Existence of God: Why He Allows Evil

By Benjamin H. Liles

          "[A] good friend likes to say that a good God would never allow evil to exist. So when I ask him if it could be that a bad God exists, he clams up...Without the Cosmic Umpire--the One who calls the game--you can't settle anything. If you say something's evil and I say it's not, how are you going to settle it? If there's no umpire, there's only might-makes-right." - Try Darkness, pgs 126, 127, James Scott Bell

          In the attempt to clarify this issue, I shortened the dialogue out of a priest and a lawyer. Let's put it another way--this argument of whether or not there's a God: if He doesn't exist, how else would you be able to believe which ever way you want? More than that, if there is 'no God', then how do we explain other religions that have more than one god? It can't be. Our sense of right and wrong comes from some where and I don't truly believe it came from us as we're fallible creatures. We didn't just spring up from nothing. If we're going to have a sense of 'right-and-wrong' as well as 'good-and-evil' then where did these standards come from?

          When I say I follow and am passionate about God, I'm saying I believe in what the Hebrew prophets of old said. My God is their God. He doesn't discriminate and if He did He wouldn't have allowed His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (also a Hebrew, through Judah of Israel), to go to the cross where our sins would be atoned for by the shedding of His blood. That was God's fleshly blood poured out.

           Do you know the phrase "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12, NLT)"? David wrote this while possibly remembering that God alone had the power to destroy him for his sins with Bathsheba as well as Uriah.

          I say this because even earlier Moses said and wrote this: "Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people! Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [also known as Israel]. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’” So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people (Exodus 32:12-14)."

          So, when the argument of why does God allow evil, or its equivalent come up there's a logical explanation for this. For without God we would have no code to show us where we're wrong and where we can rise to our potential, both spiritually as well as humanly speaking. God wouldn't be much of a loving God if He didn't honor the requests of His saints (who once were formerly sinners saved by grace), standing in the gap to ensure that no one would be destroyed. After all He desires for His name to be exalted, glorified and made holy.

            Father, in Your holiness You made everything. You created the Heavens and the Earth. You made the seas to open up and devour those who are Your enemies. You cause mountains to form, the ground to bring forth vegetation, and for man to have breath. You cause the rains to fall, and keep unrelenting heat to cause us to perish. I come to You knowing I have sinned and I need You in my life protecting me from the slings of the Evil One. I pray You to deliver me from those who desire my demise, and for You to hear the cries of those who desperately need You. I desire Your will, O Lord, and for Your name to be lifted high. I believe You desire mercy more than You desire a sacrifice that can never please You, aside from Jesus' atoning work at the cross. I pray this in Your Son, Jesus Christ and His ever lovely name. Amen.