Evil & the Absence of God

Published July 26, 2012 by admin in Articles

EVIL & THE ABSENCE OF GOD

By Brent T. Willey

Central Coast Preachers’ Meeting

September 13, 2011

Introduction:

  1. For years, those who have criticized the Bible and have denied the very existence of God have fueled their skepticism by focusing on the subject of “evil” – bad things that occur in life, which also includes pain, suffering and other “negative” things experienced in life.
  2. Unfortunately, many Christians have stuttered and stumbled in their attempt to answer the loaded questions of atheists, agnostics and other types of unbelievers.
  3. First, we must admit that we do not have all the answers and there are some things that are not given in God’s Word: “The secrets things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29.29).
    1. The immediate context takes us to the Law of Moses, of which some things were not revealed within it. God gave them as much as He wanted to give them!
    2. There divine principle remains true today, and God has revealed by His Spirit to His holy apostles & prophets everything we need to know about “life and godliness” (cf., Eph. 3.3-5; 2 Pet. 1.3).
    3. But there still remains plenty of things we just simply don’t know. But, does human ignorance prove that something or someone does not exist? Only arrogance would make such a suggestion…
  4. Notwithstanding, Peter also indicates that we must “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3.15).
    1. “Always be ready to give a defense…” [apologia: answer, verbal explanation]
    2. “To everyone who asks you a reason…” [logos: word; but in context it is tied to our explanation of the eternal hope we possess.]
    3. “With meekness and fear…” [phobos: fear; also reverence & respect] In humility and reverence we must be willing to share God’s Word with others!
  5. Let’s now consider the rationale of the dissenters who deny God’s existence…

I. Questions, Questions & Troubling Conclusions

  1. Consider a very typical approach that the skeptics use to “reason” God right out of existence…
    1. They reason: “If there is a loving God then why is there so much evil in the world?”
    2. They continue: “If the Bible is to be believed, everything had to come from God, because God existed before anything else – correct?”
    3. They add: “If everything comes from God, and the Bible is to be believed, then God created Satan and sin; but if God created Satan and sin, then God Himself must be evil.”
    4. They usually follow: “Sickness, disease, immorality, hatred, ugliness, and a host of other terrible things exist, and so if there is a supreme, eternal, creative God, then He is responsible for all these things and is inherently evil Himself!”
    5. Then they switch gears: “Science is predicated upon the tangible or empirical senses we have: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, & smelling. Have you ever literally seen God, or audibly heard God, or actually touched God, or in some way smelled God, or even perhaps tasted God?”
    6. So they conclude: “According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that?” And so the mantra goes… //
  2. Do you remember Paul’s statement in 1 Cor. 1.27-29? The apostle wrote: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” Consider, by way of analogy…
    1. Question: Scientifically, is there such a thing as “cold”?
      1. We know of the scientific principle of “heat,” but is there such a thing as “cold”? Before you answer, consider…
      2. You can have lots of heat – super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat, but scientifically, we don’t have anything called “cold.”
        • Theoretically, we can go to “absolute zero” – defined as precisely 0 K on the Kelvin scale, which is a thermodynamic temperature scale, and –273.15° on the Celsius scale, and –459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale.
        • But we can’t go any further down than that! There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than absolute zero.
        • Every body or object is susceptible to heat measurement when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy.
        • Absolute zero is the total absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. It is “heat” that we measure in thermal units because heat is energy.
        • Scientifically, the sensation of “cold” is not the opposite of “heat,” just the absence of it!
    2. Another Question: Is there such a thing as “darkness”?
      1. Again, there is the scientific fact of “light,” but not darkness!
      2. “Darkness” is not something; it is the absence of something.
        • Scientifically, we measure “light” – not “darkness.”
        • You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called “darkness” isn’t it? That’s the meaning to define the concept of darkness. In reality, darkness isn’t! If darkness was measurable we would be able to make darkness darker & darker.
        • “Darkness” is the absence of “light!”
        • Even in Scripture “darkness” is used accomodatively and metaphorically: “He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light” (Lam. 3.2).
  3. What’s the point? The skeptic’s philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and therefore the conclusion must also be flawed. 
    1. He is working on the premise of “duality.” He argues that there is life and then there’s death; good & bad; good people & bad people; a good God and a bad God. He views the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. You can’t!
    2. Science can’t even explain a “thought.” We have them and we expand them, but who can “see a thought?” It is something in us that is not physically visible. Yet the power of rational thinking is one of things that separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
    3. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life – just the absence of it. (James 2.26)
  4. Now let’s talk about “evil.”
    1. Does “evil” exist? One is tempted to say, “Yes, we see it every day! Man’s inhumanity to man; crime and violence is found everywhere in the world. Are these not manifestations of evil?”
    2. Question: Do you know what “evil” is? Evil is the absence of God!
      1. It is just like “darkness” & “cold” – “evil” is a word that describes the absence of “righteousness.”
      2. Any action, word or thought that is devoid of God’s righteousness is called “evil” or “sin.”
      3. John wrote, “All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5.17).
        • God did not create “evil.” Evil is the result of what happens when free moral agents decide not keep God’s love in their hearts and decide not to practice the righteousness of God!
        • Just as the “cold” comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light, so “evil” is present when God’s righteousness is absent!
    3. Question: So why is there pain, suffering and death?
      1. The simple answer is because of sin – according to the Bible. In the beginning, when God placed humanity in the garden, there was no pain, suffering, sickness, no, not even death!
      2. God, however, sufficiently warned that all of those “terrible” things would be resultant of humanity’s choice to transgress God’s law.
        • God told Adam, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen. 2.16-17).
        • The apostle Paul said that the rest of humanity has done likewise: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5.12).
        • Accordingly, it was sin that served as the catalyst for everything that is connected to pain , suffering and death.
        • God did not create those things in the very beginning, but God did allow them to exist by virtue of humanity’s succumbing to sin.
        • But the wonderful news is that Jesus was willing to subject Himself to pain, suffering and death that we might be able to experience God’s grace&ultimate salvation! (John 3.16; Rom. 5.1-10; 2 Cor. 5.21; Phil. 2.8; Heb. 5.8-9)
    4. Question: Does this have to be linked to free will?
      1.  According to God, absolutely!
        • God said to Eve, the very first sinner, “What is this you have done?” (Gen. 3.13), indicating her ability to choose.
        • A chapter later, God asked Cain, “What have you done?” (Gen. 4.10). God had reminded Cain earlier in verses 6-7: “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Even after initially displeasing God, Cain was given an opportunity to get it right, but instead he allowed anger and jealousy to control his life and killed his own brother, by his own choice – how sad!
        • Several centuries later, Joshua told his Israelite brethren, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24.15)
      2.  It is here that we must be reminded of God’s sovereignty. We are not in the position to challenge God’s sovereignty and will.
        • “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?” (Isa. 45.9).
        • The same prophet later said, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand” (Isa. 64.8).
      3. Furthermore, to take away humanity’s free will is to then relegate man to a lower life form, one not made in the image of God! (Cf., Gen. 1.26-27)
        • If God did remove our free will and forced us to make right decisions and choices, there would be no need for laws, commandments, discipline, and even love would be meaningless!
        • God simply did not do this – making the discussion academic.
    5. So here’s a final question for you? Did God create or make Satan?
      1. Yes, but he did not make Satan evil. Satan became evil when he decided on his own to rebel against God and thus sin!
      2. Again the apostle John wrote: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3.8).
      3.  We do not know exactly when or what the devil’s sin was, but at some point he absented himself from God’s righteousness and the concept of evil was born. How sad!
      4. God did not create evil, “evil” is the absence of God’s righteousness. God made & epitomizes righteousness!

