Why does God allow evil and injustice in human life?

Bible lessons

Published 04/05/2017

Why does God allow evil and injustice in human life? Most likely, every believer has asked himself this question at different stages of his life. If God is so loving, can't He save people from suffering? Why does God allow these bad things into the lives of people, especially believers? We will try to find answers to these and other questions in our article. And Gordon Ferguson, a famous Christian teacher and author of many books, will help us today.

God created the world initially sinless

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

(Gen. 1, 1)

The Bible begins with these words. They confirm the fact that the Lord God is the beginning of every creation. It was he who brought this world from non-existence into existence.

No one can create except God. Of course, there may be some other assumptions about how our world came into being. It is not prohibited to assume anything.

However, we must accept as an axiom the fact that someone else can only be a co-creator of the Lord and no one else.

Bruegel Jan the Younger “God creates the Sun, Moon and Stars.” God is depicted in the painting as the only Creator

It should also be noted separately that the Devil cannot be the creator of anything, since he himself is a fallen creature.

This is why evil was never created. It has no essence of its own.

Sin is not God's creation. God did not create and cannot create evil, but the nature of his creations can be distorted by the Devil.

Evil

this is what they call the Enemy of the human race’s perversion of the nature of Divine creation

God created our world sinless. There was no sin in him and there was only unity with the Creator and His will. Only by forgetting about this, forgetting about the Creator and violating His will, did man succumb to the devil’s machinations.

The Enemy of the human race himself with his minions has been in sin since the moment of his fall and exile. This circumstance prevents him from doing evil. All it can do is distort the normal nature of things created according to God's design.

The Mystery of Suffering in God's World

“Why do people suffer?” - this is what worries the soul of Ivan Karamazov: “If God exists, then why does he allow the suffering of the innocent and unpunished violence against the innocent to take place in the world he created?” This question directly correlates with the “rebellion” of the biblical Job, which Dostoevsky does not mention in any of the chapters of The Brothers Karamazov, as well as with the “unjust” verdict of the heavenly court for the righteous (we are talking about Elder Zosima).

The inclusion of the figure of Job in Dostoevsky’s text has a parable character, because the writer, through the reflections of the characters, brings each of us closer to solving the eternal question of the righteous about the mystery of suffering: “I will tell God: do not blame me; tell me why you are fighting me?” (Job 10:2); “Why do the lawless live, reach old age, and are strong in strength? Their children are with them before their faces, and their grandchildren are before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and there is no rod of God on them... [They] spend their days in happiness and instantly descend into the underworld. Meanwhile, they say to God: “Get away from us, we do not want to know Your ways!” What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what is the use of resorting to Him?” (Job 21:7-15). At the heart of Ivan Karamazov’s phrase “I don’t accept God, Alyosha, I only respectfully return the ticket to him” is Job’s remorse.

However, Dostoevsky’s answer correlates not with the conclusions of Job’s friends, who explain his suffering as just retribution, but with the wisdom of Elihu, “perfect in knowledge”: “...God is higher than man. Why should you compete with Him? He gives no account of any of His works” (Job 33:13-14); “Is it according to your reasoning that He should repay?” (Job 34:33); “He is great in power, judgment and fullness of justice. He oppresses no one” (Job 37:23). That is why the episode with Zosima’s ashes demonstrates people’s vain expectation of a fair retribution from heaven, which so amazed Alyosha: “But again, he did not need miracles, but only “the highest justice,” which, according to his belief, was violated and why so cruelly and suddenly his heart was wounded.”

The story of Adam and Eve: the first fall on Earth

The Bible says this about how the first man was created:

“And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

(Gen. 2, 7)

At the same time, the first man was created - Adam, in the image and likeness of God, as was his wife Eve. According to God's plan, their destiny was to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and have dominion over it and all its inhabitants. The first-created man was placed by the Creator in a special place - in Paradise.

W. Blake. Elohim creates Adam. 1795 The painting shows that God, as the Creator of all living things, creates his most perfect creation - Man

Paradise

the dwelling that God created for the man he created

The church fathers note the fact that Paradise is not a geographical concept, although the Bible says that it is located in the East. It is, rather, the concept of that special closeness of Adam to the Lord.

