Introduction
In Matthew chapter ten, verse 29, the Lord is instructing His disciples about their life of ministry. In this great passage on the sovereignty of God, Jesus poetically reveals the nature of God’s providence. He says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” This verse is not simply implying that God merely knows the sparrow falls. Instead, Christ is saying that all things that happen in this world, even the death of a sparrow, are completely controlled, ordained, orchestrated, foreseen and come to pass by the will of God the Father Himself. In other words, God is completely sovereign. The question then remains, if God is in such powerful control of His creation, then why do disease, death and suffering exist. How can such great evil co-exist with such great good?
The problem of evil comes into the mind of almost all rational people who ponder the status of their dark world. Can God who is so fully in control, so capable of miracles and intervention into every area of His created physics, who is omniscient in His understanding and knowledge, who knows the thoughts of every heart, who is omnipotent and sovereign over the universe, allow such evil as murder, rape, acts of terrorism and natural disasters to exist? Why would He allow such perverse and cruel happenings such as sin, suffering and moral indecency to occur? Why would He allow Satan and the demonic realm to corrupt humanity? Why is He not doing something about it? Ever since humankind could first record their thoughts, the question of the problem of evil has been asked and re-asked.
George Barna once conducted a national survey where he asked adults, “If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?” The highest percentage of adults replied, “Why is there pain and suffering in the world.”[1] It is easy to see that the problem of evil is the single biggest obstacle for those who seek spirituality.
In his book, If God is Good, Randy Alcorn calls the problem of evil “atheism’s cornerstone.” He goes on to say, “Every day the ancient argument gets raised in college philosophy classes, coffee shops, dinner discussions, e-mail exchanges, blogs, talk shows, and bestselling books.”[2] Because this is such a prominent question, it is the duty of ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ to provide a satisfying answer. To be immature in this area does not help the cause of the church. John Piper says, “Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And Wimpy Christians won’t survive the days ahead.”[3] It is also the responsibility of the ministers of the church to teach on how Christians are to process the problem of evil. Alcorn writes, “Our failure to teach a biblical theology of suffering leaves Christians unprepared for harsh realities. It also leaves our children vulnerable to history, philosophy and global studies classes that raise the problem of evil and suffering while denying the Christian worldview. Since the question will be raised, shouldn’t Christian parents and churches raise it first and take people to Scripture to see what God says about it.”[4]
From a legal point of view if God could do something about the evil and does not then one may think that He is simply guilty of the evil Himself. From an atheistic point of view, God could not exist because the presence of evil contradicts an infinitely good creator. However, from a biblical and Christian worldview, God is an infinitely good Being who cares about the pain and suffering of His creation, therefore, can, and does relieve that pain through means of His eternal plan. Proper understanding of Him and His plan for humankind philosophically and emotionally resolves the problem of evil. Furthermore, because He is the only one who can do anything substantial to relieve the evil in the world, He is the ultimate answer to the problem. Therefore, the thesis of this paper is while skeptics claim that the problem of evil discredits Christianity, through biblical teaching, we can know that God is the only satisfying answer to evil and suffering in the world.
This paper will look at common solutions to the problem and how many of them fall short. We will look at Scripture and attempt to show how God’s Word provides the most satisfying and logically sound solution to the problem of evil. After explaining common solutions, the next sections will attempt to answer the proposed solutions.
The Intellectual Nature of the Problem
Theists and non-theists have basic agreement that the problem of evil comes from the logical consistency of the following propositions: “God is all-loving,” God is all-powerful,” and “Evil exists in this world created by God.” Simply looking at these propositions, we have a logical breakdown. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, then He would not let evil exist. One of the other two statements has to be false. Either God is not all-loving or He is not all-powerful. If God is all-loving and all-powerful then the argument goes; He did not create this world and it’s evil. The logical integrity of these propositions is more formally termed the internal problem of evil. In their book, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, the authors J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig breakdown the internal problem of evil into two categories, the logical version of the problem of evil, and the probabilistic version of the problem of evil.[5]
The logical version of the problem suggests that the very existence of evil is a contradiction to the Christian view of God. As stated above, God must not be all-powerful or He must not be all knowing. Since we can know for sure that evil exists, the argument goes, logically God must not exist.
