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The Problem of Evil · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. In this deep dive, we're
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  tackling one of the biggest questions out there, one that
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  well, hits home for absolutely everyone.
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  We're looking at the existence of evil and suffering.
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  You know why are they here? Yeah, it's unavoidable, isn't
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  it? Whether it's personal loss or
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  seeing tragedies unfold around the world.
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  Right. Or even just thinking about why
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  bad things happen at all. It's a huge question for anyone
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  thinking seriously about life, whether you have a faith or Or
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  maybe you don't. It really is.
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  We've pulled together quite a bit of material for this
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  articles, research notes covering the philosophy, the
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  theology, the practical side of it all.
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  Well taught to unpack our aim. Today is to look at how
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  different ways of seeing the world try to make sense of evil
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  and suffering. We want to see the differences
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  and then lay out a clear Christian understanding,
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  especially from a Reformed viewpoint, kind of a path
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  forward. It's definitely a heavy topic,
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  no doubt about it, and it hits on multiple levels.
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  Well, first, it's not just intellectual, is it?
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  It's personal. It touches everyone.
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  You live long enough, you experience loss, pain.
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  That's just reality. But it's also a philosophical
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  challenge. Anyone who really thinks about
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  the world has to ask why? Why the bad things?
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  You have to grapple with it. Exactly.
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  And then for those who look to the Bible, it's theological.
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  What does Scripture say about where this stuff came from?
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  And what's the answer? The resolution?
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  Yeah. And often you hear it used as
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  maybe the number one argument against God.
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  The big objection. But what we want to show you,
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  actually, is how the fact of evil, maybe counterintuitively,
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  really ends up pointing towards the Christian outlook being
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  true. OK, so let's start there.
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  Just acknowledging evil's presence.
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  It's undeniable. Absolutely.
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  Our sources don't shy away from this.
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  They give stark examples I mean, think about the Holocaust,
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  6,000,000 Jews systematically murdered.
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  It's. Horrified.
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  Unimaginable scale. Or the history of slavery.
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  Just centuries of inflicted suffering, stealing freedom,
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  dignity. A terrible stain.
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  But it's not just those massive historical events, is it?
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  It's the everyday stuff, too. Stuff you read about, maybe hear
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  about locally, child abduction, abuse, murder.
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  It's constant. And then there's disease,
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  sickness, and ultimately death. Facing our own mortality, the
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  loss of people we love. It's all very, very real, not
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  abstract at all. You're right, it's not abstract.
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  And we can look at this reality, this universal experience in a
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  few different ways. First, like we touched on, it's
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  an existential issue, personal, experiential.
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  The longer you live, the more you see sickness, loss,
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  relationships ending one way or another.
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  Yeah, that hits. Deep.
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  It really does. It forces you to confront
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  suffering personally. Leaves a mark, that raw feeling
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  of pain. And then second, it's a
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  philosophical issue because it makes you think.
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  It forces anyone who reflects on life to ask why.
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  Why is the world like this? Why these bad things?
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  Every thinking person asks. That every single one and every
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  worldview, religious or not, has to offer some kind of answer,
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  some framework to explain the brokenness we see.
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  They have to. Try at least.
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  They have to try. And 3rd, for us, it's a
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  theological issue. We turn to Scripture.
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  What does the Bible say about why things are well out of
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  order? How did evil start?
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  What's the final outcome? The biblical story exactly gives
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  a whole framework, origin, purpose, resolution.
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  So how do other world views handle this compared to the
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  Christian view? You mentioned some differences.
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  Big differences, yeah. Some traditions you find,
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  especially in certain Eastern religions, like strands of
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  Hinduism or Buddhism, and even some Western groups like
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  Christian Science, they propose that evil is basically an
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  illusion. An illusion like not real.
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  Essentially, yes. They might use a term like Maya.
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  The idea is the suffering, evil, even the physical world itself
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  isn't fundamentally real. It's like a veil, a product of
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  our limited perception. So the pain isn't real pain.
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  According to that view, no, it obscures A deeper reality, maybe
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  a unified spiritual absolute like Brahman or achieving
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  Nirvana. Liberation comes from seeing
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  through the illusion, transcending it.
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  But from a biblical perspective, that just doesn't square with
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  reality, does it? God created the physical world.
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  He called it very good. It's not an illusion.
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  And evil feels pretty real. It is real.
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  People know it experientially. When tragedy strikes, the pain
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  is real. It's not just a misperception.