In this special place, everything was intended for a carefree life, and man had to preserve and cultivate it.

The Lord created man to be perfect. Naturally, the perfect creation was not sinful. The special purity and perfection of man is confirmed by the fact that the Creator allowed him to choose names for the animals living on earth. Unfortunately, now we cannot even approximately imagine the perfection that man possessed before his fall.

Man was created not for pride, but for the cultivation of Paradise. Adam did not find a helper, and when he fell asleep, God took out a rib from him and created a woman from this rib, calling him Eve.

Together with her, the first man had to cultivate the Garden of Eden, be fruitful and multiply on earth. The love between Adam and Eve, between them and the Lord, consisted of conciliarity, and if they had preserved it, sin could not have occurred.

Adam and Eve. Fragment of a painting by W. Blake. 1808

Having created Eden, the Lord allowed Adam to eat all the fruits in it, except for the fruit of the apple tree. The apple tree here is not just a tree, but also a symbol of conciliarity, when everyone must support each other , just as an apple tree bears fruit for everyone, but not for the chosen few.

As we know, the Serpent lived in Paradise, who began to talk to Eve and persuade her to try the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Tree of Life.

Eve finally gave in to the Serpent’s persuasion and tried this fruit. In addition, she persuaded Adam to try it.

The Fall

this is what is called a person’s appropriation of the right to decide instead of God

Some say that from this moment the first fall occurred. This is wrong. The fact is that evil already existed in the world, since there were fallen angels.

Vatican Museums, Vatican, Raphael, "Expulsion from Paradise"

Adam and Eve were punished by the Lord by expulsion from Paradise. In addition, the Lord cursed Adam because he disobeyed His will and ate the forbidden fruit. Now he had to earn his living through hard work. From then on, Eve had to give birth to her children in pain.

About mind and freedom

According to the writer, faith should prevail over the mind. Only by humbling pride, evil thoughts, and cultivating responsibility for people, Dostoevsky believes, can one get rid of the rational (rational) faith inherent, in particular, in the ideology of Leo Tolstoy: “There is only one salvation: take yourself and make yourself responsible for all human sin. Friend, this is really so, for as soon as you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will immediately see that it really is so and that you are the one to blame for everyone and everything. And by throwing your laziness and your powerlessness onto people, you will end up joining satanic pride and complaining against God.”

In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky expands the context of worldly life, seeing the extraordinary role of freedom in the Fall of man: “The world has proclaimed freedom, especially recently, and what do we see in this freedom with theirs: only slavery and suicide! For the world says: “You have needs, and therefore satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the noblest and richest people.” Do not be afraid to satisfy them, but even increase them – this is the current teaching of the world. This is what they see as freedom. And what comes from this right to increase needs? The rich have solitude and spiritual suicide, the poor have envy and murder, because they have given rights, but have not yet indicated how to satisfy their needs.”

The Lord gave us freedom of choice because man was created in God's image and likeness

It is impossible to answer the question of why God allows suffering without considering the question of whether humans have free will. Free will is the right to choose.

Man is not a captive creature, like, for example, animals that do not have free will. Man is created in the image and likeness of God, therefore he can choose one or another behavior option.

In the story of the Fall, he also had a choice. The situation was not predetermined and Adam had the opportunity to choose whether to try the sinful fruit or not.

As a result, a person chose the path of sin and did it not under coercion, but completely voluntarily. Naturally, his punishment was assigned in the form of expulsion from Paradise for disobedience, that is, for choosing a certain model of behavior.

1140-1170. Adam and Eve. Mosaic of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, Sicily. The Fall of Adam and Eve is an example of the manifestation of free will in humans

Adam and Eve had a choice, but they made the wrong one. That is why, when a person asks, for example, why God allows wars, he must first decide what role he himself, his fellow tribesmen and leaders play in this.

If a person has made his choice, he should no longer blame and claim that he is not involved in sin. Having demonstrated freedom of choice, you must be responsible for your choice.

