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Fear and Worry: The Problem of Evil · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform thinking, the deep dive where we really try to
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  get under the surface of the ideas that shape how we see
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  things. You know, I remember March 2020
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  so vividly, that phrase, shelter in place, it was just
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  everywhere, wasn't it? And for a lot of people, that
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  brought this sort of uncertainty, a real unease.
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  It felt like the world just stopped.
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  Nobody knew for how long, but for me personally, that whole
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  time, while it became incredibly significant, a real turning
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  point. See my wife, Haley, she was nine
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  months pregnant with our fourth child, Liddy, right when
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  everything locked down. So I was suddenly home trying to
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  figure out remote teaching, homeschooling the boys, and
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  prepping lesson material on, of all things, Fear and worry Part
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  1. The irony, right?
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  Propping to teach about fear. I had no idea how real it was
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  about to get for me. Liddy was born on a Monday.
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  Everything seemed fine, was a beautiful delivery, even with
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  all the weird COVID quietness. We brought her home Tuesday, you
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  know, ready to settle in. But almost right away, things
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  felt off. She just wasn't feeding well.
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  By Wednesday, we were back at the doctors, worried about the
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  feeding, little bit of jaundice, maybe.
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  Then Thursday. Thursday was when everything
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  changed. Fast, low temperature, slow
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  heart rate, the nurses, full COVID gear, the immediately
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  quarantined Haley and Liddy right there in the hospital.
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  And Liddy, just a few days old, ended up in the NICU I got,
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  which, yeah, it's pretty unusual for a baby already sent home.
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  I couldn't even go in a room, just watch through the glass.
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  It was it was intense. We found out later she has Down
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  syndrome, which we hadn't known. Our three boys, Wesson, Ryder
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  and our third son, they went to stay with my parents.
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  So I came home alone. World shut down.
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  New baby fighting in the NICU house.
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  Completely silent, just heavy. I opened my computer, needing
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  something to do, and there it was, still open.
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  Fear and worry Part 1. And suddenly that lesson wasn't
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  theoretical anymore. Not at all.
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  It was right here now, very, very real.
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  Wow, that's quite a story and it really illustrates something
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  fundamental, doesn't it? Suffering, whether it's that
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  kind of intense life altering experience or maybe the smaller
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  day-to-day things that wear us down, it forces us to think
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  theologically. Besides, it brings up those huge
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  questions, the ones maybe we push down, usually a questions
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  like, OK, God, why? Why this in my life?
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  Or maybe how can a good God let this happen, you know?
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  And those questions, they often slide right into fear and worry,
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  especially if we don't have a really solid grasp on God's
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  control, His hand being an absolutely everything.
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  Because without that clear biblical view of God's rule, his
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  sovereignty, as we often say in Reformed circles, we're just
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  kind of adrift, aren't we? Tossed around by bad news or
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  hard times. So our goal in this deep dive
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  really is to look at how getting a proper understanding of God's
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  complete rule actually gives this deep peace, real joy even.
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  It lets us face the hard stuff with the security that honestly,
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  you can't find anywhere else. It goes beyond just
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  understanding, you know, it's a security that's not based on our
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  circumstances changing, but on who God is, his character.
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  So we're going to dig into the sources you mentioned, focusing
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  on how this view of God's control can really change things
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  when life throws you a curveball.
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  Yeah, that's exactly right. Because my own wrestling with
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  fear, those questions, it led me straight into what people call
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  the problem of evil. It's all the biggest
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  intellectual hurdle for a lot of folks thinking about God.
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  For ages people have grappled with this comes down to three
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  statements that seem like they just can't all be true at the
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  same time. A logical impossibility, it
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  seems. OK, so first, God is all
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  powerful, omnipotent, he can do anything he wants.
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  Second, God is all good, perfectly loving, just
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  benevolent. And 3rd, evil exists.
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  Suffering, wickedness, natural disasters.
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  It's undeniably real. We see, we feel it.
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  The problem is how those 3 fit together.
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  If God is good, why doesn't he stop the evil?
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  If he's powerful enough but doesn't stop it, does that mean
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  he isn't actually good? That's the core dilemma.
