What the Scriptures say About Evil (1)
What the Scriptures say About Evil (1)
We could start our investigation of evil—and its many problems—by looking at how philosophers and theologians have answered our three questions about evil through the ages—but that can feel abstract. Instead, let's start with various instances of evil in the Scriptures and return to these questions.
In John 9:1–41, the Apostle describes Jesus healing a man born blind by spitting on the ground to make mud, wiping the mud on the man's eyes, and sending the man to the Pool of Siloam to wash. This passage is theologically rich, but we want to focus on the disciple's question in John 9:2.
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Let's take this question apart a little:
The Rabbis of that time taught physical deformity is an evil caused by personal sin.
Since the man was born blind, he could have sinned in his mother's womb. This reasoning is based on Genesis 25:22-23, where Esau and Isaac "wrestled in the womb."
His parents (probably his mother) could have sinned, causing a physical infirmity in her child.
They are looking for clarification of the Rabbinical teaching they have heard their entire lives (these people are not uneducated!). Jesus’ answer, in John 9:3, is a bit shocking:
It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
We need to be careful about the word glory. We tend to take this word to mean, "I am going to show how powerful, strong, or wonderful I am!" In other words, our understanding of glory is very self-centered. While this is one possible meaning of the word, it is not the only meaning. It can also mean "showing I am who I say I am." The context, in this case, implies the glory of God, which relates to proving Jesus is who he says he is.
We are right to struggle with the question: "Isn't it evil for God to cause or permit a man to be born blind to prove who Jesus is?" The man born blind has powerful overtones of Job, where God allows Satan to visit great evil on a man and his family to prove Satan's power cannot overcome faith.
We are not going to spend time mounting a defense of God here. Instead, just note that God sometimes permits or causes things we consider evil to achieve specific ends.
Some theological systems stop right here and say God either permits, causes, or ordains every instance of evil to increase his glory. For instance, John Piper says that "everything that exists—including evil— is ordained by an infinitely holy and all-wise God to make the glory of Christ shine more brightly."[1]
While the Scriptures contain instances where God allows or creates situations we would consider evil for his glory (noting the importance of defining the word glory correctly), this is not all the Scriptures have to say about evil.
Consider Genesis 18:16–33, where a pre-incarnate Jesus and Abraham are conversing about what God is about to do. God states his purpose for going down to the Cities on the Plain in Genesis 18:20–21:
Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.
Nowhere in this narrative does God say anything about "gaining more glory;" this is all about destroying a great evil on the face of the earth. We can find many other instances of cities, nations, peoples, and individuals being destroyed directly because of their evil throughout the Scriptures.
Abraham emphasizes this point by asking in Genesis 18:23–25:
Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?
Abraham is not challenging God about his glory; he is challenging God to do what is righteous based on God's nature.
Sometimes, then, God destroys nations and people to eradicate evil. Abraham's discussion with God reminds us God must somehow balance destroying the innocent with the wicked. At the same time, Lot's actions remind us that no one is as righteous as we might think, and God is more often justified in his destruction of great sin than we might think.
God also weeps over evil. For instance, in Luke 19:41–42, we find:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."
Jesus is not just weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem—he is also weeping over the lack of repentance and faith leading to that destruction. To put a finer point on this: Jesus is weeping over the catastrophic results of human decisions. Another example of Jesus weeping over the results of sin is at the grave of Lazarus in John 11:1–44.
Is evil attributed to human decisions in other places? In Genesis 4:6–7, God gives Cain the choice of doing—or not doing—the evil he is contemplating:
The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it."
The Scriptures sometimes attribute evil directly to human actions.
In the next Dispatch on this topic, we'll consider two more interesting points about evil from the Scriptures and summarize what we have discovered.
[1] John Piper, Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ, Redesign Edition (Crossway, 2008), 53.