By C.L. Bolt
It follows from what has been written regarding morality that a consistent unbeliever is unable to account for evil. Yet the existence of evil is one of the most used objections to the existence of the good and powerful Christian God. The consistent unbeliever is unable to account for the problem of evil when it comes to moral evil, but cannot raise the problem of evil through natural evil either. In this sense evil becomes a real problem for the non-Christian worldview, not the Christian worldview. The non-Christian cannot account for evil within his or her own worldview. No doubt this is the reason that people have actually attempted to deny that evil exists, but to say that evil does not exist or is merely an illusion as some religious and philosophical positions profess is to leave the pragmatic force of evil in place. Even if evil is an illusion, the illusion still carries the same pragmatic end results of evil as typically conceived and it is an illusion which must be accounted for. We do not pretend to have answered the problem of evil here, but note that if the problem is to be answered, it will need to be answered from within the Christian worldview, as that worldview is the only one capable of making it possible to raise the question or objection in the first place.
God wants something more than to prevent evil. A good candidate for this “something more” is the glory of God since the Bible presents God as valuing His glory above all else. God’s wrath is displayed and His mercy contrasted with it for His own glory. God has a morally sufficient reason for there to be evil in His creation. What this means in particular contexts and situations is a matter of proper application of the general principle offered here. Finally, our sin is the source of evil, and God provided for the forgiveness of our sins in Christ Jesus on the cross.
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