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  Right. It's a question that resonates
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  because we feel that tension and when people try to solve it,
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  they often think, OK, maybe only two of these can be true.
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  So you get these traditional options.
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  Option one. Maybe God is all powerful, but
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  he's not all good. If that's the case, sure, evil
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  can exist because he knows a better way but just chooses not
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  to do it. Maybe he's indifferent or worse.
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  But that's not the God the Bible shows us, is it?
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  No, definitely not. OK then, option 2:00.
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  What if God is all good, but he's not all powerful?
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  Maybe he wants to stop evil. He knows how, but he just can't.
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  He's limited. Maybe he's fighting Satan, but
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  it's a battle he can't quite win.
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  That picture suggests a well meaning but ultimately sort of
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  weak God. Again, not the God of Scripture
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  who speaks things into existence, right?
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  Limited power isn't the biblical picture either.
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  Exactly. And then there's option three.
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  Well, if God is both all powerful and all good, then evil
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  simply cannot exist. But it does.
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  We know it does. As Christians, we affirm it's
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  reality every time we talk about sin or suffering.
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  So these traditional answers, they either compromise God's
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  character, his goodness or his power, or they deny the reality
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  we live in. None of them quite work with a
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  full biblical picture, so. Where does that leave us if we
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  hold the God's perfect? Goodness, his absolute power.
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  And the reality of. Evil.
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  What's the answer? Well, the Bible offers what you
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  could call a fourth reason theologian called a theodicy,
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  basically a defense of God in light of evil.
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  And the biblical answer to something like this?
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  God has a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil to
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  exist, even if he hasn't fully revealed that reason to us.
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  Think about that. Just because we don't know the
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  specific why for every single instance of suffering or
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  wickedness doesn't mean a good reason doesn't exist in God's
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  mind. It means he and his wisdom
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  hasn't told us everything. And this leads to a statement
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  that sounds like a paradox, but it's profound.
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  Evil itself is not good, never. But it is good that evil exists
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  within God's overall planned not good in itself, but good that
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  it's there, serving his ultimate, albeit often hidden,
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  purposes. It requires a ton of trust.
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  It really does humility and trust, and it helps, I think, to
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  get a handle on what evil actually is in this biblical
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  view. Thinkers like Augustine and
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  later someone like RC Spruill really dug into this.
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  They basically describe evil as, well, not a thing.
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  It doesn't have its own substance, its own existence,
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  like a rock or a tree. God didn't create evil as a
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  separate entity. Instead, it's mainly an action,
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  or maybe better, a lack of good where good ought to be a
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  distortion. Think of darkness.
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  It's not a thing, it's just the absence of light.
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  You can't bottle darkness. OK, like a parasite on goodness.
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  Kind of, yeah. It's a privation, a twisting of
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  something good. Even when we talk about demons
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  being evil, it's not because God made some evil substance they're
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  composed of. It's their actions, their
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  rebellion, their choices that are evil.
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  The Bible uses words like ungodliness, unrighteousness.
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  See the pattern? It's a lack of falling short of
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  God's perfect standard. But, and this is critical, even
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  though it lacks substance, evil is absolutely real.
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  Its effects are devastatingly real.
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  We see that everyday. That's a really helpful way to
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  frame it. Evil as a lack but still very
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  real and its impact. OK, so to help us navigate how
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  the Bible talks about this, it can be useful to think about
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  evil in say 3 broad categories. This isn't like the only way to
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  slice it, but it helps make sense of different passages.
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  First, there's what we call natural evils is the impersonal
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  stuff, external things. Think diseases, earthquakes,
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  floods, droughts, hurricanes, that kind of thing.
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  The brokenness in the physical creation itself.
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  Like when Isaiah 45.7 says God creates calamity.
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  The Hebrew word there is raw in that context.
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  It's pointing to these kinds of physical hardships, disasters
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  that aren't a direct result of someone's specific sin.
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  Right then and there, it's the fallen world groaning, you could
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  say. Second category, moral evil.
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  Now this is personal, internal. It comes from the heart, from
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  sinful choices made by people, by us.
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  Things like murder, lying, adultery, greed, hatred.
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  The stuff Jesus talks about in Matthew 15 coming from within
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  and defiling a person. Or James 4 talking about the
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  passions warring inside us that lead to fights and quarrels.
