Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? Is he both able and willing, but unaware of the evil? Then he is not omniscient.
In its original context, this quote from Epicurus was a philosophical question on the existence of evil. Usually when it's brought up today, it's not questioning evil as an abstract concept, but the reality of injustice and suffering in our world. I am going to assume that's where you're starting from in your question - how do Christians understand suffering in the world when we believe in a good, powerful & loving God? If I've misunderstood your question, please post a reply in the comments!
To start, we should look at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1-3. God created the world, and it was good. God created men and women to live in the world under his loving rulership. But the man and the woman decided they didn't want to live under God's rule, they wanted to make their own rules. So they rebelled against God. God is just, and there was punishment for their rebellion. This is the first time in the Bible that we see suffering and the general hardness of life, and those conditions have continued, just as humanity in general has continued to reject God's rulership.
In Genesis 3 and elsewhere in the Bible, suffering is the direct result of a particular act of rebellion against God's rule. But that's not always the case. Jesus pointed out to his followers that suffering isn't always a direct punishment on a particular person (See Luke 13:1-5). Suffering is also the result of living in a world that is no longer perfect, and living amongst people who make their own rules.
The story doesn't end there - there is hope for our world! In Romans 8:20-25 we read that the whole of creation is groaning in frustration, not by accident but according to God's plan. The world, and we who live in it, are moving towards the end goal of history: a renewed earth, renewed people, free of suffering, in a restored relationship with God (Revelation 21:1-4).
In fact, this is why Jesus himself suffered & died on the cross - he died in our place, taking the punishment we all deserve for our rebellion against God, so that those who believe in him can be part of this renewed creation. So I would answer to Epicurus that God is both willing and able to overcome evil/suffering, and he has chosen to do this through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Answered by Kirrily
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I like that explanation, but why allow suffering in the first place? There is no easy answer, but then there is no easy way to comprehend the power and might of God.
ReplyDeleteDaniel
Agreed, Daniel! (sorry, I only just found out where the comments are kept!)
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot easier to explain how suffering came about (as a result of sin, our rejection of God's good rulership) than it is to explain why God would allow it to happen.
But I think a helpful way to think about it is to remember that God's passionate about relationships. He created humans because he wanted to enjoy relationship with us, and for us to enjoy relationship with him.
Knowing that we would sin, he could have just wiped us out, or not created us in the first place. But he chose, before we even rebelled, to restore the relationship, at great cost to himself, through Jesus.
I think that reinforces the high value that God places on relationship with us, and that he saw it as a better thing that we (and he) should suffer on the way to restoration, rather than just wiping us out.
But yep, he's a very big God and we're very limited people in our ability to understand him.
Stick with it! There's always scope to learn & grow in your faith :-) even when we get to 80 we'll still be learning!
Kirrily