Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case by Frank Turek

Author:Frank Turek [Turek, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Theology / Apologetics
ISBN: 9781612918051
Publisher: NavPress
Published: 2014-12-17T23:00:00+00:00

If God, Why Evil?

All right. Atheists are inconsistent on the issue of evil. But the question still remains for the Christian: If God, why evil? This question came up at an event at Michigan State University not long ago. One grad student clearly wasn’t happy with my presentation. He scowled with his arms crossed for nearly two straight hours! So I knew he’d push back during the Q&A. Sure enough, his hand was the first to go up.

“Yes, sir.”

“You mentioned the problem of evil during your presentation, but you didn’t answer it!” He yelled. “If there is a good God, then why does evil exist? Why doesn’t God stop it?”

I said, “Sir, that is an excellent question. The answer might be that if God stopped all evil, he might start with you . . . and me because we both do evil every day. Why do we always think of other people doing evil but never ourselves? For God to end evil on earth, He would have to take away our free will. But if He takes away our free will, then He takes away our ability to love as well. God didn’t want robots. So free will, while it allows the possibility of evil, is the only way for us to love and achieve ultimate good.”

“But why do natural disasters occur? Those aren’t the result of free will!” he protested.

I replied that he was correct that such disasters are not the result of someone’s free will today.[24] But Christianity traces all of our trouble back to a freewill choice of Adam. As a result, we live in a fallen, broken world where bad things happen. But God Himself takes the initiative to redeem evil. In fact, the one-word theme of the Bible is “redemption.” Paradise lost in Genesis is paradise regained in Revelation. Everything inbetween is the story of redemption. God initiated and achieved this redemption by coming to earth Himself in the form of the perfect God-man, Jesus Christ, whose human nature suffered and died on our behalf. So we can question God about suffering as the biblical writers did, but God didn’t exempt Himself from it. Jesus was the only completely innocent person in the history of the world, yet He suffered horribly for our redemption. He brought good from evil.

The atheist persisted, “But if God exists, why do some babies die such horrible deaths?”

I could have asked him if he was referring to abortion, but that would have derailed the conversation. Instead, someone else in the audience had a far better answer. Before I tell you what the audience member said, let’s explore the atheist’s question in more detail.

This is emotionally the most difficult question to answer. There are some good intellectual answers, as we’ll see, but they usually fail to soothe emotional hurts. People who suffer the loss of a loved one will tell you that your presence is comforting, not your answers.

In his first sermon after losing his son to suicide, Pastor Rick Warren advised his congregants that if they were unsure about what to say in a tragedy, say nothing.

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