Many of you know that my wife has cancer. Her
long-term prognosis is not great, but the most recent scan we had shows that
the chemotherapy is reducing the size of her tumors, and we are very thankful.
We are keenly aware that many other cancer patients received bad news this
week, and are suffering terrible physical and emotional pain from this horrible
disease.
The reality of pain and suffering – whether caused by diseases like
cancer, disasters like tsunamis, or inhumanities like murder – is a great challenge
to faith. The psalmist Asaph says his faith faltered as he “saw the prosperity
of the wicked” (Psalm 73:2-3). In the midst of his anguish, Job complained
about God’s seeming indifference: “It is all one; therefore I say, He destroys
both the blameless and the wicked” (Job 9:22). And even the Lord Jesus cried
out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46,
quoting Psalm 22:1).
Philosophers refer to the difficulty in reconciling the existence of
suffering with the existence of God as the problem of evil. To state the
argument in its classical formulation, it goes like this:
Premise 1: Evil exists.
Premise 2: If God was all-powerful, He could prevent the existence of evil.
Premise 3: If God was all-good, He would prevent the existence of evil.
Conclusion: Therefore God does not exist.
What are we to make of this argument? Christians accept the first
premise – evil does indeed exist. And Christians agree with the second premise
– God is all-powerful, and He could prevent the existence of evil. But what
about the third premise – that if God was all-good He would have prevented the
existence of evil? This is the key contention, and it is the one that I want to
focus on in a moment.
