Dr. John Gerstner, my esteemed mentor, certainly had a way to get my attention and help me think more clearly. I still remember when I told him I thought the problem of evil was intractable. Noting that the best apologists and theologians in the world. Church history have not answered all the questions raised by the existence of evil in this world, I told him that no one would ever solve the problem on this side of eternity. He turned around and snarled, “How do you know that the problem of evil will never be solved?”Perhaps you or another thinker is the one God has indicated to solve this problem. “
With all due respect to Dr. Gerstner, I think he overestimated his students. I haven’t changed my mind about the problem of evil since that conversation. In the many years I have taught philosophy, apologetics and theology, and in the many conversations I have had with wounded people, a complete response to the problem of evil remains elusive. In most cases, recent events make the problem more critical. In 2012 alone, we faced a terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon and the sniper at the School in Connecticut. Hurricane Sandy killed nearly 300 people in the northeastern United States. We could also mention the hundreds of thousands of people who died in the 2004 and 2011 tsunamis. The list is almost endless.
- Can a human face give evil to make it more intelligible?No wonder bad people do bad things.
- Nature’s violence can be even more disturbing.
- How can we deal with natural disasters that do not respect people but take their lives indiscriminately?of the elderly.
- Babies and people with disabilities.
- As well as children and adults ??How many people.
- Even Christians? ask.
- “Can a good God allow such things to happen?”.
There is no shortage of speculation in trying to answer these questions. Have well-meaning people suggested countless theories? Try to justify and justify God because of the presence of evil in the world. In his 18th-century book, Theodile, the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz tried to explain evil by suggesting that we live in the “best of all possible worlds. “Other thinkers have said that evil is necessary to make us virtuous people or to preserve the reality of free will. Such answers do not solve the problem of wickedness and generally sacrifice God’s sovereignty in the process.
I do not believe that God has revealed to us a complete and definitive answer to the problem of evil and suffering, but that does not mean that He has remained silent about it, the scriptures give us some useful guidelines:
First, isn’t evil an illusion? Some religions teach that evil is unreal, but the Bible never minimizes the truth of misery and pain. Moreover, biblical characters show us that stoic indifference to evil is not the right answer. , offer laments to God, to cry real tears. Our Savior walked through Via Dolorosas, the man of pain who knew our sufferings.
Second, God is neither capricious nor arbitrary. It does not act irrationally, nor does it demonstrate or authorize unanstioned violence. This doesn’t mean we always know why a particular evil is happening in a particular place or at a certain time. Because we do not know all the reasons behind each specific evil, we cannot establish easy connections between guilt and disaster, between a person’s sin and the evil that falls upon it. The texts that include the book of Job and John 9 prevent us from universally declaring that pain is a punishment for specific sins. This means that when unexplained catastrophes arise, we must say with Martin Luther, “God be God. “Job’s cry, the Lord gave it, and the Lord took it; Bless the name of the Lord!(Job 1:21. ) It was not a superficial display of mercy or denial of pain. Instead, Job bit his lip and closed his stomach while remaining faithful to tragedy and absolute suffering. Job knew who God was and refused to curse him.
Third, it is not the best of all possible worlds. This world has fallen. Suffering is only there because sin has disfigured an otherwise good creation. Of course, this does not mean that all suffering is related to a specific sin or that we can make a peer-to-peer correlation between a person’s level of sin. and the degree of their suffering. However, suffering belongs to the larger sphere of sin that people encounter here on this earth. If creation suffers from the violence of humanity, it returns that violence. The Bible tells us that creation rages at its human teachers. and explorers. Instead of managing the land wisely and populating it, we exploit and pollute it. Until Christ returns with the new heavens and the new earth, we will face storms, earthquakes, and floods. Meanwhile, we await a renewed creation.
Finally, evil is not definitive. Christianity never denies the horror of evil, but it does not consider that it has a power greater than or equal to that of God, the last word of Scripture on evil is triumph, creation moans as it awaits its final redemption, but this groan is not in vain Is the Risen Christ above all creation?Christus Victor, who has triumphed over the powers of evil and will do all things new.