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  And that disconnect between what the world view teaches and what
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  people actually live through, that creates real tension.
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  It's hard to find comfort there. That makes sense.
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  Which brings us back to how this whole issue is often used as an
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  argument against God. The classic challenge.
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  Right, the philosophical problem of evil, often presented as the
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  knockout punch against theism. And it usually goes something
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  like this, right? Premise one.
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  God is all powerful. He can do anything he wants.
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  Omnipotent, yeah. Premise 2.
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  God is all good, perfectly benevolent, wants the best for
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  us. I'm the benevolent.
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  Premise 3. Evil exists.
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  We just established that it's undeniable.
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  So the challenge is, if God has both power and goodness, why
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  didn't he stop evil? Why does it exist?
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  It seems inconsistent. The apparent contradiction.
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  Yeah, the argument says if he's good, he would want to stop it.
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  If he's powerful, he could. So if evil is here, maybe he's
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  not powerful or not good, or maybe he's just not there.
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  It's presented as a logical checkmate.
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  Exactly. And this line of argument has a
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  long history. You find echoes of it way back
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  with Greek philosophers like Epicurus.
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  Oh, yeah, He basically asked that same question.
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  If God can and wants to stop evil, why doesn't he?
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  Then much later, 18th, 19th century thinkers like David
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  Hume, John Stuart Mill, they push similar points questioning
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  how a perfect God could allow so much suffering so.
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  It's a persistent question. Very persistent and faced with
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  this seeming contradiction, some non Christian views or even some
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  theologians trying to sort of soften the blow.
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  They offer compromises, but these often are very satisfying.
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  Like what? Well one option is to say God is
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  powerful, but maybe he's not entirely good.
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  OK, maybe he has the power but just doesn't care that much
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  about our suffering or isn't purely benevolent.
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  You might see into this in deism where God creates then steps
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  back. Or even some older gnostic
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  ideas. But that's not very comforting.
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  Not at all. If God isn't good, what hope do
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  you have for justice, for things to be made right?
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  It leaves you in a really uncertain place.
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  No guarantee of a good outcome. None.
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  Another compromise may be more familiar because of Rabbi
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  Kushner's book When Bad Things Happen to Good People is that
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  God is good, but he's not all powerful.
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  So he wants to help, but he can't always.
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  That's the idea. Maybe some things are just out
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  of his control. Maybe there's chaos he can't
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  manage, or limits to his power. This tries to protect God's
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  goodness. But again, that feels lacking.
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  It does, because if God isn't sovereign, if he can't
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  ultimately defeat evil, then what's the final hope?
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  Maybe evil just persists. His victory wouldn't be total.
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  So these compromises, they try to solve one problem, but often
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  create others just as big. Right, which leads us to a key
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  Christian response, especially with unreformed thought.
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  It sort of flips the script. It really does.
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  The idea is, from a Christian standpoint, it's maybe better
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  called the so-called problem of evil, because when you factor in
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  God's full character, his wisdom, it's not actually a
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  logical problem for God. Precisely.
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  And this is where someone like Greg Bonson made a huge
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  contribution. He talked about adding a fourth
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  premise to that standard argument.
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  OK, what's the 4th premise? It's simply this.
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  God has a morally sufficient reason for the evil which
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  exists. A morally sufficient reason.
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  Yes. If you grant that premise, which
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  flows from God's perfection and sovereignty, then Bonson argued
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  there's no logical contradiction to be found.
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  Not even an apparent one. Huh.
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  So adding that premise resolves the logical tension.
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  It does, and it shifts the burden.
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  Now the challenge isn't for the believer to explain evil, but
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  for the unbeliever to show that God cannot possibly have a good
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  reason for allowing. It and that's hard to prove.
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  Impossible, really. How could a finite human know
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  all possible reasons an infinite God might have?
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  But more than that, it exposes A deeper issue for the unbeliever.
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  It's their own inability philosophically to even account
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  for objective evil in the 1st place.
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  What do you? Mean.
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  Think about non believing world views, atheism for example.
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  If everything is just time plus matter plus chance, where does
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  objective morality come from? Big.
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  Question. Or some Eastern views with an
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  impersonal absolute where all distinctions fade away.
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  In those systems, morality often becomes subjective, a personal
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  feeling, a cultural agreement. There's no grounding for saying
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  something is really objectively wrong.
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  It's just preference or. Convention which leads to this
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  logical incoherence we talked about.
