Recently I attended a backyard barbecue. There were about twenty or so friends and family members there including my mom and dad who made the trip up from Florida to visit us while we were speaking at churches in the greater Philadelphia area (praying for the Phillies). One of my mom’s friends came along. When she found out I was a theologian, she pulled me aside to ask me a question.
“I’m really struggling with something,” she said. “If God is good, then why is there evil in the world?”
This question, more than any other theological inquiry, has caused believers to question their faith. In some cases this question as drive people to abandon their faith. It must be an important question. Its importance is attested to by the fact that philosophers, theologians, and Bible scholars have debated it endlessly through the millennia.
Thankfully, there is an entire book in the Bible that is dedicated to answering this question! The problem is that the book is long, messy, and complicated—the book of Job.
In a nutshell, the book of Job is a story about a man named Job (hence the title) who is a really good and rich man who obeys God one-hundred percent (notice the being rich does not necessitate being evil). Then, to the reader’s shock, Job loses everything including his wealth, his family, and even his health. The question of the book, then, is “Why is Job suffering for no reason!?”
Human logic necessitates one of two answers; either (1) God is evil, or (2) God is not all powerful (because if he were, he wouldn’t let purposeless suffering happen).
The bulk of the book of Job sets out to answer the questions of suffering in a number of ways. The majority of the book details the wrong answers (chapters 3–37). This is telling. God is telling us that there are a lot of wrong answers out there to the question of why is there evil in the world. The right answer, however, is not at all what we expect as a reader (for a more on the book of Job, see https://youtu.be/xQwnH8th_fs).
This is essentially what God tells Job to answer his question:
1. It’s okay to struggle with this question, as long as you talk to God about it. We are allowed to question God and his ways, as long as it’s done with a posture of reverence, respect, and appropriate fear of God. We are allowed to have questions! God doesn’t want blind, thoughtless followers!
2. God is much, much bigger than human logic. Notice that this issue is only a dilemma because of human logic. I mentioned above that human logic dictates one of two possibilities: (1) God is evil, and (2) God isn’t all powerful. The problem with this is that while logic is a great gift of God, he is not constrained to the banks of human logic. If God and his eternal existence can be contained to human logic, then he wouldn’t be God. This is the main answer that God gives Job.
3. The third point that God makes in answering Job comes in the form of a question. Even though there are things that you cannot fully understand, will you trust and obey God? You see, if full comprehension and logical understanding is required for faith, than it is no longer faith, is it? Even though God will not answer all of your questions, will you trust in him? Will you trust that he is good, even though he doesn’t have to explain himself to you? After all, if God has to explain himself to humans, then he isn’t God at all, we are.
Will you trust him even though you don’t understand? That is the mark of the mature Christian.
For more, see this book.
Thanks Matt, for the reminder that He is worthy our trust even through difficult times!
I really like how elegantly you’ve answered this, according to the answers found in Job (and saving everyone the trial of getting it themselves out of the book!). It reminds me, as well, how useful even the difficult books in the Bible are.