In the probabilistic version of the problem of evil, the argument says that it is possible for such evil to coexist with a loving and powerful God, however, highly improbable. A Christian worldview then is stuck believing two propositions that tend to undermine each other. It is possible but improbable. This would tend to lead to little, if any, true faith in the Christian views of God.
The Emotional Nature of the Problem of Evil
The intellectual aspect to the problem of evil is simply philosophical in nature and solving the matter would do nothing to bring comfort to the people that suffer unjustly by evil in the world. When a person loses a loved one or a person is dramatically sinned against, the emotion involved leads many to think, “Why would God let this evil happen to me?” This is the heart of the emotional nature of the problem of evil. For most people, their problem with evil is more emotional than intellectual in nature. People tend to object to a God who would let a loved one die, or allow them to be hurt. People often do not rationalize the heart of the biblical and philosophical answers to the problem and simply reject allowing God to have any place in their life or belief system. In a legal sense, if a person allows a crime to happen and has the means of stopping the crime without any harm to them then they are liable to stop it. When people see God allow evil and suffering into their personal life leading to intense pain and emotion, they so dramatically, emotionally, and understandably blames God for the evil.
Common Solutions to the Problem of Evil
Many answers are popularly suggested for why evil exists. Most commonly the answer has to do with a limited view of God. Often, these are born from a need to explain away evil. One may not want to think that God would allow suffering, so they seek to downplay His power, His knowledge, or His love. Some even deny that evil exists in an attempt explain the problem. Not listed here is the Christian worldview on the problem of evil, which this writer suggests is the most satisfying answer. Much time to this common solution is spent later in the report.
The Limited Power Approach
Many people believe that God allows evil to exist because he lacks the power to stop it. Limited power is a common solution, and one that is given considerable attention since the popular decline of traditional Christian theology and the rise of postmodernism.
Postmodernism brought with it a belief system called process theology. In process theology, God is a Being that is evolving in His power and understanding similar to humans, but merely on a higher level. This view allows God to exist and be all-loving, while unable to do anything about the evil in the world. About process theology Stephen Davis writes, “Faced with evil God has his powerlessness as his excuse. He aims, intends, seeks, works and ‘tries his best’ to overcome evil: rather than blame, he deserves sympathy, even pity.”[6]
The popular book entitled When Bad Things Happen to Good People is an example of the limited power approach. In the chapter called God Can’t Do Everything, the author proposes that unanswered prayer is proof of His limited power. Furthermore, he suggests that what God can do is give someone strength inside of themselves and people around them to help get through the evil rather than take it away. He does not take it away because He is not able, the author suggests.[7]
The Limited Knowledge Approach
Open theism is also a popular liberal view of God. Open theists suggest that God does not know the future and only interacts with the world based on knowledge of past or present events. In open theology, the source of evil is the free will of man or the devil. Because free agents can freely choose to do evil and God does not know what those agents will choose, God is exempt from responsibility. The problem of evil becomes the problem of free will. Many people find comfort in this answer to the problem of evil, and can still gladly worship God through their trials.
The Limited Love Approach
Many people interpret the Old Testament and see God’s wrath on Israel and her enemies as proof that God does not love His creation infinitely, and therefore, allows evil to happen to punish those who are abundantly sinful. In this view, God’s love is limited and is not as strong as His holiness or His justice. The hate group Westboro Baptist Church tends to preach this philosophy. They declare that all of the evil that happens in America is a response to the advancement of the homosexual movement.[8] This errant view of God brings little hope to anyone in the midst of grief over the emotional problem of evil.
