CHRISTIANS APOLOGETICS: Defending The Christian Faith By JOSHUA NAABU

Can God and Evil, coexist?

If you are a naturalist or atheist, nature doesn't have evil that's why there is "no evil" in the jungle. There is just a predator and its prey. If you say there is evil then you are assuming there must be good. If there is good then there is such a thing as moral law to differentiate good from evil. If you talk of a moral law then you talking of a moral lawgiver. This then will make God the moral lawgiver since it is only God who is supreme over all men.

So what is evil and was it created?

God didn't create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, and cold is the absence of heat so is evil the absence of good. Goodness has existed as an attribute of God from all eternity. While God is perfectly holy and just, He is also perfectly good. Just as God has always existed, so too has goodness as it is a facet of God's holy character.

Evil, on the other hand, is anything that contradicts the holy nature of God (see Psalm 51:4). Evil came into being with the rebellion of Satan and subsequently entered the physical universe with the fall of Adam. Evil is the result of bad actions stemming from a bad character. Evil behaviour can be thought of as falling into two categories: evil committed against other people (murder, theft, adultery) and evil committed against God (unbelief, idolatry, blasphemy). From the disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9) to the wickedness of Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:2), the Bible speaks of the existence of evil. However, in creating Adam free, God indirectly created the possibility of evil, while not creating evil itself. When Adam chose to disobey God, he made this possibility a reality. The same scenario had previously played out when Satan fell by failing to serve and obey God. So it turns out that evil is not a direct creation of God; rather, evil is the result of persons (both angelic and human) exercising their freedom, which is their free will, wrongly. While evil is certainly real, it is important to recognize that evil does not have existence in and of itself. Rather, it only exists as a privation (or a parasite) on the good. It exists in the same way that a wound exists on an arm or as rust exists on a car. The rust cannot exist on its own any more than cold can exist without the existence of heat or darkness can exist without the existence of light. In the Christian perspective, God entered humanity to get rid of evil and it will be totally eradicated on the judgment day. Only in a Judeo-Christian perspective you have to wait for evil to be punished.

How about the perseverance of evil? Why doesn't God just get rid of evil right away?
Since you are evil and sin, how about God starts with you. If God had judged the world 20 years ago or instantly when you did wrong, I wonder where you will be. 2 Peter 3:9 says "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." "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"(Romans 2:4) God has dealt with evil at the cross, He will finally deal with it when He returns. God isn't slow neither has He forgotten about us, He is rather patient so that all men will repent and be saved.

What is the purpose of evil?

1. Evil helps us to know more about God that we wouldn't have known. Adam and Eve had a shallow view of God that He was good, mighty and kind. But did they know about forgiveness, grace, justice, wrath? No. Because in evil you see God's justice, mercy, patience, love, forgiveness, and His atonement. All of these things are seen in God because of the allowance of evil. The kindness of God leads people to repentance.

2. Evil .i.e. sin, pain and hardships educates human beings e.g. the prodigal son had some problems with authority. The father let him wander and after he faced hardship and pain, he said I am going home to say to my father I have sinned against heaven and earth. So evil can be used to educate people.