II. The Fool Has Said, “There Is No God!”

  1. David declared, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God!’” (Psa. 14.1).
    1. When one closely examines this passage it is discovered that David may not be referring to classical atheism, but rather to the individual that lives as though there is no God. That one may acknowledge there is most likely a “God,” but chooses to live as though God is powerless and uninterested in us.
    2. On the other hand, those who blame God for humanity’s plight by allowing pain, suffering and death to exist, have put themselves in the untenable position of intellectually fighting against God. All I can say is, “Good luck!”
    3. I am reminded of Christ’s statement to Saul of Tarsus, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9.5). Or, when God challenged Job, “Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty” (Job 40.9-10).
    4. By the way, in order to teach us how to deal with suffering, God allowed Job to experience severe hardship. God knew that Job had the faith and fortitude to suffer greatly without losing his integrity. James wrote to Christians, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord– that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (James 5.11).
  2. Why is one a fool for making such a declaration?
    1. He is a fool because he closes his mind to all the evidence God has written into His creation.
      • The universe exists – yet something cannot come from nothing!
      • The exacting conditions that make life possible on earth.
      • The mathematical precision in which the Universe operates.
    2. He is a fool because he must relegate himself to the level of a brute animal. (Where are the in-between, transitional forms of evolving-animals? And why are there still monkeys in the world?)
    3. He is a fool because from a logical and scientific standpoint, he is utterly unequipped to make such a declaration and incapable of proving it.
      • He would have to be omnipresent, because where he is not, God could very well be.
      • He would have to be omniscient, because the knowledge he admits that he does not have might well be the proof that demonstrates the existence of God.
      • He would have to be eternal, because before he lived, God may have powerfully demonstrated His existence.

Conclusion:

  1. Sadly, some have become skeptical, even cynical, of God’s will, playing right into the hand of the Devil. Paul warned, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor. 2.11). He has always made it his agenda to shift the blame off himself and put it on our sovereign God.

  2. God declared through the prophet Isaiah, “‘To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?’ says the Holy One. ‘Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing’” (Isa. 40.25-26).

  3. Remember Paul’s exhortation: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10.10). To articulate and contradict anything God has said in His inspired word is tantamount to denial, and we know what the Lord said about that! (See Matt. 10.32-33)

Brent T. Willey, evangelist

Los Osos Church of Christ

Los Osos, CA

September – 2010

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