Where Does Evil & Suffering Come From?
Kyle Austin • July 7, 2020
The severity and depth of suffering that we see and experience all around us generates serious questions about life and God. One probing question is, “How can evil and suffering exist with a loving God?” This is a question that many people have asked and struggled with whether believer or unbeliever. We will begin to answer this question through our next few posts.
Genesis 1:31 says,
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
In the beginning, God’s creation is morally good without sinful corruption. God placed Adam & Eve in this perfect world without sin, evil, and suffering. If that is the case then where did evil and suffering come form?
1. God created the possibility of evil.
In Genesis 2:16-17, God gave Adam & Eve clear instructions to enjoy everything in the garden except for one tree which was forbidden. God clearly gave the consequences for each choice. For obedience - physical immortality.
For disobedience - physical death. Up to this point, man was neither holy nor sinful but innocent. Man cannot be holy or sinful without the exercise of his will which was tested at this moment in time by God’s law. Now Adam and Eve have to choose what they will do.
2. Man produced evil’s potential.
The source of evil is not God but man’s freedom to choose or exercise his free-will. Adam & Eve exercised their free-will and chose to disobey God’s one command.
Genesis 3:6-8 says,
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
What was the result of this decision? This sin or breaking of God’s law produced all the evil, suffering, and death you and I experience.. It moved from potential to actuality.
Romans 5:12 says,
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned:
3. Free-will allows man to choose evil over God with suffering being the result.
We may be tempted to say, “Well God could have created a world without evil and suffering.” He did! But humans messed it up. We must remember that creating a world where there is free-will and no possibility of sin or evil is a self contradiction. You cannot have both. God created man with a free-will to love or hate Him, to obey or disobey His law.
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Life is often so busy and fast that it feels like we cannot catch our breath.
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I am so moved to remember the value of life, both the first breath of infants, and the life we receive from Christ. It is in the first life where so much beauty is unraveled from the caring intimate creation of the Father. It is in the second life that we witness such grace and mercy. Grace and mercy which has no greater example than that of the Jesus Christ on the cross. After all, there is no greater love than that which He so faithfully displayed on the cross. Now because of these two lives, we are never individual nor alone. We have such a duty to connect with others. Our greatest call as Christians is to go and reach the world! We have no need for loneliness, for in Christ we have a great Friend, in the body of believers we have an established family, and in the world we have souls which must be reached! My prayer for all God’s children is that we never devalue the precious lives around us, and that we are prepared to give all for them… even unto death.
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