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  Explain that again. OK, take an atheist who strongly
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  condemns, say, child abuse as absolutely wrong, universally
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  evil. They feel that moral outrage of.
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  Course anyone would. But if their worldview says
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  morality is just subjective or cultural, then logically they
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  can't really condemn the abusers actions as objectively evil
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  according to their own framework.
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  The abusers just acting on their values or within their broken
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  context. There's no higher standard to
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  appeal to. So their outrage doesn't match
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  their stated beliefs. Exactly where does that deep
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  sense of objective wrongness come from?
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  We'd argue it comes because they are, maybe without realizing it,
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  borrowing from the Christian worldview.
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  Because it's the Christian worldview, grounded in God's
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  unchanging, perfect character that provides a basis for a
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  divine, transcendent sense of ethics, real, objective good and
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  evil. So they need God's standard to
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  condemn evil even if they deny God.
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  Precisely. Bonson famously demonstrated
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  this in his debate with Gordon Stein.
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  Stein, the atheist wanted to condemn Hitler, but Bonson kept
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  asking by what standard in your worldview?
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  Stein couldn't give a coherent answer from atheism alone.
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  He had to implicitly lean on the Judeo-christian ethic he was
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  rejecting. Anti theism ends up presupposing
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  theism to make its case against God based on evil.
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  Wow, that really turns the argument on its head.
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  It does. So for the Christian, the
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  problem isn't logical. If God is a sufficient reason
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  the logic holds. The issue becomes more
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  psychological or emotional. Meaning it's hard for us to
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  accept, even if it makes sense theologically.
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  Yes, it's deeply difficult for us humans to understand why God
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  allows specific instances of suffering, especially when he
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  doesn't spell out his reasons for each one.
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  We want the why? Like job.
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  Exactly like Job, God never gave him the specific why.
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  The call in Scripture isn't necessarily to understand every
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  detail, but to trust God's character, his wisdom, His
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  goodness, even when his reasons aren't clear to us.
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  Trust that He has that morally sufficient reason.
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  OK, so if the problem isn't logical for God and the blame
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  rests on humanity, let's go deeper into the biblical
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  account. Where did evil come from?
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  Right. The Bible is our primary source
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  here and it presents a whole story, doesn't it?
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  Creation, the fall, God's plan of redemption in Christ, and
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  then the final restoration. It's all one narrative, the.
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  Whole sweep of scripture. Yes, and it starts clearly.
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  God made everything very good. No flaws, no evil, no suffering
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  initially. Perfection.
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  Perfection, evil and suffering entered the world through the
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  sin of Adam in the fall. Humanity, given real freedom,
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  real choice, chose to disobey God chose evil.
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  So the blame is on us. Squarely, as Chesterton famously
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  put it when asked what's wrong with the world?
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  I am. It was human rebellion.
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  God gave us the capacity to choose because genuine
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  relationship, genuine love requires freedom, not robots.
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  A world with choice was better, even with the risk.
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  That's the implication. A world capable of genuine love
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  and relationship, even with the possibility of falling, was
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  deemed better than a world of automatons.
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  The fall was the tragic result of that freely chosen
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  disobedience. So from God's perspective.
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  From God's perspective, understanding his whole planning
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  character, there isn't a problem in the sense of a challenge to
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  his nature. He's perfect, all knowing, all
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  powerful, perfectly just. He allowed evil to enter, but he
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  wasn't surprised by it, and he planned for it.
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  Why allow it then? What purpose could it serve?
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  The Bible indicates it serves to manifest certain aspects of
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  God's own character more fully for His glory.
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  Think about it. How could God display His wrath
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  against sin if sin didn't exist? Or his incredible patience.
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  Or his amazing mercy and grace and salvation.
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  Attributes shown because of the fall.
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  Exactly. Romans 9 talks about Pharaoh
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  being raised up to show God's power in a fallen world.
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  The full spectrum of God's perfections, justice, wrath,
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  patience, mercy, grace are displayed in ways they couldn't
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  be otherwise. He uses evil to ultimately
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  magnify his own glory. And there's that spiritual
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  battle aspect, too. Yes, absolutely.
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  The Bible pictures the universe as a cosmic battlefield.
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  It's not just human sin. There's a conflict between God
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  and the forces of evil, Satan, demonic powers.
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  We see it from Genesis 3 through Job, Jesus, temptations,
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  Ephesians 6 telling us our struggle isn't just flesh and
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  blood. But against spiritual forces.
