| HIGHLIGHTS OF DAWN | August 1995 |
Why God Permits Evil
The nation was shocked by the news of the terrific explosion that destroyed the front portion of the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, OK, on April 19th. As the U.S. Government started a heroic rescue effort and an immediate probe to find the culprits, it was evident that the toll would exceed 166 people dead, including 19 children.
Shortly after this occurred, an article appeared in many major newspapers under the title, “Where Was God in Oklahoma City?” We quote from that article:
“The Oklahoma City tragedy raises the Big Question for the monotheistic religions: If God is totally powerful and perfectly good, why do the innocent and the righteous suffer?
“Why do children die in terrorist bomb explosions? In drive-by shootings? Abusive homes? Why do the virtuous die of horrible diseases? In earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes? In war?
“Sages through the ages have engaged in heavy theological lifting, known as theodicy, to reconcile God’s omnipotence and goodness with the presence of evil.
“The clergy and spiritual counselors must translate often complex concepts and tenets into clear, comforting answers for grieving believers, sometimes including themselves.
“That was the task of the Rev. Billy Graham at a recent memorial in Oklahoma City. Noting he’d been asked many times why a God of love and mercy would allow such a terrible thing, he said: ‘I don’t know. I can’t give a direct answer. I have to confess that I never fully understood, even for my own satisfaction. I have to accept by faith that God is a God of love and mercy and compassion, even in the midst of suffering’.
“To skeptics, his words may seem impotent. Yet psychiatry, psychology, and sociology hardly rise to the occasion when asked why, offering jargon-laced diagnoses, dredging childhood for clues, assessing socioeconomic status.
“As many have done, Graham turned to an ancient story in Hebrew Scripture. ‘Over 3,000 years ago’, he began, ‘there was a man named Job who struggled with the same question’. You’re familiar with the drama. In an argument with Satan, God points to Job as a model of human readiness to believe in God. Job is prosperous, pious, a loving husband and father. Satan says it’s easy to be devout when things are going well, but can his faith endure disaster? Suddenly, as a test, Job’s seven sons and three daughters are killed. He loses his wealth; he’s afflicted with a painful disease; his wife derides him. ‘And in the midst of this suffering’, Graham related, ‘Job asked: Why?’”
The article does not provide an answer to Job’s question, but a Dawn booklet entitled, “Why God Permits Evil,” does supply the answer. We here reprint, in two parts, the contents of that publication.
PART ONE
“Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” —Genesis 2:17
WHY DOESN’T GOD do something about all the suffering that is in the world today? Why does God allow an innocent baby to sicken and die? Multitudes are killed or maimed by tornadoes, cyclones, typhoons, and earthquakes—cannot God do something about this? When hundreds are killed in accidents over a single weekend, has God no pity? As far back as history reaches, man has suffered and died in war, pestilence, famine, and calamities. And all in every generation have finally died, having been beaten down by the great enemy, Death. Abel, a son of Adam, whose sacrifice was pleasing to the Lord, was the first to die, being murdered by his brother, Cain. Today more than a hundred thousand humans die every day. Our hospitals and mental institutions are filled with the suffering and dying. No wonder many are wondering where God is, and what he is doing about the distresses of humanity.
JOB SEEKS THE ANSWER
The question of why God permits evil is not a new one; it has been asked by thinking men and women throughout the ages. Thousands of years ago a faithful servant of God named Job became personally concerned with discovering the meaning of his own suffering. The record of this is found in a book of the Bible which bears Job’s name. The first verse of this book informs us that Job was an upright man who feared God and shunned sin.
Job was a prosperous man, abundantly blessed by the Lord along material lines. “His substance … was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.” (Job 1:3) Job was also blessed with a large family, and he desired that they too should be blessed by the Lord. Job prayed for his family, and offered sacrifice, because “it may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.”—vss. 4,5
But experiences were ahead for Job for which he was not wholly prepared, Satan, the great adversary of God and men, charged that this servant of the Lord was loyal to God only because of the abundance with which the Lord had blessed him. In answer to this charge God permitted Satan to inflict calamities upon Job to test his fidelity. God had no doubt about the outcome, and in his wisdom he knew that the temporary suffering he permitted would, in the end, prove to be a great blessing to Job.