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  This is about breaking God's law, harming others, choosing
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  wrongly. It stems directly from human
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  sinfulness. And 3rd, there's supernatural
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  evil. This involves those invisible.
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  Spiritual. Forces we read about.
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  Ephesians 6 talks about wrestling not against flesh and
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  blood, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over
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  this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
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  places. Sometimes maybe we don't
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  attribute enough of the bad stuff happening to the actual
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  activity of demons and these hostile spiritual powers.
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  There's a real cosmic battle going on.
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  Understanding these three helps us see the different ways evil
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  shows up. That breakdown is very useful.
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  Natural, moral, supernatural. OK, so building on that, when we
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  talk about a biblical defense of God, this theodicy, there are
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  several core truths, key principles that we really need
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  to hold onto. First, absolutely foundational
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  evil and suffering are real. We don't minimize them.
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  We don't pretend they aren't painful.
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  The Bible is brutally honest about suffering, and it tells us
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  where it came from. Adam's sin, the fall.
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  That's when sin and death entered the world God had made
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  very good. So evil is an intruder.
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  OK, so acknowledge the reality first.
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  Got it. What's?
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  2nd, and this requires a major perspective shift.
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  From God's point of view, there actually is no problem of evil.
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  The problem exists for us in our limited human understanding.
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  We see apparent contradictions, but the Bible presents God as
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  absolutely perfect in his character and his actions, no
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  internal contradictions in Him. The difficulty lies in our
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  finite minds trying to grasp the infinite, not in any flaw within
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  God Himself. That's a big one.
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  The problem is ours, not his. OK, third.
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  Third, while we can and even should wrestle with these
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  questions, bring our pain and confusion to God.
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  Think of the Psalms. We are creatures.
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  We don't get to put the Creator on trial.
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  To demand God explain Himself fully to us is to step outside
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  that proper creator creature relationship.
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  It's like contending with Him as Job learned.
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  We ask with humility, seeking wisdom, but we trust even when
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  we don't fully understand. Remember Deuteronomy 29.29?
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  The secret things belong to the Lord our God.
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  He hasn't told us everything. Right.
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  Humility before the mystery. OK 4th.
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  Principle 4th. God works everything according
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  to His purpose for His glory. Ephesians 1.11 is key here.
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  He works all things according to the counsel of His will.
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  All things, No exceptions. Not just the good things, not
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  just the big things. Everything from galaxies
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  colliding down to the smallest detail of your life.
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  It's all part of His plan moving towards His glorious end.
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  All things wow, OK #5. 5th God is always just.
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  He will always do what is right. Genesis 18.25 Shall not the
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  judge of all the earth do right? The answer is unequivocally yes.
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  His character is the ultimate standard of goodness and
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  justice. Even when His actions seem
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  mysterious or painful to us, they are rooted in perfect
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  righteousness. We can trust His judgments are
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  true. Good and 6th. 6th And this ties
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  back to the origin. Humans through sin brought evil
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  and suffering into the world, not God.
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  God is never blamed for evil and scripture.
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  He's not the author of sin. He doesn't tempt anyone to evil.
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  The responsibility lies with creation's rebellion, starting
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  with Adam continuing in US. He didn't create evil.
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  He permits it within his plan for reasons tied to free will
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  and his ultimate glory. OK, human responsibility is
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  clear 7th. 7th That cosmic battle we mentioned, it's real.
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  The universe is a battleground between God and the forces of
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  evil, Satan and his demons. This makes the world dangerous.
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  There's more going on than we see.
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  Ephesians 6 Again, the spiritual warfare.
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  We need to be aware that supernatural evil is a factor.
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  God is sovereign over this battle, but the battle itself
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  impacts our lives. Right, the unseen spiritual
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  dimension, 8th principle. 8th And this is huge comfort for
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  believers, For Christians, God uses suffering and evil along
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  with everything else for their good.
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  And Romans 8.2829 defines that good very specifically, being
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  conformed to the image of Christ.
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  He uses the hard things, the painful things, the seemingly
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  evil things to shape us, mature us, make us more like Jesus.
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  It's his tool for sanctification.
