Evil and God’s Will

Far be it from me to be so glib as to suppose that I have God’s Will and evil figured out. But from my own perspective as a Christian, I believe there are a few things we can say that might shed some light on it all, and perhaps, maybe even give us some comfort and hope.

First, whatever our beliefs about God may be, most of us tend to assume at least two things about His Will;

1. That it is synonymous with His desire—with what pleases Him most.
2. That it is a “here-and-now” state of affairs rather than a process—a goal yet to be fully realized.

Historically (and Biblically) there is little justification for either. If the Bible is clear about anything, it’s that God’s Will—the fullest realization of His kingdom—is yet to come, and until then He suffers with us. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb. He cleared the temple. He railed against the Scribes and Pharisees. And finally, He went to the cross, despising the shame, but obedient unto death (Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 12:2). Note how the Bible holds the suffering and shame of God Incarnate side-by-side with His obedience. It’s difficult to see how any of this can be squared with either of the above.

Second, we must remember that what God ultimately desires is our fullest wholeness and humanity… fulfillment in Him, and in each other. It’s difficult to see how anything remotely approaching this could be achieved, even in principle, apart from our own freely made choice to enter into relationship with Him and embrace His Will. The very idea of this precludes the possibility of our being denied the ability to choose the opposite—not only for each of us as individuals, but corporately for us as a global society. God didn’t shoot up a Connecticut elementary school—a deranged individual who said “NO” to Him did. That individual didn’t get his weapons from God—he had access to them because he dwells amidst a people of unclean lips who, although they would angrily deny it, believe that access to their own personal weapons of limitless lethality is ultimately more important than the safety of their society and their children.

Likewise, pestilence and natural disasters occur because of natural law, but the devastating nature of their impact is often due to human choice as well. Disease is often a consequence of poor health choices (e.g. smoking) and/or inequitable distribution of wealth and medicine. Earthquakes and landslides kill tens of thousands in impoverished areas where human wealth distribution has led to communities with inadequate earthquake-resistant structures, unsafe locations driven largely by poverty and injustice. Floods devastate regions like the American Midwest and Pacific Coast estuaries where careless logging, real estate development, and other land use activities have all but eradicated nature’s erosion control, etc. etc. And we haven’t even gotten yet to climate change… This is not to say that the consequences of such things are always just (or even mostly so), but it does mean that a great deal of what we like to call “acts of God” are actually not. And none of this is God’s doing. Sometimes He spares us the consequences of such things. Other times he allows our individual and corporate choices to impact us. It’s not at all clear (to me at least) that any of this is inconsistent with His goodness, His justice, or His loving kindness.

Third, contrary to popular belief, God’s Goodness is not the same thing as “niceness.” It is grace, kindness, and mercy to be sure, but if we take the Bible seriously at least, it is many other things as well… Justice, Holiness, sanctification via trial by fire if need be, and more. No, this is not to say that the gunning down of innocent children is in any sense just! Nor that it is easily explained away with sanctimonious platitudes as Job’s friends and so many others these days would have us believe. It is merely recognition of the messy and uncomfortable fact that there is fierce side to God’s Goodness.

Living as we do in a Western consumer society where feel-good pop-psychology, Oprah, and fragrant New-Age opiates are the order of the day, for most people it goes without saying that God just a kindly grandfather in the sky—a divine, sweet-natured Mr. Rogers dufus whose job it is to guarantee sugar, spice and everything nice without accountability. According to the Bible the Living God with whom we must contend is very different. There we see a God who has some expectations of His own for us, who comes before us with justice as well as mercy, and is as likely to confront us out of the whirlwind as the easy chair, if not more so. And when He does there’s no guarantee that the end result will always be pretty and bloodless… or that the burden of proof for anything and everything will always be on Him.

Which brings me to the third point: Free Will is not the same thing as License, and being God’s children does not make us His infants. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus tells us, “For they will be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:10). “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house…” (Matt. 5:12-17). “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God,” says Paul (Rom 8:14). “What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?” the Psalmist asks. “Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:4-6).