Because He’s Good

Many people have asked - and perhaps we have as well, from time to time - something like, “How could a good God permit evil?” But what has been striking me lately is the thought that it is precisely because God is good that there is the possibility of evil in the first place.

In other words, we say that God is good because He created us in freedom and gave to each of us the gift of freedom, which is a share in His own life. This is what we mean when we say that we were made in His image. That’s how much He loves us. That’s how good He is.

So while it is true that He took the risk of our being seduced into rejecting Him, the existence of that possibility is a sign of God’s goodness. Again, the existence of evil is not really an objection to God’s goodness as much as a sign of it.

Here’s a way to think about it. When we cry out for a political to “fix everything” we are asking that person to stop all the evil in the world. But what does that dictator do in order to stop the evil? He takes away everyone’s freedom, so that no one can do anything at all. And then comes the revolution. We rise up against that leader for becoming a tyrant and we say, “We would rather have our freedom back, even at the risk of suffering evil, than to live unfree.”

Yoga Berra was right when he said, “If the world were perfect it wouldn’t be.” And Job was right when he said, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!" Both men knew that the existence of evil in the world is not really an objection to God’s goodness, as much as a sign of it. +