Theodicy, (from Greek theos, “God”;
dikē, “justice”), explanation of why a perfectly good, almighty,
and all-knowing God permits evil.
In the last post I discussed good and
evil. With those concepts in mind, we can begin to think about WHY
evil exists and why God allows it. I realize that one article can not
possibly address this topic fully or completely answer all the
questions that surround it, but I feel compelled to share what I've
learned through research, as I have been given much peace. Just think for a minute if God
made the world perfect. If the Paradise lost in the Garden of Eden
will become the Paradise regained, how did this one get so messed up?
Why didn’t God make the first world and its people more perfect and
skip this messed-up version in between?
Think of marionettes and puppets. If
God fixed everything that was wrong...all the hurts and all the
weaknesses, all the illnesses and evil in the world, then he would be
a puppet master and we would simply be puppets. In order to take away
evil, God would have to take away our free will. When sin entered the
world in the garden of Eden, our ability to choose our actions let
evil in the world. Think about the type of love that existed in the
Garden of Eden before Eve took that fateful bite. What kind of love
could Adam and Eve have had for God if they knew nothing but good?
Compare that with the type of love that we can have for God now that
we have seen and experienced evil. Now when we choose to love God,
it's a deeper more authentic kind of love. Remember in the previous
post, Augustine defined evil as a lack of something – rather than a
thing or substance in and of itself. If evil is not an actual thing,
then God cannot be the author of evil. God is the author of good, but
we make moral choices that result in evil.
Think about a world without evil. This
would be a world without morality. Imagine if God created a world
where people could not choose, and He could force everyone to stop
before they were able to carry out evil behavior. Is such a world
where freedom does not exist good? Love is possible only for free
moral creatures. Forced love is a contradiction because it's really
not possible. So, in order for the world to be morally good, it must
be morally free. People are capable of free choices that bring
disease, disaster and death. This is the world in which we live.
Robert Velarde, former editor for Focus
on the Family, reminds us that, "God knows best and, as such, He
knows that our world is the best way to the best possible world. Yes,
there will be evil and suffering along the way. We can rejoice with
the apostle Paul when he wrote, "I consider that our present
sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed in us" (Romans 8:18)."