Job did experience great trouble. “There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: and there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”—Job 1:13-19
JOB STILL LOYAL
Job’s reaction to these evil tidings was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” We read that “in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” (vss. 21,22) Then God permitted further troubles to come upon Job. His health was taken away. He was smitten with “boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape him withal; and he sat down among the ashes.” Then Job’s wife turned against him and said, “Curse God, and die.” To this Job replied, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”—Job 2:7-10
Job did not turn away from God when trouble came upon him, as so many throughout the ages have done. His chief concern was to know why God permitted him to be afflicted with such bitter experiences, and throughout his book we find evidences of his search for this understanding. After Job was stricken down with disease, three of his friends came to comfort him. Later in the book we are informed that the views they expressed to Job were not correct.—Job 42:7
There is chapter after chapter of philosophizing by Job and his three friends. But what it all amounts to is that, according to his friends, Job was suffering because he had committed some gross sins which he was hiding from them, and for which he had not repented and sought God’s forgiveness. Job, of course, knew that he was not perfect, but he also knew that he had not willfully transgressed God’s laws, so he did not accept this explanation.
EVIL MEN PROSPER
Besides, Job knew that frequently evil men prospered, and apparently escaped the evils that come upon so many. So he answered his friends: “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth [Margin, ‘mirth’], and in a moment go down to the grave [without suffering a long, painful illness].”—Job 21:7-13
While Job knew that the explanation offered by his friends was not the true one, yet he did not understand why God was allowing him to suffer so severely. In a beautiful, poetic manner he describes his search for an understanding: “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him; but he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”—Job 23:8-10
GOD’S REPLY
Beginning with chapter 38 of this remarkable Book, the Lord answers Job’s searching. This answer is couched largely in question form. The many questions were designed to remind Job that he really knew very little about God, and because of his limited knowledge in every field where the Lord manifests himself, he should not be surprised at failing to comprehend fully why he was being permitted to suffer.
Is this not an important viewpoint for us to keep in mind? When we ask why God doesn’t do something about human suffering, are we not assuming that if God had the intelligence we possess he certainly would do something? And then, perhaps, if we do not see our wishes carried out, we may tend to doubt that there is a God. If we find ourselves following this approach, it would be well to consider the questions which God asked Job.
There are four chapters of these questions. They all concern the wonders of God’s Creation. God asks Job if he was present when he laid the foundations of the earth; if he understood the laws by which the tides of the sea were controlled. He asks him about the instincts and habits of the various birds and animals, and even of the great monsters of the sea. Then Job is asked if he can explain the wisdom and power that are represented in these marvels of Creation.
As the questioning proceeds, Job interrupts and says, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”—Job 40:4,5
AN IMPORTANT LESSON FOR ALL
Job was beginning to understand that it was not for him to judge God according to his own limited understanding. This is also a good lesson for all of us. It is not for us to lose faith in God, or even to criticize him. The proper attitude is one of humility, and of earnestly seeking the answer to our questions from the only proper source, the Word of God.
Job finally learned the meaning of his severe trial. He learned that its loving purpose was to give him a clearer understanding of God, that he might serve him more faithfully and with greater appreciation. He speaks of this clearer understanding as ‘seeing’ the Lord, instead of merely having heard about him. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” (Job 42:2-5) Since he had gained such a wealth of understanding, Job’s brief period of suffering must have seemed to him to have been a most valuable experience.
Besides restoring Job’s health, we read that “the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. … And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”—vss. 12-15
AN ILLUSTRATION
God’s design in the general permission of evil throughout the ages was, and is, the same as in the case of Job. God created Adam a perfect human, in his own image. Being in the image of God implied an ability to reason. “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?” (Job. 38:36) It was the Creator. This was in contrast to what we call instinct, which had been given to the lower animals.
God did not desire his human creation to be like robots, without a sense of understanding. So man was given the ability to learn, and was free to govern himself by the knowledge he attained. What man would do with this knowledge was ultimately to determine his eternal destiny.
Man acquires knowledge through his five senses. He learns from observation by exercise of his sense of sight, and by information from what he hears. Man feels pain when he comes in contact with boiling water, and learns by experiencing feeling to temper the water he uses. Man smells the fragrance (experiencing odors) of a rose and is delighted by it, but turns in revolt at the presence of unpleasant odors. Man appreciates the taste of wholesome food (experiencing taste), but learns to avoid unpalatable things, even though they may appear beautiful.
We see that in the exercise of his five senses, man learns from observation, information, and experience.
If man was to continue as a faithful child of God, it was essential that he receive a knowledge of evil as well as of good, that he might be able to make an intelligent choice between the two. God does not desire blind worship, but a fidelity to, and trust in him, which is based upon understanding and appreciation. God desires those to worship him who “worship him in spirit and in truth,” Jesus said. (John 4:23,24) To accomplish this for Adam and his offspring is one of the major objectives of the permission of evil in the great divine plan of human salvation from sin and death.
Click here to go to Part 2