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  Right. It adds another layer to
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  understanding suffering. There's an unseen dimension to
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  the conflict. OK, that's the biblical
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  framework. Now theologians have tried to
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  articulate specific ways to justify God in light of all this
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  evil. These are the theodicies.
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  That's the term, yes. A theodicy is an attempt to
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  offer a justification for God allowing evil.
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  And you're right, often the best understanding comes from
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  combining insights from several angles rather than looking for
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  one single magic bullet answer. So.
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  What are some of the main ones? Well, a major one is the free
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  will defense often linked to Augustine.
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  We touched on that. God gave us free choice.
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  Exactly. The core idea.
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  God made us free. Evil is the result of our misuse
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  of that freedom. Responsibility lies with us, the
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  rationale being genuine love and relationship require that
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  freedom. Even though it led to the fall.
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  Yes, Augustine made distinctions, you know, between
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  Adam's freedom before the fall, able to choose good or evil, and
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  our freedom after the fall, often inclined towards sin
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  without God's grace. But the root is that initial
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  capacity for choice. Then there's the best possible
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  world idea associated with likeness.
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  God had to create the best world possible.
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  That's the argument. Being perfect, God was in a
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  sense obligated by his own nature to create the very best
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  reality he could. So this world, including the
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  evil He permits within it, must be the best possible arrangement
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  for achieving His ultimate purposes and displaying His
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  glory. That one raises questions for
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  some people, doesn't it? Like is God bound by necessity?
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  It does raise philosophical discussions about God's freedom
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  versus necessity. Leibniz would argue God freely
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  chose, but his perfect nature dictated he choose the best.
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  Interesting. Any others?
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  Another significant one is the Iranian or soul making theodicy,
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  named after Irenaeus, an early church father, but popularized
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  more recently by John Hick. Soul making?
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  How does that work? The idea here is that God
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  created humans needing development, needing to grow
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  spiritually. Evil and suffering provide the
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  necessary challenges, the opportunities to grow and build
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  character. So the world is like a training
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  ground. Kind of a veil of tears maybe,
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  or a school that prepares us for the world to come.
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  Facing hardship makes us stronger.
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  Develops virtues like courage, patience, compassion, things
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  that might not develop otherwise.
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  We become better off because of the process.
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  Preparing us for eternity. That's the idea.
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  And finally, closely related to what we discussed earlier is
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  what you could call the God's glory.
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  Theodicy may be associated with Jay Adams, among others.
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  This focus is purely on God. Primarily, yes.
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  Evil exists ultimately for God's glory and the manifestation of
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  His attributes. The Fall allows God to display
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  His wrath. Patience, mercy, justice in ways
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  that a sinless world wouldn't allow.
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  It's all oriented towards revealing the fullness of who
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  God is. So multiple angles, but all
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  trying to understand God's purpose within his sovereignty,
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  right? Different emphasis, but
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  generally compatible within a reformed framework.
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  OK, understanding these theodicies helps intellectually,
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  but what about practically? When we are facing suffering,
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  how should a Christian respond? Grief is OK, you said, but not
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  bitterness. Exactly.
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  Grief is human, biblical, even. Jesus wept.
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  But questioning God's fundamental goodness or wisdom
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  out of bitterness, that's where we cross a line.
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  So what is the right response according to scripture?
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  First and foremost, it's about trust and relationship, not
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  demanding answers. Look at Psalm 73 again.
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  Asaf was bitter, confused. Seeing the wicked prosper.
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  He called himself senseless and ignorant, like a beast before
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  God. Until he went into the
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  sanctuary. Right until he drew near to God,
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  his perspective shifted when he focused on God and eternity, not
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  just his immediate circumstances.
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  The lesson is run to God. Lean into the relationship.
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  Trust his character, even if the why isn't clear.
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  Like job. Again, no specific why given.
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  None. Job was rebuked for questioning
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  God's sovereignty, not comforted with explanations.
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  He had to trust. The Bible is our foundation
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  here, not just our own logic. We trust God is sovereign, He
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  does what He wills, as Matthew 20 shows, and we trust He is
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  just. Shall not the judge of all the
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  earth deal justly? Genesis 18.
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  Trusting his character over our understanding.
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  That's key. Second, remember that God uses
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  suffering for good in the lives of believers.
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  Romans 8.28 is central. God causes all things to work
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  together for good for those who love Him.
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  Not that the suffering is good, but God uses it for good.
