The Question of Evil

 Evil is a very strong and powerful English word. When I use evil, I mean extremely, unimaginably bad. The Meriam-Webster dictionary defines it as morally reprehensible.  The Hebrew word translated to evil in, for example, the verse "And again the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of Yahweh." (Judges 3:12) is  hā·rā‘. (BibleHub interlinear) Strong's Concordance defines it as bad, evil.  The Greek word translated to evil in, for example, the verse "The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure."(Matt 12:35)  is πονηρός/poneros. (BibleHub interlinear) Strong's Concordance defines πονηρός as "evil, bad, wicked, malicious, slothful". I, personally, have never equated evil with slothful. In that same verse in Matthew, evil (πονηρός) is contrasted with good (ἀγαθός/agathos), defined by Strong as intrinsically good, good in nature, good whether it be seen to be so or not, the widest and most colorless of all words with this meaning". That is not a very satisfying translation, since it uses good to define good.  This is, perhaps, more illuminating: Agathós "describes what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith". (HELPS Word Studies) So, in good versus evil ( or bad) we have "what originates from God" versus "what is morally reprehensible".

Assuming that God is good and just, as I do, and that, at the time of creation, creation was very good (Gen 1:31), and that humans have free will (Gen 3:6), we can infer that evil is a result of actions that deny and work against the will of God.  Things that people do to purposely oppose the will of God are evil.

God loves us and all of creation beyond all measuring. When I look at unspoiled creation, I see that, indeed, it is good.  Every trip to a beautiful new place has reinforced this impression, whether hiking the West Canada Lake trail in the Adirondack lowlands or Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park. When my life was blessed with motherhood, my infant son raised my awareness and experience of hope, joy and suffering.  I had played with dolls as a child but manipulating a doll, into situations and positions determined by me, was nothing like interacting with and loving a new creature with free will.  The depth of love and compassion that I experienced brought to my mind the thought, “This is how God loves us.” 

If we begin with the assumptions that God is good, God is love, God loves us and we have free will, we find God in a position very similar to that of every loving parent, with the added benefit of divine wisdom. Parents love their children and the will of a parent for their child is for great good, just as the will of God for us, God’s adopted children, is great good. (Proverbs 3:1-12, 1 Timothy 2:3-4) However, we sometimes choose things that are not good. Sometimes we think that the choice is good, when it is not. Sometimes, we know that the choice is not good. Other times, there does not seem to be a good choice. I do not stop loving my children when they disappoint me. Neither does God stop loving God’s children when we disappoint God.  Every good parent knows the agony of watching a beloved child reject wisdom and fail, only to discover the truth of that wisdom at some later time.  There is joy on all sides when the fortuitous choice is freely made.

Evil happens when we are selfish and destructive, ignoring the will of God or when we are so spiritually distant that we do not recognize the will of God, doing things that cause lasting harm to any part of creation: other people, animals, nature. “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil (κακοὶ) intentions come” (Mark 7:21a, NRSV) Kακοὶ is bad/evil in the broadest sense. (Strong) God, who loves all and is just, cannot will good for one part of creation at the expense of another. (John 12:32) When people choose good for themselves which harms others, that cannot align with the will of God.  If we experience evil at the hand of another, the apostle Paul urges us to follow the response of Jesus and the cross. If we respond to evil with good and try to live in harmony (Rom. 12:14-21), God will support us.  “The cross may reflect weakness, but it reflects power in weakness, the power of God who chooses the weak ‘to shame the strong’ (1 Cor. 1:27). (Bassler 332)

Unfortunately, all people are somewhat selfish and unable to turn completely away from evil without God’s help. Divine power is seen in our recognition of mistakes made and our efforts to correct them. Paul says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) It would be much easier for God to simply make us do what God wants instead of trying to convince us, but God does not want us to be mere puppets or dolls.  Divine power in the form of prevenient grace, touches our heart before we even recognize God and lures us away from our self-serving impulses and toward recognition of our place in the web of creation and actions that preserve and sustain. (John 6:34) God knows us and loves us. God has given us the gift of choosing.

            To choose, is to make a decision and pick one thing instead of another. It sounds straight forward. However, our choices today are shaped by generations of choices that have come before us. John Wesley urged us to consider scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Our understanding of scripture is based on years of hearing it preached and seeing it applied in peoples’ lives. Our traditions have morphed, evolved and bifurcated over centuries to become a collection of diverse yet related traditions. We each have our own individual gifts of reasoning, be they creative, analytical or perceptive. No two people have exactly the same experiences. Often we are not even aware that we are making a choice or, if we are, the complexity of the choice is unclear and each component of our choosing can, and often is, tainted by evil: historical, cultural, familial, and even imaginary evils. Choosing is not straightforward.

            This is, in my view, the way that the sin of Adam has been passed down to us. I do not consider the cause of that “original sin” to be a curse or an evil presence or spirit that lingers in our midst and has been toying with humans for all time – unless you want to call selfishness an evil spirit. Rather, as with Adam, each time we choose something that is contrary to the will of God, each time we choose wrongly, we are hurting those directly involved, ourselves and future generations. There are ripple effects – for good or for bad.

            Sometimes human choice that leads to evil is the choice of inaction. Consider situations where people are suffering due to an unforeseen or unavoidable natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake. People will sometimes ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” or “Where was God in all this?”  The universe was created and operates according to a complex set of physical laws. The earth rotates around the sun, the moon around the earth and the earth rotates on its axis. The sun warms the land, oceans and atmosphere. The presence of the moon, the rotations, the pull of gravity and temperature gradients cause the motion of the oceans and the atmosphere. Hurricanes are a product of those natural forces.

If someone came to me asking, “Where was God?” when this or that natural or human-made disaster happened, I would first assure them that God is faithful, loving and always present. God was and is there and ready to offer spiritual protection and comfort in the midst of suffering. When people are suffering, rather than asking, “Where was God?”, we should be asking, “Where was the church? Why weren’t God’s people stepping in to offer food, shelter, clothing and comfort?” We are the hands and feet of God and, like Jesus, should offer assistance when people cry, “Lord, have mercy.” That is one of the ways that we love God and love our neighbor. 

            When someone asks, “Where was God?”, it sounds like the question of theodicy, but I would want to make sure. So, I would first say, “It sounds like you are asking this: If God is good, why do bad things happen to good people. Is that right?”  One of the ways that people deal with theodicy is through dualism. They blame the bad things on Satan so that they don’t have to blame God and God’s goodness isn’t threatened. The Bible doesn’t say that God will prevent all bad things from happening to us if we are faithful. The Bible says that God loves us, God is just and God has made a covenant with us. God will never abandon us.  

            I am reminded of the story of the man born blind. (Matthew 9:27–30; Mark 8:22–25; John 9:1–7) Jesus says: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” Suffering happens. Sometimes it is through natural disasters like earthquakes, sometimes epidemics, sometimes birth defects. All of them provide opportunities for the people of God to do the work of God and show God’s glory. Rather than asking “Why did this happen?” ask “What can I do to help, to show God’s love, care and compassion?”  We may ask “Why did this happen?” in order to prevent suffering from happening again, but little is gained if we are asking “Why?” in order to lay blame. 

There are a lot of things that happen that we don’t understand. They can make us feel vulnerable, scared. We often ask “Why?” Sometimes, we understand afterwards, when we look back. But sometimes we never understand. The Bible tells us that what matters is: that we love and trust God; that we remember that God was here at the beginning of creation, God is good and God will always be with us. God’s love never fails. The other thing that matters is that, when something bad happens or on a regular day when regular things happen, we can show the love of God by the things that we do: by loving our neighbors, by doing as much good as we can.