Cross Reference Bible links

Genesis 2:9 - knowledge of good and evil Job 42:11 - (Job's brothers, sisters, and acquaintances came to his house to eat bread, comforting and consoling him about all the evil [from human perspective] that Yahweh had brought on him.)

That which is opposed to God and His purposes or that which, defined from human perspectives, is harmful and non-productive.

The Problem of Evil

Evil is a major theoretical and practical problem for a Christian. Evil is of two types. First, there is natural evil. There are destructive forces in nature, ranging from earthquakes and tidal waves to cancer. Second, there is moral evil which has its source in the choice and action of humans. This type of evil includes war, crime, cruelty, and slavery.

If God is all-powerful and good, as the Bible affirms, why does He allow evil? There are statements and emphases in the Bible which help to explain and reduce the problem of natural and moral evil.

Natural Evil

Concerning natural evil, several emphases should be noted.

First, moral evil accounts for much of natural evil. In Genesis, evil and suffering appeared only after the Fall (Genesis 3:16-19). By contrast, the original creation is very good (Genesis 1:31). The new heavens and the new earth will have no more suffering (Revelation 21:4). This means that evil and suffering are not eternally inevitable. Rather they are bound up with the actions of sinful humans. Physical suffering and pain and finally death have been introduced as a consequence of the Fall (Genesis 3:16-19).

Second, God disciplines His people collectively and individually, even through natural evil and pain, to bring them closer to His purposes (Proverbs 3:11-12; Jeremiah 18:1-10). This emphasis is also found in the New Testament (Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 5:8-9; Hebrews 12:5-11).

Third, personal life cannot develop except in a stable environment. God limited Himself by the establishment of regularity and law. This regularity of nature is an important factor in developing human personality. The earthquake, volcano, and storm, which cause human suffering, all belong to nature's regularity. Some so-called natural evil, therefore, can be attributed to the necessary operation of natural uniformities.

Fourth, natural evils may be used for judgment upon sin. It is deeply ingrained in the Bible that physical evils have been used by God for the punishment of individual and national wickedness. Noah's flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fall of Jerusalem are examples. This does not mean that all physical evils are the punishment of physical sins.

Moral Evil

There are also some biblical teachings which help us to understand moral evil from the Christian perspective.

First, God limited Himself in giving people and angels freedom. To be truly human, a person must have the power of choice. Apparently God felt that, for reasons which were evident to Him but which we can only partly understand, it was better to make human beings than robots.

Robots might respond in an automatically correct way in every situation, but they would be machines, not persons. Not even God can love machines in the sense that persons can be loved.

Second, humans used freedom in such a way as to bring in evil. The Bible tells us that with the Fall, humanity's first sin, a radical change took place in the universe. Death came upon mankind (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:2-3, Genesis 3:19). God pronounced a curse upon mankind which is represented by certain specifics: anguish in childbearing (Genesis 3:16), male domination over the wife (Genesis 3:16), toilsome labor (Genesis 3:17), and thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18). These are probably only a sample of the actual effects upon the creation. Paul in Romans 8:22 said that the whole creation has been affected by human sin and is now in bondage to decay.

Third, back of human revolt stood Satan. In Genesis 3:1 we read that the serpent tempted Eve. Thus, an evil force was present within the creation. It was Satan's appeal which stirred within Adam and Eve the desire which led them to sin. Compare Revelation 12:9.

It is clear, then, that God did not create evil and sin. He merely provided the options necessary for human freedom. People sinned, and before that, the fallen angels, not God.

Fourth, even though evil is because of human revolt and failure, God continues to be active in redeeming people from their self-imposed evil.

Fifth, God deals with evil through judgment and wrath. This judgment can be seen in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 28:20-21; Isaiah 3:11). The wrath of God is not divine vindictiveness, but is dynamic, persistent opposition to sin (Romans 1:18). Thus, a principle of judgment upon, and annulment of, evil can be discerned at work in history and even in individual lives.

Sixth, God deals with evil through the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrection. The Bible teaches that God Himself in Jesus Christ became the victim of evil so that there might be victory over evil. It is also indicated in such passages as Colossians 1:24; Philippians 3:10; and 2 Corinthians 12:7 that the Christian can bear suffering for others and assist in God's redemptive purpose.

