October, besides being the season for pumpkin spice, soup, and all things apple, is also the time of year set aside for that which is considered spooky and horrific. It is the time of year that we find entertainment in fictional evil. There seems to be an infatuation with evil, at least here in the United States. There is a surprisingly high viewership for shows and documentaries about serial killers, unsolved murders, ghost hauntings, and demonic possessions. Perhaps correlated to this is the popular existential question of why evil exists at all. In fact, there are many whose disbelief in God hinges on the existence of evil. If the Judeo-Christian God is real, they posit, then why does He allow evil in this world? This article will be an exercise in what is called, theodicy, an answer to the question of why God permits evil. I call it an exercise because far more intelligent men and women than me have given answers to this ancient question, and I am sure my answer will fall somewhat flat and will be unsatisfactory for many; nevertheless, I’ll stretch and pump some philosophical-theological iron anyway. My answer is relatively simple: God is good, but we and this world are not; however, God has a purpose for evil and has given an answer to evil. Now that He has answered, we too, must have a response. Allow me to elucidate.
When I say that God is good, I mean that YHWH Elohim, the eternal and triune God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob is benevolent, righteous, and faithful and true. Benevolence is the state of being helpful or intending to do good to others; this certainly describes YHWH Elohim and is congruent with His own self-identification in the scriptures. When describing Himself to Moses, He declares that He is, “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Exod. 34:6). He goes on to say that He forgives all types of sin, even though sin by its very nature is cosmic rebellion and treason (Exod. 34:7). In other words, in the expression of His benevolence, YHWH is loving, gracious, and merciful.
It is important to preface this by noting that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), not the other way around. I think this is important because if one proclaims that love is God, they first get to determine what love means and then apply that to God; in other words, the creature defines the Creator. However, when asked His name, God responded, “I am who I am;” (Exod. 3:14) it is from this Hebrew verb for “to be” that we get the tetragrammaton “YHWH.” This means that YHWH Elohim is the self-defining one. So, by stating that God is love, we establish that He is the standard of love and the determiner of what love is and what love means. God’s love is an unconditional, sacrificial action taken solely for the good and the joy of its object.
In His chief demonstration of love, sending His unique Son to repair our relationship with Him by enduring the wrath that we justly deserve on our behalf (1 John 4:9-10; Rom. 5:8), we also see that He is both gracious and merciful. That is, that He extends unmerited favor (grace) and withholds merited punishment (mercy). This isn’t exclusive to those who faithfully trust in Yeshua and live as His apprentices; YHWH extends a common grace and mercy to all people. He causes the rain to fall on people who know and love Him, but that same rain also falls and waters the crops of those who don’t know YHWH or hate Him. Likewise, He allows the sun to shine on those who mock and insult Him, and even allows them to draw the very breath they will use to curse Him.
When I say God is righteous, I mean that He is just and morally pure. While He does extend favor to those who don’t deserve it and while He does withhold deserved punishment from others, He would not be good if He only did this. YHWH Elohim does eventually give people what they deserve according to His moral standard. His grace and mercy move Him to be patient so that He might bless all, but people are stubborn, foolish, and self-centered. Eventually, YHWH will judge the world and all its people according to His moral purity and His judgment will be completely and utterly fair; as the psalmist poignantly puts it, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day” (Pss. 7:11). Because we are not morally pure, we might be tempted to believe His just judgments are severe and call for mercy; ironically, everyone wants mercy when it is time for sentencing, but they seldom think of mercy while they are committing crimes.
God is also faithful and true. He cannot lie, for such would be contrary to the very nature of His being. As John says, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5b). While some may contend this relates to morality, I don’t believe this is what John is saying here. Instead, I believe John is making an ontological statement about YHWH; that He is a being with whom things are visible and clear, and there is nothing about Him that seeks to obfuscate the truth of how things are. We observe His faithfulness to His own words in the fulfillment of prophecies. Even a minor or inconsequential prophecy like Yeshua being born in Bethlehem was fulfilled because YHWH Elohim is faithfully dedicated to what He says.
It is important to first lay out the nature of YHWH Elohim’s character, giving an overview of His goodness before we come to the question of evil’s existence. This is because, like darkness, evil is not a thing in and of itself, rather, evil is the rejection of YHWH’s good character and His good rule; put more simply, as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of the good God. This began with the one known as “the adversary,” but unfortunately, it did not end with him and humans are continuing to perpetuate evil today.
The being that Christians call Satan is the one that introduced evil into the cosmos. As I’ve laid out, YHWH Elohim is good, utterly and completely good, and everything He created started that way. We were not the first sentient beings of free will that YHWH Elohim created. He first created immaterial beings which we will categorize as angels. While these beings were created to serve, worship, and glorify their Creator, they were created with free will. One of these creatures decided it should be the creator and should receive the worship only due to YHWH Elohim. While he convinced other angels of this, the majority of them did not agree and banished him from the highest realm they inhabit. This was the beginning of evil and how this creature received his name; satan is a Hebrew word which means “an adversary” or “one who opposes.” In seeking YHWH Elohim’s place and glory, satan became the first to oppose YHWH’s good and righteous rule.