"Suffering in the Flesh"

Everyone is suffering. And the suffering that people experience on earth is not necessarily in direct proportion to the sins they have committed. Disciples of Jesus Christ, God's servants, know how to benefit from suffering.

1 Peter 4:1 says: “Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, arm yourself with the same mind; for he who suffers in the flesh ceases to sin. ." Physical suffering alone cannot put an end to sin. On the contrary, when a person experiences pain, loss, tragedy, then the sin that lives within them begins to make itself known, and people can be tempted to anger, bitterness and despondency. But the disciple acts as his Teacher - Jesus did: He rejects these thoughts and puts them to death. The sin that was discovered during the test dies. This is called "suffering in the flesh" because preventing the flesh from following its lusts is the same as denying its will, and this causes pain. This is what Jesus did while on earth, and this is God's will for us. As a result, sin will be defeated and virtue will replace it.

When enough people consciously choose to suffer in the flesh rather than sin, God will finally be able to say to Satan, “Look, your way didn’t work. Sin only leads to suffering, but some people have chosen My path. They chose not to sin. This proves again that you have nothing more to say! !

Then the time of reckoning will come.

The path to God through suffering is the result of the Fall of Adam and Eve

When a person violated the Lord’s prohibition and ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Sin, he thereby broke his connection with Him.

From that moment on, his nature, similar to God, was perverted by the Devil and therefore the gates to Paradise are now closed for him and his wife.

See also the article Why children die

The path of human suffering on Earth is the path of gaining lost unity with God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ showed us this path by his example. Coming into the world and accepting suffering on the Cross, He showed humanity the path to salvation. From His death a new life began.

At the same time, we must always remember that our atonement for the sin of Adam consists in the fact that the feat of Christ must become our feat.

The Gothic martyrs are an example of how to earn salvation through suffering

An Orthodox Christian must daily, through labor and suffering, seek the path of salvation. The Lord, in his love, did not abandon his sinful creation and showed man the way to it.

They need to be followed, and not try to look for the cause of your suffering. A true Christian should not place the blame for suffering on others or fruitlessly ask: why did the Lord leave me? It is necessary to work day and night, seeking salvation, because suffering is given by God in order to show the way to it.

In addition, the Orthodox should also be aware that in Orthodoxy there is no concept of personal salvation. It is characteristic of Catholicism or Protestantism.

The Lord teaches us to pray not My Father, but Our Father, which emphasizes the catholicity of salvation.

In addition, unlike the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church does not insist on a special role for church hierarchs.

Orthodox believe that it is not the clergy who save the church, but together with the people they are saved in it.

In Orthodoxy, salvation has three stages:

• redemption;
• consecration;
• deification.

The stage of atonement is characterized by the acquisition of faith. Redemption is accomplished only by the blood of the Lamb of God, the blood of Jesus Christ.

But faith alone, as Lutherans say, is not enough; it is also necessary to work daily in order to find the path to salvation.

Icon "Crucifixion of Jesus Christ". Only the sacrificial blood of the Lamb of God can atone for original sin

At the stage of sanctification , through fasting, prayer and good deeds, a person takes the path of holiness. Walking along it, he finds the path to salvation. This is not an easy path, since it leads through suffering, but there is no other way to earn God’s forgiveness.

The third stage is deification. This concept is characteristic only of Orthodoxy and it means the reunification of man with God. At this stage, a person overcomes the consequences of Adam’s fall and acquires a family relationship with him.

Thus, the entire earthly life of the human race, from the moment of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, consists of atonement for the consequences of their fall. For this purpose, suffering is given, and for this it is necessary to constantly work, trying to restore man’s unity with God.

Atheist explanations are not enough

The statement that God does not exist because there is evil in this world is a contradictory statement because if God does not exist, there is also no such thing as “evil.” If there is no God, there is no objective morality. Everything is subject to subjective definitions and personal interpretation.

For example, the theory of evolution states that the fittest and the fittest survive. Therefore, when we travel through Africa and watch a tiger eat a zebra, we do not conclude that the tiger is “evil” or that it should be punished and put in a prison cell. Instead, we marvel at the wonders of nature. If there is no God, then there is absolutely no difference between us and animals. And a person who kidnapped, killed and ate another person is simply a strong animal that survives at the expense of another, weaker one.