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  It's not punishment in the retributive sense for the
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  believer. It's fatherly discipline and
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  shaping. That was definitely something I
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  clung to with Liddy. OK.
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  And the last 1 #9? 9th There's a future hope.
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  God will one day bring perfect judgement and righteousness to
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  the sin cursed world. Every wrong will be righted,
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  every tear wiped away. Justice will prevail completely.
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  The story isn't over yet. We live in the middle, but we
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  know the ending is guaranteed and glorious.
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  That hope anchors us through present troubles.
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  Those 9 principles together paint a really robust picture.
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  OK, so let's dig into something that often trips people up,
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  God's active involvement. We use words like sovereignty
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  and Providence. What's the difference and why
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  does it matter here? Well, God's sovereignty, you
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  could say, is His absolute right and power to rule His authority
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  over everything, His might to do whatever He pleases.
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  Providence, though, is more about how that sovereignty works
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  out in the world in time and space.
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  It's like the hands on application of His sovereignty,
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  the intricate way His plan unfolds down in the tiniest
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  detail. It's not just Him setting things
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  up and letting them run. It's His intimate, ongoing
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  involvement in every single moment, every event, every
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  molecule. He's not just watching the play,
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  He's directing every actor, every scene change.
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  Exactly. He's not a distant landlord.
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  He's actively managing the estate down to the last blade of
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  grass. And this leads directly to that
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  tricky question, Does God merely allow evil, or does he ordain
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  it? That word allow or permit when
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  used for God can be misleading if we're not careful.
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  It can sound like there's some force or event operating outside
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  of God's control, maybe knocking on his door asking for
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  permission, and God just sort of shrugs and says, OK, go ahead.
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  But that can't be right, can it? If God is truly sovereign, truly
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  the creator of everything, then nothing exists or happens
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  independently of His will, His decree.
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  Nothing surprises him, Nothing operates outside his plan.
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  He doesn't react, he acts. The Westminster Confession puts
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  it very strongly, saying God from all eternity did, by the
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  most wise and holy counsel of his own free will, freely and
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  unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass.
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  Whatever comes to pass that's comprehensive.
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  It means everything, including the existence of evil and
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  suffering, falls within his eternal decree.
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  Not that he does the evil or approves of it, but that its
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  occurrence as part of his unchangeable plan serving his
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  ultimate good purposes. That word ordain feels much
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  stronger, much more active than allow.
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  And it's interesting. The Bible itself doesn't seem
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  shy about using causal language when talking about God and
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  difficult events, what we might call disasters or calamities.
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  You mentioned that Hebrew word raw earlier.
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  It shows up over 600 times in the Old Testament.
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  And it doesn't just mean moral evil or sin.
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  That's usually different word cata.
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  Rock can mean bad adversity, calamity, disaster, harm,
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  trouble, all sorts of hardship. And Scripture says God brings
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  rock. He fashions it, He creates it,
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  He plans it, He commands it, He works it.
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  Again, this doesn't make God the author of sin, but it shows his
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  active sovereign hand in the events, not just passively
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  watching them unfold. He's directing even the
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  difficult things. Isaiah 45.7 is probably the
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  starkest example, the one people often wrestle with.
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  I form light and create darkness.
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  I make well-being and create calamity.
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  Raw I am the Lord who does all these things.
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  In context, he's talking about natural evil, hardship,
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  distress. God is asserting His absolute
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  control over everything, the good and the bad, the light in
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  the dark, prosperity and adversity.
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  Nothing falls outside His sovereign decree.
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  He's making it clear, especially in that passage about using
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  Cyrus, a Pagan king, that He is orchestrating all of history
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  using whomever He wills, even those who don't know Him, to
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  accomplish His purposes of judgement and salvation.
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  He's not in some cosmic arm wrestling match with Satan where
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  the outcome is uncertain. He is Lord over all.
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  Period. That act of ordination is really
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  pictured powerfully in some Bible stories, isn't it?
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  Joseph's life is maybe the classic example.
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  I mean, talk about suffering. His brothers, driven by sheer
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  jealousy, plan to kill him, then sell them as a slave, lied to
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  their father for years. Joseph ends up enslaved and
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  falsely accused, thrown in prison.
