THE FALSE gods OF "THE PROBLEM OF EVIL"

Dear Chuck,

I have a question that has bothered me for quite some time. If God is all-good and He is all-powerful, then how come evil exists? It would seem that if God is all-good He would want to eliminate evil, and if He is all powerful, He would have already done so. The fact that evil does exist seems to me to prove that either God is not all-good, or He is not all-powerful. How would you answer that?

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Over the centuries this question has bothered quite a lot of people. This question even has a name. It is called "The Problem of Evil".

"The Problem of Evil" question correctly asserts that both evil and God exist. However, the god of the question is not the biblical God. The god of the question either (A) wants to eliminate evil but can't, or (B) does not want to eliminate evil even though he can. So the god of the question is either (A) all-good but not all-powerful, or (B) all-powerful but not all-good. Since neither god is the biblical God, "The Problem of Evil" is thought to prove that the biblical God cannot exist.

To answer "The Problem of Evil" it is only necessary to give just one reason why the God of the Bible might let evil continue. The Bible gives many such reasons. For example: rather than eliminating evil in one fell swoop, God is tolerating it so that more people can come to repentance (Mal 3:6, Ro 2:4). In addition, God is working out all things (even evil things) for the good of those He has called (Ro 8:28, Ge 50:20). And finally, there are some very good things (such as the payment of Christ for our sins) that could not be accomplished without the toleration of evil (Acts 2:23). So it turns out that "The Problem of Evil" is only a problem for the nonexistent false gods of the original question, and for those people who believe in them. "The Problem of Evil" is not a problem for the biblical God.

-Chuck-