The third chapter of this book starts out with…

“The question of why evil is in the world is bigger than the usual evangelical answer we’ve always heard. The traditional Christian answer isn’t wrong; it’s just incomplete. It answers the question only to a point. It doesn’t go far enough; something still disturbs us. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we know; God knew ahead of time about the fall, and He still created us.

We can’t blame God for creating an evil world, of course. He is not evil’s author, and He did not create anything in a fallen state. We have to emphasize that. The philosophical First Cause never subjected anything (or anyone) to corruption when He first “caused” this cosmos. But He did create a world He knew would eventually fall. We can never blame Him for anything related to evil, but we can acknowledge that He had a prior awareness of it. He affirms His own foreknowledge over and over again in Scripture. Evil didn’t just secretly slip in under God’s sovereign radar. The plan of salvation was in place before the foundation of the world, we are told. He knew ahead of time that we would need saving.”

I guess I need a little help here, understanding this. If God is the creator of all things, (Eccles. 11:5)how can they say that He did not create evil? He created satan, right? And satan is evil, although perhaps he didn’t start out that way because all that God made was “good“, but he definitely developed into evil personified. Where did evil come from if God didn’t create it? Was it just always here, as God was, and it something that my mind just can’t comprehend? God created man in perfect form, but He knew that evil would enter in, so it already existed? Maybe this is something that my human mind just can’t fathom.

This book goes on to say that God is not to blame for evil in this world. Suffering is in this world because we willingly invited it in.

…”If Joseph can say his brothers meant their treachery for evil (free will) but God meant it for good (sovereignty), we can also say of the introduction of evil into this world, that Adam, Eve and satan meant it for rebellion (free will), but God meant it for his glory (sovereignty). And that latter aspect is what this book is about. We will never precisely understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty and our evil, but we have to accept that it is consistent with the mysterious God of the Bible. We don’t know exactly why God was silent on the day the serpant spoke, but we have to accept that He was not blindsided by this turn of events. For some mysterious reason, it was ordained.”

At the end of chapter 3 it tells us that there are hints in the bible that give us clues, not answers, to why evil and suffering exist. God doesn’t make it easy to discern the truth. He makes us probe for answers. We won’t know all the answers until we are with Him in Heaven. But until then, maybe we can satisfy our need to know by digging deeper into His word.

Part 4 coming soon.