

It's easy to wax philosophical on the topic of evil in the universe and the world, but that will ultimately lead nowhere. The Bible, and the Bible alone, gives the complete answer. Here are three other aspects of the biblical teaching that I feel help us to understand this more:

1. Without an absolute standard of "good", there can be no such thing as "evil" in the world. Biblically speaking, something is evil only because it is a contradiction of the absolutely good character of God. For the unbeliever to raise the "problem" of evil, without an absolute standard of good as their reference, is foolishness.

2. God is not a passive bystander who watches the evil that occurs in this world from a distance. He is not like the selfish king who sits idly by in his castle feasting, while the people of his land starve to death. Part of the glory of the biblical perspective is that God himself has come down into this world and experienced the evil of it firsthand. For someone to say that "God doesn't know what I've suffered" is to deny the reality of the incarnation.

3. There will be a day when every wrong in this world is put right; a day when every evil will be punished to the full extent of justice. There will not be one sin that is left unpunished, not one "little white lie" that is not called to account. (In fact, it seems right biblically to say that that punishment often times begins even in this life.) The doctrine of hell is the answer to the oft heard inquiry of "Why doesn't God do something about the evil in the world?" In fact, he has done, is doing, and will "do something". The person who brings this particular objection up is often the unbeliever who seeks to ridicule God; but what they are really asking for (unwittingly) is the biblical reality of hell. In addition, this statement from them confirms the existence of "the law written on the heart", and the inherent sense of righteousness and justice that every person, created in the image of God, possesses.

- Garrett Holthaus