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  Just one injustice after another looks like pure chaos and evil
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  winning. But then years later, when he
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  finally confronts his brothers, what does he say?
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  Genesis 50.20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God
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  meant it for good. Notice that he doesn't say you
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  meant evil. And God sort of cleaned up the
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  mess and turn it for good later. No, he says the very same act,
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  the brothers evil act of selling him, God was simultaneously
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  meaning it, intending it for good, for the saving of many
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  lives, preserving the line of promise.
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  He even says earlier, God sent me before you to preserve life.
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  He saw God's active, purposeful hand behind the whole thing,
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  even the evil actions of his brothers.
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  God wasn't just reacting, he was orchestrating.
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  It's such a powerful illustration of concurrent
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  causes, human responsibility for sin existing right alongside
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  God's sovereign ordination for good in the very same event.
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  And if Joseph's story shows God's hand in familial betrayal
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  and injustice, the ultimate example, the absolute peak of
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  this truth has to be the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
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  Acts 2.23 is just stunningly clear.
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  This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan
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  and foreknowledge of God and you crucified and killed by the
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  hands of lawless men. Think about that.
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  The single most evil act in all of history, the murder of the
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  perfect Son of God, horrific injustice fueled by human
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  hatred, envy, fear, political maneuvering.
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  Lawless men did it. They are fully responsible.
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  And yet Peter says it happened according to God the Father's
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  definite plan and foreknowledge. It was ordained, decreed.
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  God wasn't caught off guard. He planned it from eternity.
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  He is the ultimate cause bring about our salvation through this
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  event, but he's not the chargeable cause of the sin.
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  The Jews who demanded it, Pilate who washed his hands, the Roman
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  soldiers who nailed him there were the proximate, the
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  efficient causes they bear, the guilt for their wicked actions.
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  But the mind blowing truth is your salvation hinges on God
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  ordaining this horrific act of evil.
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  What humans meant for the utmost evil, God in that same act meant
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  for the utmost good, His glory and the redemption of His
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  people. Even Christ trusted the Father
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  through it. All right into your hands I
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  commit my spirit. He knew it was the Father's
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  plan. Wow, when?
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  You put it like that. The cross becomes the ultimate
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  lens through which we see God working, even if the worst evil
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  imaginable. OK, so bringing this home, what
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  does all this mean for us, for the believer living day-to-day
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  facing maybe not the crucifixion, but our own trials,
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  our own NCU moments. Well, understanding God's total
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  sovereignty and his wise Providence in the midst of
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  suffering, it really does produce this deep settled peace,
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  a kind of quiet joy even when things are hard and allows it to
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  endure. And let's be clear again, evil
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  is still evil, suffering still hurts.
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  God hates sin and it's effects more than we ever could.
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  We're not saying, oh it's not really that bad.
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  We grieve, we lament, and Jesus gets it.
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  He suffered intensely. He wept, He wasn't stoic.
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  He's not distant from our pain. He entered into it.
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  So this isn't about becoming unfeeling.
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  Not at all. It's about knowing that nothing,
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  absolutely nothing, is spinning out of control.
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  No diagnosis, no betrayal, no loss, no pandemic is outside
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  God's sovereign grasp. In his intricate plan, he
• 18:16
  actively uses the evil that comes our way, whether it's from
• 18:19
  the broken natural world, like a disease, or from sinful people
• 18:22
  like persecution or injustice. He uses it for the good of his
• 18:25
  children. And that, good, Romans 8 says,
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  is primarily our sanctification, making us more like Jesus.
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  He chips away our pride, our self-reliance.
• 18:32
  He drives us to depend on him more.
• 18:34
  He purifies our faith like fire refining gold.
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  He's shaping us, conforming us to Christ's image through the
• 18:40
  very things that seem designed to destroy us.
• 18:43
  And sometimes he uses hardship to draw unbelievers to himself,
• 18:46
  showing them their need, or even, yes, to bring judgement on
• 18:48
  those who persistently rebel. His purposes are always being
• 18:52
  worked out. So because of all this.
• 18:53
  The. Christian can genuinely say.
• 18:55
  Even in the darkest times, everything will be OK.