The Atheistic Approach
Traditional atheism answers the problem of evil by simply declaring there is no God. If God does not exist then good and evil are simply philosophical terms used to describe what takes place in the world, however, without God good and evil are relative. An atheist who applies such an approach is not held to any morality outside that which they impose on themselves. The rise of atheism in the western world brought with it many views of God and the world including many errant views on the problem of evil. Atheism spreads disbelief and relativism, which makes popular the attempt to change one’s view of God without the support of Scripture. This leads to many of the common solutions listed above.
Answering Common Solutions
In the section of this paper that answers the atheistic approach to solving the problem of evil, this writer will attempt to prove God exists and that Scripture is valid. Time will not be spent before then validating Scripture, even though Scripture is used as a means of contradicting the errant views proposed above.
The limited power approach suggests that God can try His best to overcome or stop an evil taking place in the world, but He is unable to stop it. This view is errant for multiple reasons: first, Scripture emphatically reveals God as all-powerful. In Matthew 19:26, Jesus says, “With God all things are possible.” Ephesians 3:20 says, “To Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” A common term used for God is the Almighty. About God’s power, John the Baptist says, “From these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). In Scripture, God’s perfect power is a basic element of God being God.
Secondly, this view is seen as errant because it presupposes that God created the world or at least set physics and evolution into motion. If God has the power and talent to create, it is absurd that he would be unable to intervene and stop evil from happening.
Many theologians who adhere to this errant solution do so because they want to explain away what is happening in the world. Therefore, this view is based on emotion or a driving need to both believe in God and have the problem of evil explained. This approach is not purely based on logic or Scripture.
Harold Kushner writes, “I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily then I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die, for whatever exalted reason.”[9] This statement proves that Kushner believes he can choose to reject what Scripture says when it declares God is all-mighty and simply change God’s omnipotence based on what is easier to worship. Kushner wrote his work for the intended purpose to comfort the reader who is experiencing trials rather than expositing on truth, logic and Scripture. This is not a sound or satisfying answer to the problem of evil.
The limited knowledge approach to explaining the problem of evil easily breaks down when one confronts Scripture. The Bible says that God is “perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:6). 1 John 3:20 says, God “knows all things.” Psalm 139:1-4 poetically describes, “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”
Open theists suggest that God who created free agents does not know what those agents will choose and therefore is excused from their evil. The problem with this logic comes when God finds out that the evil is happening, why does He not do something about it. Open theism does not attack the omnipotence of God, only the omniscience. If a man is being choked to death, or a woman attacked, why does God not intervene after the evil is premeditated and before the enormity of the evil occurs? This view leaves much to be desired.
If one holds to this view as it suggests that the problem of evil is more a problem with free will than why isn’t, the God that created free will held unaccountable. God is responsible for setting off the chain of events that lead to evil just as an arsonist is responsible for lighting the fire that kills people. This view not only is easily contradicted by Scripture and reasoning, but does not even really work to take the accountability off God to solve the problem of evil.
Fulfilled prophecy does a great deal to harm this view. Hundreds of times in Scripture, prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled completely. Psalm 22:16, 17, as well as Daniel’s seventy weeks are prime examples of this. Gregory Boyd, who is an open theist, writes on the subject of fulfilled prophecy. He says that when the New Testament fulfills a prophecy of the Old Testament Scripture, it is simply saying, “An aspect of Jesus’ life serves as the supreme example of the point of that passage.” Rather than it being fulfilled, it is simply exemplified by Jesus. The problem with this is that Jesus (humanly speaking and according to open theism) did not choose when, where and from whom He would be born. He did not choose the day and manner of His death and He did not choose that God the Father would resurrect Him three days later. All these are prophecies written in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament, over which God had complete knowledge and control.
The limited love approach breaks down in the face of Scripture. Dozens of times the Bible emphatically speaks on this great issue. Exodus 34:6-7 says, “The LORD God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.” Nehemiah 9:17 says, “But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake [Israel].” First John 3:1 proclaims, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” In one of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture, the New Testament proclaims God’s great love; “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11) Christians loving others, even those that persecute them, is central to the orthodox Christian faith. This application of Christian love has been taught and preached on for two millennia. It is absurd to claim that God’s love in limited the way those who hold this view do.
