A-05: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL?

CHAPTER OUTLINE:

A. Why Does God Allow Evil to Exist?

B. Why is Satan Allowed to Oppose God?

C. Why Did God Create Beings Whom He knew Would Go to Hell?

D. Why Does There Have to be a Hell?

A. WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL TO EXIST?

The battle Satan is waging against the human race and against the kingdom of God brings us to ask our next major question.  Since God is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, and absolutely hates evil, then why does He allow it?  Why does He allow Satan or any evil being–human or angel–to even exist, much less oppose Him?

In answering this question, it is necessary to raise and answer two additional questions closely related to this one.  The first stems from the fact that God knows the future.  He knew what Satan was going to become before He ever created him.  The question which we need to ask, therefore, is not “Why doesn’t He destroy him?” but rather “Why did He create him in the first place?”  Why would God have created a being, whom He knew would become evil and oppose Him?  This also brings us to our second question (and this one is much harder to ask), “Why would God have created a being whom He knew would spend eternity burning in hell?”  These questions get even harder when we realize they apply not only to the realm of angels but to the human race as well. 

The answer to all this very unpleasant reality takes us all the way back to God’s reason for creating us.  Remember, He wanted children, not puppets or robots.  In order for us to exist as human beings we must have free-wills.  We must have the ability to think and to act and to decide for ourselves what choices to make.  The only way for us to be able to make our own choices is for options to be available, and in order for options to be available, there must be a right one (good) and a wrong one (evil) accessible to us. 

So, here we are, living beings with free-wills, with good and evil to choose from.  Evil (sin and rebellion against God) must be an available option in order for our free-wills to exist, for us to exist as anything more than puppets or robots.  We must be given the ability to disobey God for obeying Him to be an option, and we must be given the ability to reject Him for accepting Him to be an option.  For a choice to exist, there must be another option.  Our problem is we have all chosen the wrong one.  We have all sinned–all rebelled against God.  This is why there is evil and why God allows it.  He must, for our sake!  If God got rid of evil, the human race would cease to exist. 

Now, since we can see that God must allow evil to exist, let’s take a look at our other two questions.

B. WHY IS SATAN ALLOWED TO OPPOSE GOD?

Satan is allowed the freedom he has–the freedom to oppose God and to try to lead us in rebellion against Him–as this is also required for free-will choice.  God cannot cause, lead, or tempt anyone to do evil (to act disobediently or to reject Him as Lord), but he can allow Satan to do so.  For free-wills to truly exist, rebellion and rejection must not only be possible, they must be presented as options.  An option is not an option unless we know that it is available.  It’s as if God has placed us at the end of a hall with no exits and is standing at the other end saying, “I love you, come to me, I have a plan for your life.”  He again, however, only wants us to come if we truly have the desire.  He doesn’t want us coming because there’s no other way to go.  So He has symbolically allowed Satan to knock a hole in the wall behind us to offer us another direction.  Thus, Satan and his demons, with all their evil, all their power, and all their deception are ultimately going to be seen for what they are–tools in the hands of God, which will be disposed of in hell when they have served their purpose.  [God will not have any pleasure throwing Satan into hell.  He will grieve over sending him there, just as He would over sending you or me.] 

C. WHY DID GOD KNOWINGLY CREATE BEINGS WHOM HE KNEW WERE GOING TO REJECT HIM AND GO TO HELL?

This brings us to the next question, “Why must it be this way?”  Why must God create beings, humans or angels, whom He knows are going to spend eternity burning in hell? Before answering this question, let me again state that no person- not one single human being–ever has to go to hell!  (Hell was created for Satan and his angels anyway.)  Almighty God lowered Himself not only to the point of becoming human, but to the point of a horrible physical death to keep this from happening and salvation is available to all people. He has created the way, shown us the way, and calls us to come that way, but it is up to us to accept it. And herein lies the problem–it is up to us.  It must be up to us!  In order for us to have the freedom to accept Jesus and spend eternity with Him in heaven, we must have the freedom to reject Him and spend eternity without Him in hell.  Understanding all of this, we are now drawn to ask one final question: “Why does there have to be a hell?”

D. WHY DOES THERE HAVE TO BE A HELL? 

Why must God eternally punish those who reject salvation as opposed to just letting them cease to exist at death?  Isn’t being eternally deprived of heaven and of His presence enough?  Why must they suffer forever?  The only clear answer the Bible gives to this question has to do with justice: God’s justness requires that sin be punished.  We could still ask the question, though: “Isn’t the cessation of life enough punishment?”   Do they really need to burn in hell?  The Bible does not give us a clear answer to this question, but I can tell you what I believe.   

When we human beings come into to this world, we do so with sin in our nature and evil in our hearts. We also come knowing in our hearts and experiencing with our senses (through creation) the obvious fact that God exists.  Because of this, every one of us has experienced some fear of having to answer to Him for things done in this life.  Keeping this in mind, look at how incredibly evil we still are.  Look at the terrible things we do to each other and at how horribly we turn away from God.  If there were no fear of eternal punishment–no fear of lasting consequences resulting from evil done in this life and from rejecting our Creator- how evil would this world be?  Would anyone survive?  Wouldn’t the human race have destroyed itself a long time ago?  Unfortunately, I believe that the answer to this question is “Yes.”  The human race would have destroyed itself a long time ago.   

From the eternal perspective, the question arises: “Without the fear of hell, would anyone be saved?  Would God end up with any children?”  Sadly, I believe the answer here is “No.”  In addition to there not being anybody for God to call (as the human race would have destroyed itself), I believe that mankind is so evil, self-consumed, and twisted in its thinking that if we had no fear of eternal punishment, none of us would ask God to forgive us.  We would all be born, live for ourselves, reject God, then die. God’s whole purpose for creation, His whole plan for obtaining children, would end up being a miserable failure.   

Again, there are no scripture verses which state this, but I do know that in some cases it is unquestionably true.  “How?” you may ask.  Because it’s true with me.  I love God with all my heart and soul and with every ounce of my existence.  He is absolutely the most wonderful and blessed friend I have ever had, and the day I get to be with Him (unhindered) will be the most wonderful day I will have experienced up to that point in my life.  His and my relationship, however, was not always this way.  When I first accepted Him, I was told that He loved me and had died on the cross to keep me from burning in hell.  It would be a lie to tell you hell wasn’t a factor in my accepting Him.  Hell was scary (which is probably why Jesus talked about it during His earthly ministry more than He did heaven).  So you see, the fact that hell exists is part of the reason I am going to heaven, part of the reason I am in this most blessed and eternal relationship with God.  For that reason, I am glad that hell exists.  Would I get rid of it if I could?  Only if there were some other way for God’s plan to succeed, or some way to stop Adam and Eve from bringing sin into the world.  But, there isn’t and I can’t.  I can’t get rid of hell and I can’t change the past.  All I can do is try to get people to accept the love, grace, and mercy which God offers.

This is why I have written this book and why God has led you to read it–because we both care!  Heaven and hell are both real, and we are going to spend eternity in one of them.  We are born with a sinful nature, we have all broken God’s laws, and we justly deserve to be punished in hell, but God came to change all this. By accepting Him as Lord and Savior, we are forgiven for our sins, we gain the permanent accompaniment of the Holy Spirit (Who enables us to control our sinful desires), we are spared the eternal consequences our sins deserve, and we receive the promise of everlasting life in heaven.  What more wonderful gifts could we ever receive?