Finally, lets address the question of whether God either exists or is good in the light of the fact that evil exists from the standpoint of what God has done to deal with it. The supposition of the skeptic is that God was taken by surprise by the rebellion of the first man and woman in the garden of Eden and is either unwilling or unable to deal with the evil their sinful choice ushered into the world but what does the Bible say?
Was the Lord surprised by the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden? No; that in and of itself is an amazing and astounding truth – God knew and still God made man. God KNEW that Adam and Eve would go against His will and disobey the only command He had given them. He KNEW that the “intent of the thoughts” of the hearts of men would be, as Genesis 6:5 says “only evil continuously.” He KNEW that He would have to intervene at great cost to Himself to rescue mankind from the consequences of their rebellion.
First off, God was not surprised by the rebellion of men, the Bible makes it clear that “from the foundation of the world…names were written in the Book of Life” (Revelation 17:8) and that judgment would fall upon those whose names were not written in it (see Revelation 3:5, 20:12-15, 21:27). The Bible also makes clear that God’s answer to the problem of evil was not an after-thought. (John 3:16) declares that God “gave His only begotten Son” (to die for our sins Matthew 1:21, John 1:29) but (Revelation 13:8) indicates that “from the foundation of the world” literally from the dawn of creation, “the Lamb” (God’s only begotten Son) was also “slain.”
It was the sinful choice of Adam and Eve which ushered death and decay (Genesis 3:17, 21, 4:8) into our world. Evil, suffering, physical death (Genesis 3:19) and a spiritual relational separation from our Creator (Genesis 3:22-24, Ephesians 4:18) all have their beginning in the moment of mans first rebellion. Creation itself even now groans under the weighty consequences of the fall (Romans 8:20-22) but God has done great things to overcome the problem of evil.
For one thing, God condemned the instigator of man’s rebellion. Consider (Ezekiel 28:11-19), this passage, addressed to the king of Tyre is clearly speaking to someone besides the king. In fact, with references to the recipient being the “anointed” and “covering cherub” (vs’s 14,16) and to the fact that he was both “in Eden” (v.13) and “perfect in all his ways from the day he was created” (v.15) the recipient is clearly none other than Satan aka Lucifer himself. Consider that Satan was cast down the Bible says in (Ezekiel 28:16-17) and condemned for his evil (Isaiah 14:12-15), and that one day, the deceiver who corrupted Adam and Eve and countless others over all time will be cast first into a pit for a thousand years (Revelation 20:3). After that, Satan will be released for a short time only to lead a final rebellion which God crushes swiftly finally, eternally casting Satan into the lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone forever (Revelation 20:10). Satan was condemned for His prideful rebellion and the evil he helped usher into the world will be condemned with him on that day.
Even more important than the condemnation of Satan is the atonement God made available to every man, woman and child through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in (Romans 5:8,10) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us….For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Jesus Christ has done more than He ought to have done, more than we deserved, to deal with the evil and sinfulness in our lives (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He dealt with the problem of evil (sin) from His cross, dying to free us from our bondage to evil (sin) and freeing us from guilt to live a life pleasing to God (Hebrews 9:14). He granted every believer an eternal future where evil will no longer exist. After His resurrection and ascension or return to His Father in Heaven, Jesus, through His Spirit continues to deal with the problem of sin and evil in our lives through His Holy Spirit – warning, convicting and giving us power to overcome sin and live a life which brings glory to God.
Honestly, the only answer I can offer – the only answer that the word of God gives to the problem of evil is this: the shed blood of the risen Savior (Revelation 12:11), faith in Jesus Christ (John 16:33) and the new life faith in Him produces (1 John 5:4-5) overcomes it . Not because faith in Jesus eradicated evil in the world around us but because faith in Jesus deals with the evil within us, and will continue to do so, as the Apostle Paul said in (Philippians 1:3-6) “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”
Apart from God there is no answer to the problem of evil, but by His grace one day every believer will be free of it forever!
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