The atheistic approach to why there is evil breaks down a number of ways. First, if one believes there is no God, and the Bible is from man, it logically follows that there is no evil and no good. As mentioned before, it is relative. Therefore, in admitting that there is a problem of evil, the atheist contradicts the classic understanding of his worldview. However, atheism itself is easily broken down.
It is understandable that arguing for the existence of God is a great exercise in philosophy and one that touches on every issue. Here this writer will only briefly list basic arguments for God’s existence. First, the cosmological argument proposes that since there is something that obviously exists now, and everything that exists now must have an origin, there must be an original uncaused cause. A.J. Hoover writes, “[God] therefore must have been without beginning. An Eternal Something must be admitted by all, theist, atheist and agnostic.”[10]
Among the most convincing proofs of God’s existence is also one that validates the Bible and therefore, inadvertently, proves the Christian worldview that is the existence of fulfilled prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy is seen dozens of times in Scripture. Among the most notable is Psalm 22:16-18, “For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them And for My clothing they cast lots.” In this passage, written 900 years before Christ was born, the writer of Psalms writes what Christ would go through from His Christ’s perspective. Here we have three very specific prophecies that are fulfilled. First, the piercing of hands and feet is a reference to the manner of Christ’s death. Second, the reference to bones implies that not one of Christ’s bones would be broken. This is fulfilled in John 19:36. Thirdly, the mention of casting lots for clothing is fulfilled in John 19:24. Other fulfilled prophecies include Christ being born of a virgin from Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matthew 1:20-23; Christ being born in Bethlehem from Micah 5:2, fulfilled in Matthew 2:1; and Christ being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver from Zechariah 11:12-13, fulfilled in Matthew 26:14-15. This is just a few of hundreds of prophecies throughout the Old and New Testaments that are fulfilled. The atheistic approach breaks down dramatically in light of the overwhelming evidence stacked against it.
Biblical Teaching on the Problem of Evil
Answering the Intellectual Aspect of the Problem of Evil
In the world of Christian philosophy, the intellectual nature to the problem of evil takes its shape from the following two points: (1) An omnipotent benevolent God exists, and (2) evil exists. This is the same description to the problem mentioned above, but simplified. The atheist would look at these two views and say that the Christian worldview is false. Of course, these two propositions are not the whole of the Christian worldview. J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig borrow from the ideas of Alvin Plantinga as they deal with this issue in the book Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. In this work, they write the following:
“There is no explicit contradiction between [the two propositions]. If the atheist thinks they are implicitly contradictory, then he must be assuming some hidden premises that would serve to bring out the contradiction and make it explicit. But what are those premises? There seems to be two: (1) If God is omnipotent, then he can create any world that He desires. (2) If God is omnibenevolent, then He prefers a world without evil over a world with evil.”[11]
The authors point out here what is popularly added by atheists to the original two propositions. Atheism argues when the benevolent God would prefer an absence of evil, it is only logical that He would create a world without evil. Evil exists, therefore, the argument goes, God does not. Moreland and Craig pick up the defense, “Not only has the atheist failed to prove that God and evil are inconsistent, but we can, on the contrary, prove that they are consistent. In order to do that, all we have to do is provide some possible explanation of the evil in the world that is compatible with God’s existence. And the following is such an explanation:
(5) God could not have created a world that had so much good as the actual world but had less evil, both in terms of quantity and quality; and, moreover, God has morally sufficient reasons for permitting the evil that exists.”[12]
This provides sufficient reasoning for the consistency of the existence of God and evil. It is permissible by God that such evil exists. Because of God’s moral reasoning, He is allowing evil for the time being. Moreland and Craig go on to say, “Because it is the atheist who claims to have discerned a contradiction within theistic truth claims, it is the atheist who bears the burden of proof to show that there is no possible world in which (1) and (2) are true. That is an enormously heavy burden, which has proved to be unbearable. After centuries of discussion, contemporary philosophers including most atheists and agnostics have come to recognize this fact. It is now widely admitted that the logical problem of evil has been solved.”[13]
Answering the Emotional Aspect to the Problem of Evil
Understanding the basic tenants to the Christian worldview is by far the most satisfying of all answers to the problem of evil. Not only can one who is suffering be comforted by the teachings of Scripture, but often Christians can thrive in the midst of suffering. Many Christians claim that when they are hurting the worst they find that God is the closest. Before we get into how God comforts emotional toil in the life of a Christian, we will cover some teachings essential to understanding the Christian worldview.
