If God is good, why is there evil?

THE QUESTION UNPACKED

This objection is rooted in what philosophers call the problem of evil:

  1. If God is all-powerful, He can stop evil.

  2. If God is all-good, He wants to stop evil.

  3. Evil exists.

  4. Therefore, either God is not all-good, or He is not all-powerful — or He doesn’t exist.

At face value, this seems logical. But it’s actually built on false assumptions about what “goodness,” “freedom,” “evil,” and “power” actually mean.

BIBLICAL ANSWER

1. God Is Absolutely Good — and Defines Goodness

“You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” — Psalm 119:68

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” — Genesis 18:25

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” — 1 John 1:5

God is not merely good by comparison — He defines goodness. Just as the sun defines light and anything that departs from it is shadow, so everything apart from God is evil.

2. God Created a World with Free Beings — Not Robots

“Choose this day whom you will serve…” — Joshua 24:15

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life…” — Deuteronomy 30:19

“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” — James 1:14

The Bible repeatedly shows that God gives mankind real choice. Without the possibility of rejecting God’s will, love and obedience are meaningless. God didn’t create puppets — He created moral agents.

Evil is not a “thing” God created. It is the corruption of good, the twisting of the will away from God’s perfect design.

3. Evil Exists Because of Human Rebellion

“Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin…” — Romans 5:12

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie…” — Romans 1:25

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” — Jeremiah 17:9

Adam’s fall was not a design flaw — it was the risk of love. Love demands freedom. Evil entered the world because humanity freely chose to reject the good and glorify self over God.

4. God Uses Evil Without Doing Evil

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” — Genesis 50:20

“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good…” — Romans 8:28

“[Jesus], delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God…” — Acts 2:23

God doesn’t cause evil, but He is sovereign over it. He can permit evil, and still weave it into His ultimate purpose — like a master artist using even dark threads to complete a tapestry.

God is not the author of evil, but He is the author of a story in which evil is overcome, exposed, judged, and defeated for eternity — through the cross of Christ.

PHILOSOPHICAL REASONING

1. Evil Proves God, Not the Opposite

To say something is evil, you must have a standard of good. But if there’s no God, there’s no objective moral standard — only personal preferences.

If atheism is true, evil doesn't exist — only behaviors we personally dislike.

C.S. Lewis, a former atheist, said:

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? … A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.” — Mere Christianity

So ironically, the existence of evil demands the existence of an absolute good — which only makes sense if there is a God.

2. Freedom Is a Greater Good Than a World Without Evil

A world without evil is only possible if there’s no real freedom — but that would also eliminate love, virtue, sacrifice, and meaning. Freedom, though risky, is the higher good.

God created the best kind of world for His highest purposes — not the easiest world, but the most meaningful.

3. Temporary Evil Is Justified by Eternal Good

An all-wise God can allow temporary suffering to bring about an eternal good.

Just as a surgeon cuts to heal, God may allow pain to deepen dependence, awaken souls, or punish evil for justice’s sake.

The cross of Christ — where infinite evil (the murder of God’s Son) produced infinite good (salvation) — proves that God can allow evil without forfeiting His goodness.

HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

1. The Fall Was Foreseen — but the Redeemer Was Prepared

The early Church fathers (like Augustine) recognized that evil is not a created substance but a privation of good — a parasitic distortion. God foresaw man’s fall and from the beginning promised a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15).

God’s permission of evil is not an oversight but a stage in His redemptive drama — where evil is exposed, defeated, and replaced by a new creation where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

2. God Has Always Judged and Restrained Evil

God flooded the earth (Genesis 6), judged Sodom (Genesis 19), sent Israel to defeat Canaanites (Deut. 9), and repeatedly rebuked kings and nations. His justice was active, not passive.

And the ultimate judgment is still to come — no evil will go unpunished.

“He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness…” — Acts 17:31

REAL-WORLD ANALOGIES

1. The Surgeon Analogy

A child sees a surgeon cutting his mother open and screams, “You’re hurting her!” But he lacks the knowledge to see: the cutting is to save her life.

Likewise, we see pain and cry, “Where is God?” But He sees the whole picture — eternal outcomes, moral development, souls being saved — and we do not.

2. The Author Analogy

In a novel, the author may allow villains to rise, tragedies to unfold, and dark chapters to occur — not because he delights in evil, but because he is telling a story that ends in triumph.

God is telling the greatest story ever told: the fall, the rescue, the redemption — where evil is not merely erased, but utterly defeated and used to magnify the glory of His mercy.

CLARITY

God is not on trial. We are.

The question is not, “How can God allow evil?”
The question is, “How can God allow me, a sinner, to live?”

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise…but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” — 2 Peter 3:9

Evil exists, not because God is weak or wicked, but because:

  • He created us with free will.

  • We used that freedom to rebel.

  • He uses evil to awaken us to our need for Him.

  • He offers salvation through Jesus, and will one day abolish evil forever.

One day there will be no more evil. Not because it disappeared… but because God will have judged it.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more…for the former things have passed away.” — Revelation 21:4

God is good. Evil is real.
But evil will not win — God already has.

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” — 1 John 3:8