Light and Shadows

11/16/17      Greg, Cheryl       30's

Two recent conversations on the front porches of neighbors led to the same question: “If God exists, why is there so much evil in the world?”  These seemed to me to be sincere questions, different from the cynicism of atheists I run into at the coffee shop who are looking for an unanswerable question to silence believers and justify their own unbelief.

My two neighbors may have been believers at one point, only to have been silenced and their wavering faith shut down by questions like these.  They need answers, and they don’t believe there are any.  I wonder if, while some people are looking for a hard question like this to justify their unbelief, others might be looking for a good answer to justify being a believer?   Either way, standing on their front porches in cold weather is a hard place to give a satisfactory answer to a question that theologians have written entire books about.

First in my conversation with Greg, and then while talking with Cheryl, I broke the question down in order to let them know I was listening and understood the problem.  It’s known as the problem of evil, and I restated it by saying “The problem is, if God is great but allows evil and suffering in the world, then He must not be good, and if He is good but allows evil and suffering, He must not be great.”  They both agreed that this was the problem, and they didn’t know how to answer it.

But are these the only answers for the problem of evil, both of which conclude that a good and great God can’t exist, or might there be a third option?  What if God is so great that He can orchestrate all this evil and suffering for his purposes? What if He is so good that all his purposes are justified?  What could that purpose be?

We could speculate for hours on just what God’s purposes might be, but I didn’t have that kind of time during an unexpected visit to my neighbor’s door.  It’s not a question for sound bites, but maybe a verse from John1 gives us a clue that there are answers out there.  

I told both Greg and Cheryl that God’s ultimate purpose is stated throughout the Bible, that He would be glorified by His creation, as filled with evil as it has become.  God didn’t directly create evil in the same way that the sun doesn’t directly create a shadow.  A shadow is the absence of light, and evil is the absence of good.  But the presence of evil allows the good to shine even brighter.  

John 1 says “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  That light he refers to is Christ, and he is glorified as he shines in the darkness.  He is glorified as we trust him, as he shines in and through his people.  Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  

These things can’t happen without the presence of evil and suffering.  In and through his people, God orchestrates His perfect will and carries out his purposes.  It is all for good, despite the presence and reality of evil in us and in the world around us.