God is infinitely wise. In understanding that God is omniscient in His knowledge, the Bible also teaches that God is infinite in His understanding. In Psalm 139:6, David writes, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.” Under inspiration, David admits that God’s wisdom is beyond comprehension. Later in Psalm 147:5, Scripture says, “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.” His understanding is even called perfect, “Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds, the wonders of one perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16) Knowing that God is infinite and perfect in His omniscience brings comfort that He can be trusted. Because His understanding is beyond human comprehension, it makes no sense to critique the creative work of God.
Understanding God’s plan is essential to understanding why God allows evil. In the creation account, God is not the one who ushers in evil. Satan is. When God finished His work of creation, He saw that it was without evil. “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31) Satan ushered in the fall, and with it great evil. In Genesis 3, Satan tempts Eve. The Bible says,
The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!”For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
The Bible makes it clear that Satan and mankind’s sin is the source of evil, not God. To ascribe God as the author of sin is unbiblical and untrue. The fall of man brought with it human freedom to do evil. In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis accounts as much as four-fifths of human suffering is a result of the misuse of human freedom. Lewis goes on in his book to note that Scripture associates Satan with disease (see, for example, Job; Luke 13:16; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:20)
When understanding God’s plan, one comes to realize that suffering is temporary. Revelation 21 describes future events in God’s plan. In verses one through four the apostle John writes:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
This passage and others like it brings great comfort to all who believe in Christ. God will usher in a time of great bliss—one where God is present and evil is not. Note verse four, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes… neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
God’s entire plan since the fall has been for the purpose of first, glorifying Himself, and second, relieving sin and suffering. This is the reason Christ came into the world. Jesus came to earth a man to die for our sins (John 3:16). Faith in His death and resurrection brings salvation and eternal life for the believer (Romans 10:9, 13). Jesus suffered more than humans can understand when He took on the sins of the world after His torture and crucifixion. About this, Moreland and Craig say, “Christ endured a suffering beyond all understanding: He bore the punishment for the sins on the whole world. None of us can comprehend that suffering. Though He was innocent, He voluntarily underwent incomprehensible suffering for us. Why? Because He loves us so much. How can we reject Him who gave up everything for us?”
It becomes a paradox then that we are the ones who are creating suffering and we deserve the punishment. It can be argued that God is the ultimate victim of sin and suffering as it affected His plan for the world and violated His perfectly holy nature. His entire plan since the fall has been to alleviate suffering and to establish heaven and earth as He intended before the fall. The death of Jesus is one of the first steps in that plan. In the book Where is God When it Hurts, Philip Yancy writes, “The fact that Jesus came to earth where He suffered and died does not remove pain from our lives. But it does show that God did not sit idly by and watch us suffer in isolation. He became one of us. Thus, in Jesus, God gives us an up-close and personal look at His response to human suffering. All our questions about God and suffering should, in fact, be filtered through what we know about Jesus.”[14] Yancy sees God as not only the satisfying answer to why God allows suffering, but also the example of how to deal with suffering.