• 18:58
  And that's not wishful thinking. It's not pretending.
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  It's a solid theological. Conviction Based on God's
• 19:03
  character and His promises, we can be absolutely certain that
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  God will ensure the final outcome.
• 19:07
  Glorifies him and. Contributes to our becoming more
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  like Christ. That's the guarantee of Romans
• 19:12
  8.28. So there's no ultimate reason to
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  panic. Bad news comes, but our God is
• 19:17
  unshaken. Our hearts can be fun.
• 19:19
  Trusting him. It's that peace that passes
• 19:21
  understanding. That's right.
• 19:23
  You know, so much of our fear and worry comes from wanting to
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  be in control, doesn't it? We want to manage our lives,
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  guarantee our own safety and happiness.
• 19:30
  We want to run the universe, or at least our little corner of
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  it. But when we truly grasp that God
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  is running the universe, all of it, including the parts that
• 19:39
  look like chaos to us, we can actually let go.
• 19:41
  We can rest again. God's not calling the suffering
• 19:44
  itself good. It's not pleasant, but he is
• 19:47
  saying he's in control of it and he's weaving it into his good
• 19:51
  and perfect purposes. Life is still hard, pain is
• 19:53
  real, but knowing God is intimately involved, not just
• 19:57
  watching from afar, but actively working in every detail that
• 20:01
  allows for surrender, allows for rest.
• 20:02
  It's like that child in the back seat you mentioned.
• 20:04
  Maybe the road is bumpy, maybe there's storm outside, but Dad's
• 20:06
  driving. His hands are on the wheel.
• 20:07
  He knows where we're going. We can rest even if we don't
• 20:10
  understand the whole amount. That's such a good picture.
• 20:13
  Corey Tenboom, who obviously knew profound suffering, had an
• 20:16
  amazing poem about weaving. She talked about our lies being
• 20:19
  like this tapestry God is making.
• 20:21
  She wrote, My life is but a weaving between my God and me.
• 20:24
  I cannot choose the colors. He weaves steadily.
• 20:28
  And then the key part, oftentimes he weaves sorrow and
• 20:31
  I and foolish pride forget that He sees the upper and I the
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  underside. You know, like looking at the
• 20:36
  back of a cross stitch, all knots and tangled threads, just
• 20:40
  a mess. It makes no sense from back
• 20:41
  there, but God sees the front, the beautiful pattern he's
• 20:45
  creating. The poem goes on.
• 20:47
  Not till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly will
• 20:50
  God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why the dark threads
• 20:54
  are as needful in the worker, skillful hand as the threads of
• 20:57
  gold and silver and the pattern he has planned.
• 20:59
  And the comfort is just immense. He knows, He loves, He cares
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  nothing. This truth condemn, He gives the
• 21:05
  very best of those who leave the choice to Him.
• 21:08
  One day we'll see the finished work and it will all make sense.
• 21:11
  That perspective, holding on to that changes everything when
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  you're looking at the underside. So really this whole.
• 21:15
  Understanding of. God's sovereign control His good
• 21:17
  purposes, even in hardship. It's meant to bring peace, real
• 21:20
  peace and joy. It calls us to just rest in His
• 21:23
  arms, submit to His wisdom, even when it hurts.
• 21:25
  Absolutely, and we really hope this deep dive prompts you, the
• 21:29
  listener, to go to God's Word yourself.
• 21:32
  Don't just take our word for it, or rely only on your own feeling
• 21:34
  or logic. Dig into the Scriptures.
• 21:37
  See what God Himself says about His power, His goodness, His
• 21:40
  active involvement in all things, even the hard things.
• 21:43
  He's not the author of sin, but He is absolutely in control,
• 21:46
  working everything for His glory and the good of those who love
• 21:49
  Him. So here's something to think
• 21:51
  about. If you really embrace this idea
• 21:53
  that God is intimately, sovereignly involved in every
• 21:56
  detail, not just reacting but actively ordaining according to
• 21:59
  his good plan, how might that change your response?
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  Not just to the big scary headlines, but maybe to the
• 22:05
  everyday frustrations, the unexpected setbacks, the
• 22:07
  difficult people in your life? How might that deep trust change
• 22:11
  how you Live Today?