Joel Kontinen
We should not be surprised by the recent spate of violence and killings in France, Turkey, Germany, Syria and Afghanistan.
Often, when people see or hear about violence and death, they think that God is somehow responsible for it. How could He allow such things to happen?
This is an old dilemma, technically known as the theodicy problem. If God is good and omnipotent (all-powerful), why does He not protect people from evil?
Sometimes He doesn’t.
Should we then blame God?
By no means!
The ones doing evil deeds are humans. They are evil.
God is – and has always been – good.
Recently, BBC news reported on a tweet that claimed God forgot Afghanistan:
The tweeter didn’t understand the problem of evil. Violence does not just happen. It is a consequence of sin.
When Adam and Eve rebelled against their Maker in Eden, they opened the door to suffering and death.
Sin led from violence to more violence. Cain killed Abel. By the time of the great Flood, only Noah and his family were righteous.
Violence increased dramatically after Darwin published his views on man’s past. We’ve had wars, holocausts, bombings and mass shootings with no end in sight.
Theistic evolutionists don't have an answer to the problem of evil. They tend to believe that violence just happens, because it has always happened – and evolution needs it.
They’re probably causing much harm to the Church and for Christian testimony by pushing views that are anything but Christian.
But we who believe in the Bible understand that it describes the human condition and the origin of evil correctly.
What is more, we know that Jesus Christ stepped into human history to solve the problem of sin.
He died for us so that we could live with Him forever through faith in His name.
Source:
BBC News. 2016. 'God forgot Afghanistan' (30 July).
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