Christians: How do you reconcile the problem of evil?

[StevenMerten]

I see that this is going on right now, and it's very tragic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a98253640d75

I used to be a Christian. I attended church regularly, believed God existed and prayed regularly. But I never gave it much thought when tragedy struck that God wasn't doing anything.

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?
If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

How do you reconcile it?

Hello Kim,
God gave man the capability to love God. The way that we love God is through obedience to God. Which is worse? Suffering a catastrophe on earth, or going to hell? Because of the massive sins of Israel (sin leading to damnation), God relinquished His Kingship over Israel and ripped them out of the Promised Land. God put king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as ruler over Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was just as ruthless as Adolph Hitler.

In 1917, through apparition at Fatima Portugal, the Blessed Mother relayed a message from God. WWI was about to end, however, if mankind did not repent of their massive sins, a second, far worse war would erupt. Well why didn't we all simply repent to love, serve and obey God, in order to avoid WWII?

Mankind seems to turn their heart's back to their Maker, and thus salvation of their souls, in hard times, rather than good times. Sad but true.

John 15:22
"If I had not come to them and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; now, however, their sin cannot be excused. To hate me is to hate my Father. Had I not performed such works among them as no one has ever done before, they would not be guilty of sin; but as it is, they have seen, and they go on hating me and my Father."

John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

John 15:9
"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. You will live in my love if you keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and live in his love. All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."

1 John 5:3
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

Luke 10
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'" Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."​

 

[John 1720]

I see that this is going on right now, and it's very tragic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a98253640d75

I used to be a Christian. I attended church regularly, believed God existed and prayed regularly. But I never gave it much thought when tragedy struck that God wasn't doing anything.

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?
If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

How do you reconcile it?

Dear Kim,
First of all let me say that as a Christian I mourn those who lost their live and property in those deadly fires.
The question of evil as well as catastrophies has filled up volumes of books raging from the genre' of Apolegetic theologies to Secular Philosophy so I don't expect to be able to answer every instance of God allowing it. However, I think I may be able to supply you with some thoughts and perspective that may provide you with some insights to take further. I think it is important to make a distinction between man made evils and natural disasters and catastrophies. Man made tragedies are a direct result of the fall, while natural catastrophies are indeed natural but also indirectly made tragic by the fall. It begs the question of how, so first let me define the fall.
The "Fall", as referenced by Geneis, states that at some chronological point man was in total sync with the Creator. Since I am a Bible believing Christian that would be God. We are taught by Moses that in every epoch of Creation that God saw what He had done and proclaimed it as "Good". That is except for the 6th and 7th God Day. On the 6th God Day or epoch Moses tells us that the Lord stated:

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you, it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so.

OUR FIRST STATE:
So, according to Moses the inference is that God's intent was for us to be the caretakers of all He had created. We did not earn the right but were born into it being created in the image of the Just and Purely Holy Creator God. He fashioned us in Love to both love Him and love all that He had physically made manifest. We were, as Genesis 12:3 states, 'blessed to be a blessing'. This then is the Christian context of our first state of 'being'. It was given to us freely and freely we were allowed to partake in God work; for on the 7th God Day He rested from His works of Creation and the continued works of God for His Creation was given to man. We had inherited the earth and we rejoiced in the blessing, giving names to every creature God had made.
THE FALL:
Moses goes on to describe the Fall or our altered state of reality. I label it as an 'altered state' because whenever you adulterate anything pure with another element it becomes something else altogether. This is not only true in chemistry it is true with the human soul as well. I won't belabor the story as you were brought up Christian and know both the woman and the man disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil, which the Lord forbid them to do. If you examine why it comes down to believing a lie that they could usurp God's power. God had said in the Day you shall eat of that fruit you shall die. It essentially opened the floodgates to sin for the entire human race.
WHY ARE WE TO BLAME:
Just as every race of humankind are related by our DNA we inherited our their propensity to commit sin as well as the death, the consequence of corruption. One might say that is unfair but look around you at the human race. Do you know anyone who is completely pure? Do you know anyone who has even kept the 10 commandments all their life? The Bible tells us we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. I believe that is axiomatic to all in our present state of humanity. We need only to turn on the 6 o'clock news in order to verify man's inhumanity to man as they flash the stories of greed, violence, lies, and depravity fill up the screens, websites, journals and newspapers. The source of the world's evils are generated by man and not God. We are taught there is no evil or lying in God - that resides in us, because we have given ourselves over to that principality and practice the principles of commiting evil.
IF GOD IS JUST WHY DOESN'T HE JUST STOP EVIL?
I've had many ask me this question? If God is omnipotent as well as just, why doesn't He simply put an end to the ability to do evil. Well the truth is He has stated through the prophets that He will do just that. However, we are also told He will do that in His time and has set a Day in which all evil will be judged. Does this mean God is not omnipotent because He chooses to wait? Drawing that conclusion would be a false premise since Christ has already given us a reason as to why He has held up the end of all evil.

• Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Does it then mean God is simply not "Just", because He allows evils to permeate humankind in all its forms? Accusing God of being unjust is not something new. Israel at times gave the same reply to her prophets:

• Ezekiel 18:23 "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
• Ezekiel 18:25-26- "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair? "When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies.

The Bible tells us that we shall all die if we simply continue to follow the desires of our natural man, which I call our Adamic nature. Jesus' stated:

• John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

So, the Bible also informs us that we can receive Christ if we repent and ask Him to be Lord of our life.

• John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

When Christ enters the soul to abide and live within us and we yield Lordship to Him our fallen nature is reborn in Jesus. This is a free gift that God, in his pure unadulterated goodness has offered to each one of us. And we can understand that gift because, even though we have corrupted it, we still carry the image of God's goodness in us. Jesus said:

• Luke 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

In order to follow Him we must first continue abide in Him because without Him we can do nothing. Without Him we are only capable of doing our own work and not the works of God.

• John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
  
• 1John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
• 1John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

So, God has made a way in our own time just as He made a way in every generation that came before us. Some have followed Jesus and some have not. Jesus further makes the distinction between those who claim to follow Him but never knew Him and those that truly do follow Him. Those that falsely claim Him will even include those who preach Him falsely and claim works in His Name. These never really trusted or truly aligned themselves with the Savior.

• Matthew 7:22-23 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

When we repent of our sin and make Jesus Lord of our life we are in a sense reimaged to become Christlike and to pursue His works in this world instead of our own. He has not removed us from the world but we are no longer under the dominion and principals of this world; all of which are indeed corrupt. We are essentially firefighters saving as many as we can from the burning ediface of self destruction. This will culminate in the Salvation of God reaching all nations, depite all forms of persecution and false witness propaged against His Church. Thus this will fulfill the Abrahamic blessing going back to Genesis.

• John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
• Mark 13:10-11 "And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
• Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
• Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
• Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
• Genesis 18:18 “since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
• Genesis 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
• Genesis 26:4 “And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
• Genesis 28:14 “Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

In Conclusion then we can see that God's timing to allow the chaff to grow alongside the wheat until both can be harvested is merciful and wise. Otherwise, while we were yet caught up in our sins, many who will be joined to Christ would perish.

Another parable He (Jesus) put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” 

God allows evil to coexist because even those who are now His enemies, and thus evil themselves, can be saved by our merciful, good and loving Savior who gave Himself for us and paid the price of every sin and evil ever committed for the love of us all

• 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

There is then evil in the world because God is both Just and Merciful and the two met on those crossbeams on Golgotha in the person of Jesus Christ. We can also say that the Love of God manifests itself in life eternal by His glorious resurrection.

• 2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
• Corinthians 15:53-58 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I'll handle evils perceived in natural and manmade catastrophies in another post and call it PART 2.
In Christ, John 17:20

 

[John 1720]

I see that this is going on right now, and it's very tragic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a98253640d75

I used to be a Christian. I attended church regularly, believed God existed and prayed regularly. But I never gave it much thought when tragedy struck that God wasn't doing anything.

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?
If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

How do you reconcile it?

PART 2
Tragedies and catastrophies such as the one mentioned above can be perceived by us to be blamed on God, just as evils done by man (which I covered in part 1 of my response to you) are mostly falsely attributed to God. While it is true God's judgment has been at times perpetrated great calamities, I believe most natural disasters do not fall into that category. First let's revisit some of the ones God Himself claimed responsibility for.