When YHWH Elohim created human beings in His image; that is, He created them to reflect His goodness, righteousness, faithfulness and truthfulness and manage the earth to that end, satan came to deceive them and lead them to oppose the goodness of YHWH as well. This is detailed in Genesis 3, but satan was successful in leading humanity to rebel against and oppose YHWH’s good rule. Not only did he birth evil into the cosmos, but satan also birthed evil into the heart of humanity.
Humans now not only harbor evil within but continue to perpetuate it and have spread it all over the earth. This is not to say every person is as evil as they can possibly be, for indeed, there are many people that aren’t very evil in noticeable or overt ways. In spite of this, we would not be thinking very critically if we did not recognize that every person has some proclivity to self-determination (opposition of YHWH’s rule), self-centeredness (an absence of God’s benevolence and love), and/or self-aggrandizement (an absence of true and faithful justice and moral purity). Why is there evil in the world? Evil was introduced to the creation by a proud angel who opposed YHWH Elohim’s goodness and His good rule and led humans to oppose them as well. And even if you don’t believe that, there is no arguing that people all over the world harbor and perpetuate evil in some way, be it small and minor or large and catastrophic. There is certainly evil in the world, but the question must also be asked, if God is good why hasn’t He done something about it?
We must first rid ourselves of any notion or idea that YHWH Elohim is unable to do anything about the evil within the world. In the words of the ancient Hebrew prophet, Jeremiah, “Ah YHWH! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You” (Jer. 32:17). By His great power, YHWH controls the course of time and history to bring about His preceptive will; that is to say, He is sovereign. Because He knows all things actual and possible, He permits things to happen, but even that which He permits, He will direct to bring about what He has prescribed. This is all flavored by and congruent with His goodness, and this is true even when we cannot see the full picture because of our limited perspective as humans.
Evil happens as a result of YHWH Elohim’s permissive will. He permitted satan to rebel against Him and He permits us to as well. YHWH determined that angels and humans should have free will. Our free will is not inherently evil, but it means we are free to use our will to accomplish evil things. YHWH has not, and it seems He will not, take our free will from us. However, this means that when we willfully do evil, we deserve the just punishment for it. Indeed, some evil or bad things happen to people as a form of justice for the evil they have perpetuated in the world. Evil is also permitted to exist so that it might generate a desire for the benevolence of YHWH. Just as hunger leads one to pursue food and sustenance, so evil should lead people to pursue the ultimate good: YHWH Elohim.
The most definitive and clear response to evil, the rejection of YHWH’s good character and good rule, is the incarnation of God the Son. As Yeshua of Nazareth lived and served in Palestine (then Israel), He directly confronted and undid evil and its effects. He called and commanded people to abandon their evil and do good, He healed the sick, liberated people from the rebel spirits that followed satan, and even raised the dead back to life.
All humans are guilty of evil, but Yeshua willingly died to atone for our rejection of YHWH Elohim and restore our relationship to Him. By His resurrection from the dead, death itself, the culmination of evil, was judged. And though Yeshua has ascended, He has promised to return to finally judge all evil and eradicate it, bringing about the preceptive will of YHWH. This will include all evil: from death and the greatest of atrocities to the most miniscule forms of evil and those who perform them; all evil will be destroyed. This is YHWH’s response, should we not respond as well?
Technically, we all have already responded to evil, either explicitly or implicitly. Surely, it is better to respond explicitly rather than implicitly, but I would assert there are still right and wrong responses. One wrong response is to pretend that we have no evil within us and have put no evil in the world. Another wrong response, which would likely follow from the first, is that evil is God’s fault. It is also wrong though, to wash one’s hands and say that it’s just God’s will and we cannot understand. I have outlined the history; we can understand the origin and question of evil, and we know from this history that evil is not YHWH’s preceptive will but that He permits it for a time so that He might bring about His preceptive will through and by the free will of humans, chiefly Yeshua of Nazareth. The right explicit response to evil is to first praise and thank YHWH for being good, righteous, faithful and true. This should be quickly followed by admitting that we are not good, righteous, faithful or true and to choose to accept the atonement paid for by Yeshua. Evil is our fault, not YHWH’s and so we should determine to turn away from our rejection of His good character and rule and submit ourselves to it. We should desire Yeshua, who is YHWH’s ultimate answer to evil; He can cleanse the evil of our own hearts, and minds, and souls and then He leads us to combat evil in the world until He returns to destroy it.
This was a lot, so please allow me to summarize. YHWH Elohim is definitively good. He’s loving, righteous, faithful and true. We and the world, however, are not, but despite our rejection of His good rule, God has a purpose for evil and has provided an answer to evil in Yeshua. He has made a response, and now we have to as well.