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  Precisely. CS Lewis's famous line captures
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  it. God whispers to us in our
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  pleasures, but shouts in our pains.
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  It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
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  Suffering gets our attention, refines us, points us to eternal
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  things. OK, what else?
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  Third, try not to be consumed by it.
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  Ecclesiastes 7 tells us to enjoy good times, but consider God in
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  bad times. Except both prosperity and
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  adversity. From His hand we can't
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  straighten what he has bent. We walk with Him through it all.
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  A balanced perspective. 4th recognize that tragedy can be a
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  reminder to repent Jesus used examples in Luke 13 the
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  galileans killed by pilot the tower falling not to say those
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  people were worst sinners, but it's a wake up call to everyone
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  repent because life is fragile turn to God now a.
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  Call to urgency. And finally, the ultimate
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  comfort, a scatological hope. This is huge.
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  The end game. The end game.
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  Evil and suffering are not permanent, they're temporary.
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  God will bring perfect justice. There will be a new heavens and
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  a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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  Second Peter 3, Revelation 2122. No more sin, death, sickness,
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  tears. It's a guaranteed future.
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  A linear hope, not endless cycles.
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  Exactly. Unlike reincarnation or karma
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  with no definitive end, Christianity offers a definite,
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  glorious conclusion, and the ultimate resolution is Jesus
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  Christ. His suffering shows God's love
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  and our suffering. His death pays for our sin.
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  His resurrection guarantees our future life.
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  And that concept of grace you mentioned?
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  It's so different, isn't it? Not earning your way out, not
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  endless cycles of paying off debt.
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  It's a free gift, forgiveness, new life, and it leads to real
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  relationship with God, with others, forever on a restore
• 19:26
  earth, not dissolving into nothingness, real personal
• 19:30
  eternal life. That is a powerful hope.
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  So wrapping this up, it seems the problem of evil instead of
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  being this great argument against Christianity.
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  It actually becomes evidence for.
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  It how so? Explain that again.
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  Because the very moral outrage that people feel about evil, the
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  thing that fuels the objection, that outrage only makes sense if
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  there's an objective standard of good.
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  Which points to God. Which points to God, Atheism or
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  other non theistic views can't logically ground that objective
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  standard. So when someone expresses that
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  deep conviction that something is truly wrong, they are
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  implicitly appealing to a standard that their own world
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  view doesn't provide. They are borrowing God's
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  standard. So our awareness of evil is
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  actually evidence for God. In a way, yes.
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  It shows we're made in the image of a moral God, that we
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  intuitively know his law, even if suppressed.
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  It confirms the Christian outlook rather than undermining
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  it. Which makes this a potential
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  bridge for conversation. Absolutely an evangelistic
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  opportunity. When someone is wrestling with
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  suffering, first you listen, you empathize, never downplay their
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  pain. But then you can gently ask
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  those probing questions. Where does that sense of
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  injustice come from? Why do you feel that so wrong?
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  Help them see the foundation needed for their own moral
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  judgments. Leading them to see the need for
• 20:45
  God's standard. Exactly.
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  And then you can present the whole Christian story.
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  Creation fall, Christ's solution, the final restoration
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  offer, the hope found only in Jesus, a God who didn't stay
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  distant but entered into our suffering.
• 20:59
  Who suffered with us and for us? Yes, show the hope of grace, the
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  promise of justice, the call to repent, the comfort of eternal
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  life. Explained that only Christianity
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  makes sense of both the darkness and the light.
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  Paradoxically, the reality of evil makes the case for the
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  Christian God. That's a powerful way to look at
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  it. So summarizing this deep dive.
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  Evil is undeniably real, profoundly painful.
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  But the Christian faith offers a coherent story where it came
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  from our sin, why God allows it, his glory and purposes, and how
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  it ends Christ's victory and restoration.
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  It's the only worldview that holds together logically and
• 21:35
  offers real, substantive hope in the face of it all.
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  So far from disproving God, the problem of evil actually points
• 21:41
  towards him. It really does.
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  Perhaps a final thought for a reflection is just that.
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  Consider the depth of our shared human reaction against evil.
• 21:49
  That deep sense of ought not. Even when people deny God, that
• 21:54
  feeling persists. Where does it truly come from,
• 21:56
  if not from the very character that God described in Scripture?
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  It's something worth pondering. Indeed it is.
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  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into reformed
• 22:05
  thinking. We hope this discussion gives
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  you much to consider as you reflect on these vital questions
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  in your own life.