“Where the HELL did Evil Come From?” (Part 2 of 3)

“Where the HELL did Evil Come From?” (Part 2 of 3)

“Where the Hell did Evil Come From?”
Part 2 of 3

What is God’s purpose in even allowing evil to exist?

God was not the least bit surprised when Adam and Eve decided to rebel against Him, any more than God was surprised when His #1 angel, namely Lucifer, decided to rebel against Him, and more than this, dragging 1/3 of the angels down with him in his enmity against their own Creator. Again, I must stress here that God never intended to create automatons, or what we now refer to as, Artificial Intelligence. God ALWAYS intended to create creatures with a free will. I love how C.S. Lewis (author of “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”) puts it, that “in God’s omniscience, He saw that from a world of free creatures, even though they fell, He would work out a deeper happiness and a fuller splendor than any world of automatons (or AI) would admit.”

The theist does not have to claim that our present world is the best of all possible worlds, but it is, indeed, the best way to the best possible world because, if God is expected to both preserve freedom and the ultimate defeat of evil, then His way is the best way to do it. Freedom is preserved in a way for each person to make his or her own free choice with respect to their eternal destiny. Evil is a choice. Many believe that by living “nice, wholesome lives”, such as being good providers for their family, or as examples of “good people” among their community and workforce, that they will just somehow just slip into Heaven by some sort of osmosis that even they cannot define… However, once a man, woman or child rejects Christ, then none of their so-called, “good works” amounts to a 25 foot pile of dung. In fact, the dung heap has more value than those who actually form it. What man would worship his own dung heap?

Evil is overcome once those who have rejected Christ are separated from the others – those who choose God will be confirmed as heirs to His Kingdom and sin will forever cease. Those who reject Christ are already in quarantine and cannot upset the perfect world that will come about without their useless selves. The ultimate goal of a perfect world – a Paradise – with free creatures, requires that those who hate, despise and loath God be forever cast out into what they already perceive as their ‘heaven’ – an eternal wasteland full of remorse, regret and the gnashing of teeth of what ‘could have been’.

People fall into the trap of thinking, that because God has not yet dealt with evil, that perhaps, He is not dealing with it at all. Remember the last chapter of Revelations – we actually win! Evil will one day be done away with forever. Just because evil is not destroyed before us today, does not mean it will not be destroyed forever, and with a vengeance.

So, let’s sum up: the existence of evil in the world today is seen to be completely compatible with the existence of an all-good and all-powerful God, Who is in complete control – especially when we are not.

1. If God is good, then He will absolutely crush and destroy and obliterate all evil.

2. If God is powerful, then he can defeat evil with a word. He is not held hostage to evil whatsoever.

3. Evil is not yet defeated. God will defeat it when He’s good and ready.

4. There is a “pay day, some day”. God will utterly destroy evil once and forever – you can count on it.

5. The day is coming when Christ will make good His promise and return, just as He said He would. When He does, he will strip away the power from the wicked and hold all men and women accountable for the things they’ve done in their lifetimes both good and wicked (see Matthew 25: 31-46 and Revelations 20:11-15).

We may not always see it, but even among the wicked, justice always prevails. Why is it that 98% of all Hollywood movies always end with a happy ending, where justice prevails and the hero is exonerated – it’s simply because we have God’s justice – even His good nature – innate within us – I suppose, whether we like it or not. We cannot help ourselves. How much more for the elect. Make no mistake, my friends, those who enter eternity without having trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation will understand just how effectively God plans to deal with the problem of evil.

Let’s get ready 🙂
Brother Brett (for Camp Shiloh Ministries)