You can defeat evil and avoid suffering if you follow the path of the Lord

The question of why, if God is omnipotent, he allows the existence of evil and suffering in the world has been known to man for a long time. The answer to this is given in the Gospel. In order to understand this and gain weapons against evil and suffering, you need to know that:

• there is no “innocent” suffering, since people are sinful by nature, for example, in this regard, the following quote from the Bible can be cited:

“All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”;

(Romans 3:23)

• the world is cursed because of the first man's disobedience to the Word of God, but one day God will lift this curse and restore everything:

“...God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death; there will be no more crying, no crying, no pain, for the former things have passed away”;

(Revelation 21:4)

• a Savior came into the world, who suffered more than any mortal ever. Thus, he saved the world from the Curse weighing on it, showing the path to salvation.

"Christ died for our sins."

(1 Corinthians 15:3)

• suffering is sent to a person so that he can think about God and the need for salvation, for which he can turn to Christ with repentance and faith. By suffering, a person is cleansed of original sin and becomes like Christ.

Every Christian should remember that God is loving and merciful. Even if suffering and illness are present in our world, this only means that original sin exists. It is because of it that evil came into our world.

All of us, as beloved children of God, need to remember what the book of Romans says:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

(Romans 8:28)

Dionysius. Crucifixion. 1500 Jesus is an example of suffering on the path to salvation

At the same time, not a single Orthodox Christian can confidently declare that he is saved. The fact is that salvation is the work of a person’s entire life. It is impossible to achieve in one day that unity with God that the first man destroyed by falling into sin.

Catholics, Protestants and representatives of other branches of Christianity claim that the path to salvation is simple. In their opinion, it consists of fasting, prayer, and abstinence from gluttony, drunkenness, and drugs.

But salvation is more than outwardly diligent participation in the life of the parish.

We know that there was the first Adam, whom the Lord exalted. From this height, out of his pride, he fell because he sinned. However, there is also a second Adam - Jesus Christ.

He came to our world to grant freedom from sin, to save us and to take us to heaven. All people died in Adam, but by the grace of God they are destined to be resurrected in Christ.

The earthly path of Christ, including the path of suffering, should serve as an example for us of how it is necessary to fight evil and overcome suffering on the path to salvation.

Even the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, present at the passion of Christ, was amazed at how steadfastly He withstood reproaches, insults, and physical torture, and said about Him to the people:

"Behold the man."

(John 19.5)

Parting with his disciples, Christ announced to them:

“In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart.”

(John 16:33)

This means that evil will never retreat voluntarily and must be fought against.

At the same time, it is necessary to always remember that Christianity does not call for suffering. His task is to point out to believers that on the path to fighting evil there is a danger of suffering.

Holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Saint Sophia

Saint Sophia, having endured great mental anguish for Christ, together with her daughters was canonized by the Church.

Christianity is a religion of love. Loving God, a Christian loves his creation - man.

Thus, by saving himself, he saves those around him. Naturally, along this path there will be misunderstanding, envy, anger, torment, etc.

Having the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, any Christian can overcome all the obstacles that the Devil erects on his path to salvation. Only by following the path of the Lord can one defeat evil and get rid of suffering!

By leaving a comment, you accept the user agreement

Why doesn't God make the suffering stop?

God could have intervened at any moment and stopped the suffering. He could have reached out His hand and saved us from pain. Despite everything, He is omnipotent. But if He had done this, He would never have been able to prove that Satan had made a mistake. Sin brings suffering. God knows this. Now He wants to prove it to all creation.

God is very sad to see His creation suffer. He wants this to end so that He can give us a helping hand. His ultimate goal is to end suffering forever. He wants all of His creation to be in perfect harmony, as it was in the beginning. But this time, He wants to make sure that no one will infect this new creation with sin. Therefore, He needs to prove that sin entails only misfortune and suffering. And to prove this, God has to follow the laws that He himself created.