After all the solutions are considered, we still realize that the problem of evil is not completely solved on an intellectual level from our limited human perspective. However, on the practical and experiential level we can say with the apostle Paul that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

John P. Newport

ev'-'-l, e'-vil ra`; poneros, @kakos, @kakon):

In the Bible it is represented as moral and physical. We choose to discuss the subject under these heads. Many of the evils that come upon men have not been intended by those who suffer for them. Disease, individual and national calamity, drought, scarcity of food, may not always be charged to the account of intentional wrong. Many times the innocent suffer with, and even for, the guilty. In such cases, only physical evil is apparent. Even when the suffering has been occasioned by sin or dereliction of duty, whether the wrong is active or passive, many, perhaps the majority of those who are injured, are not accountable in any way for the ills which come upon them. Neither is God the author of moral evil. "God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man" (James 1:13).

See TEMPTATION OF CHRIST .

1. Moral Evil:

By this term we refer to wrongs done to our fellowman, where the actor is responsible for the action. The immorality may be present when the action is not possible. "But if that evil servant shall say in his heart" (Matthew 24:48-49), whether he shall smite his fellow-servants or not, the moral evil is present. See SIN, MAN OF . "All these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23). The last six commandments of the Decalogue apply here (Exodus 20:12-17). To dishonor one's parents, to kill, to commit adultery, to steal, to bear false witness and to covet are moral evils. The spiritual import of these commandments will be found in Matthew 5:21-22,27-28. "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness" (Matthew 6:23). Words and deeds are coined in the heart before the world sees or hears them (Matthew 12:34-35). The word ought or its equal may be found in all languages; hence, it is in the mind of all people as well as in our laws that for the deeds and words we do and speak, we are responsible. "Break off thy sins by righteousness" (Daniel 4:27) shows that, in God's thought, it was man's duty, and therefore within his power, to keep the commandment. "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well" (Isaiah 1:16 f). We cannot think of God commanding men to do what He knew they had no ability to do! God has a standing offer of pardon to all men who turn from their evil ways and do that which is right (Ezekiel 33:11-14 f). Evil begins in the least objectionable things. In Romans 1:18-23, we have Paul's view of the falling away of the Gentiles. "Knowing God" (verse 21), they were "without excuse" (verse 20), but "glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened" (verse 21). "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (verse 22). This led the way into idolatry, and that was followed by all the corruption and wrongdoing to be instigated by a heart turned away from all purity, and practiced in all the iniquity to be suggested by lust without control. Paul gives fifteen steps in the ladder on which men descend into darkness and ruin (Galatians 5:19-21). When men become evil in themselves, they necessarily become evil in thought and deed toward others. This they bring upon themselves, or give way to, till God shall give "them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (Romans 1:28). Those thus fallen into habits of error, we should in meekness correct, that "they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will" (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

2. Physical Evil:

Usually, in the Old Testament the Hebrew word ra` is employed to denote that which is bad. Many times the bad is physical; it may have been occasioned by the sins for which the people of the nation were responsible, or it may have come, not as a retribution, but from accident or mismanagement or causes unknown. Very many times the evil is a corrective, to cause men to forsake the wrong and accept the right. The flood was sent upon the earth because "all flesh had corrupted their way" (Genesis 6:12). This evil was to serve as a warning to those who were to live after. The ground had already been cursed for the good of Cain (Genesis 4:12). Two purposes seemed to direct the treatment: (1) to leave in the minds of Cain and his descendants the knowledge that sin brings punishment, and (2) to increase the toil that would make them a better people. God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, cities of the plain, making them "an example unto those that should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). In the Book of Isa the prophet, we find a number of "burdens": the burden of Babylon (13:1-22); the burden of Moab (15:1-9); the burden of Damascus (17:1-14); the burden of Egypt (19:1-17); the burden of the Wilderness of the Sea (21:1-10); the burden of Dumah (21:11,12); the burden upon Arabia (21:13-17); the burden of the Valley of Vision (22:1-25); the burden of Tyre (23:1-18); the burden of the Beasts of the South (30:6-14); the burden of the Weary Beast (46:1,2). These may serve as an introduction to the story of wrongdoing and physical suffering threatened and executed. Isa contains many denunciations against Israel: against the Ten Tribes for following the sin introduced by Jeroboam the son of Nebat; and the threatening against Judah and Benjamin for not heeding the warnings. Jeremiah saw the woes that were sure to come upon Judah; for declaring them, he was shut up in prison, and yet they came, and the people were carried away into Babylon. These were the evils or afflictions brought upon the nations for their persistence in sin. "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am Yahweh, that doeth all these things" (Isaiah 45:7). These chastisements seemed grievous, and yet they yielded peaceable fruit unto them that were exercised thereby (Hebrews 12:11).

David Roberts Dungan