1. The Great Flood of Noah: The world filled with violence and evil against the Good and Godly created order He had established. So God saved all the righteous of the earth and started over with Noah and his family.
2. God by a mighty wind seperated the aters of the Red Sea, so that Moses and the children of Israel could cross. Cross they did unharmed but were pursed by Pharoh's army. God then commanded the winds to abate and that army was drowned just as Bruce tells us below.

However, we should not forget that many disasters, such as the one above, are man made. Negligence is a man made attribute not an attribute of God and it can certainly start fires and other disasters which kill people and destroy property. We should not blame God for the poor choices we make, nor for the sins of neglect. Neglect can be caused by sloth or perhaps even greed, not making the expense for safety when need and where needed.

However, there is another category to natural disasters as well, that should not be blamed on God. And that has to do with the things that are healthy for the planet God has created but unhealthy for mankind in our fallen state.

We are oftentimes caught unaware by Tsunamis, earhquakes, eruptions, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, etc. Many choose to blame God and worse some claim these people had it coming. However to a geologist who studies the earth none of these events are in of itself evil. In point of fact many of them are necesary for the earth survival and or progression. Sometimes great fires caused by lightening strikes can clear out overgrown woodlands. Eruptions are natural and necessary to relieve pent up pressures in the earth and many times form new parts of the earth, such as Hawaii. Earhquakes are merely movement of the shelfs and plates within the Earth's framework. So these are not evil in and of themselves but in the design of a healthy planet. What makes them a disaster is people are caught unawares and killed by them. One might ask, 'why did God allow them to be caught unaware by these events?'
I can only say most of our ignorance is because we are not attuned to God. That is not to say there are not Godly people killed in disasters but it is to say that in our fallen state we do not always hear God' voice and warning. There are many instances in the Bible when God does warn people such as Noah, Abraham, Lot, etc. Even animals seem to have a sense we have seem to have lost in knowing disaster is about to strike. Death and danger can come to us in many forms and no matter if we are following God or not. One example was Paul who did not personally receive a warning from God that if he returned to Jerusalem he would wind up as a chained prisoner. However he did receive tat warning from a prophet he believed and trusted. Even knowing, however, he chose to go trusting even with personal disaster and hardship God would be with him until he took him home to be with him forever. I am blessed to know such Christians as well who stayed or went even though they knew they were going to be in harms way and it might mean their survival. So we should never make any judgments as to anyone's spiritual state who is caught in a terrible disaster. I will say hat if we had never fallen that we would ll be perfectly attuned to hearing God's voice in every instance of a natural calamity. Because of the fall we are neither naturally attuned to hearing God's voice nor, from a secular perspective, what nature itself is telling us. While in the state of being sanctified we increasingly attune ourselves to the Lord but we are still only beholding Him dimly while we remain in this tent, as Paul called it. The mortal must put on immortality before we understand everything in the heart and mind of God.
Anyhow, that is my understanding of evils, calumities and disasters from a Christian perspective. Hope it helps to answer some of the whys.
We are called to meet all the challenges evil can throw at us, as well as help those in need. Once again I am blessed to kno many who help in relief efforts and put themselves in harms way many times over to save people. Hopefully people will not only be save to live out there lives in this temporal existence but also be saved to live eternally in the love of Christ so we can rejoice over one another truly in this gift of life.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVAR85rorvU

In Christ, John 17:20

 

[TimMcCollum]

I see that this is going on right now, and it's very tragic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a98253640d75

I used to be a Christian. I attended church regularly, believed God existed and prayed regularly. But I never gave it much thought when tragedy struck that God wasn't doing anything.

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?
If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

How do you reconcile it?

It's hard to believe at times, but we were made in His image. Maybe He just doesn't approve of some people's way of life. At times people [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] Him off. It should be His right to get angry and backlash. It's what people would do.
You can say "Christians," but, for argument's sake, let's say that a lot of them don't actually believe the books of the Old Testament happened verbatim. This would cause a huge amount of doubt in God, which has been shown to be disastrous for worshippers.
He loves us, but we could be doing better to love Him.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Do you then , as from this post, doubt and/or do not believe Yahweh's (God's) Word is TRUTH ?

What then is your 'belief' in ?

Well, by your link of just wildfires, I would like to establish that God has nothing to do with this. God doesn't send twisters, hurricanes, or devastations on to the planet as far as my beliefs going, in trusting in Him.