Joni Erickson Tada who is a victim suffering herself has written much on the problem of suffering. After a car accident left her a quadriplegic, Tada spent much time coming to terms with why God allows suffering. In her book, When God Weeps, Tada seems to capture the essence of the emotionality of great suffering. She writes, “When a person is sorely suffering people are like hurting children looking up into the faces of their parents, crying and asking, ‘Daddy, why?’ Those children don’t want explanations, answers, or ‘reasons why’; they want their daddy to pick them up, pat them on the backs, and reassure them that everything is going to be ok.” In the midst of suffering, God is the only satisfying answer because He can personally comfort us with a presence we can sense. Tada goes on to write, “God, like a Father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives Himself. He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5). He becomes the comforter to the barren widow (Isaiah 54:1). He becomes the Father to the orphaned (Psalm 10:14). He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5). He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6).”[15] Because God gives of Himself, He does more to help suffering than anyone can do. He does more than the non-believer gives Him credit for. He does far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.
Conclusion
The Christian worldview is the only solution that comes close to a satisfying answer to the problem of evil. Reason and Scripture prove and validate the existence of God and the reliability of Scripture. Through faith in Christ, we can have a close walk with the One who has given, gives and will continue to give of Himself over, and over, to alleviate our suffering. Through understanding whom He is and His plan for us, we can know that our suffering matters to the Almighty. We do not even have to be good for Him to enter our lives and help us in our time of need. He does that because He loves us, and He loves us enough to die on the cross for our sin, to bring about the ultimate answer to the problem of evil. Through His future plan, we will live in a world that does not know sin, suffering, death, disease or even tears. I praise God that I know Him, that He has helped me through my mother’s fiery death and through other suffering in my life, and that he has taken the enormity of my sin, which caused Him pain, and took it on the cross when He died.
The cross of Calvary speaks louder on the finality of evil than any cacophony of sounds or philosophical ramblings ever could. Compared to the cross, any proposed answer is silly and absurd. When Christ took the nails, He became the end of suffering. He became the greatest love humanity could ever know. Of this great act, C.S. Lewis writes:
Love’s as hard as nails
Love is nails:
Blunt, thick, hammered through
The medial nerves of One
Who, having made us, knew
The thing He had done,
Seeing (with all that is)
Our cross and His[16].
God is sovereign. He knows the happenings of His entire created world. He understands the intense emotion of human pain and agony. He cares infinitely. He intervenes physically and spiritually. He is not apart from any suffering, not even that of a sparrow when it falls. With divinity such as His, who could turn away?
Bibliography
Philip Yancy. Where is God when it Hurts. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan Publishing House, 1990
Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes. When God Weeps. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan 1997
James Moreland and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, Il. Intervarsity Press, 2003
Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People New York: Schocken Books, 1981
Stephen T. Davis, “God the Mad Scientist: Process Theology on God and Evil,” Themelios 5, no.1 (1979): http://s3amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/journal-issues/5.1_Davis.pdf
Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith Grand Rapids, Mi: Zondervan, 2000.
Randy Alcorn, If God is Good. Colorado Springs, Co: Multnomah Books, 2009
Gregory Boyd. Is God to Blame? Downers Grove, IL. InterVarsity Press, 2003
Henry Morris and Henry Morris III. Many Infallible Proofs. Green Forrest, AR. Master Books, 1974
Bart Ehrman. God’s Problem. New York, NY. HarperCollins Publishers, 2008
C. S. Lewis. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY. Macmillan, 1962
Josh McDowell and Don Stewart. Answers. Carol Stream, IL. Tyndale House, 1980
[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith Grand Rapids, Mi: Zondervan, 2000. (p. 38)
[2] Randy Alcorn, If God is Good. Colorado Springs, Co: Multnomah Books, 2009, ( p. 11)
[3] Ibid. p. 12
[4] Ibid. p. 14
[5] James Moreland and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, Il. Intervarsity Press, 2003 (p. 537)
[6] Stephen T. Davis, “God the Mad Scientist: Process Theology on God and Evil,” Themelios 5, no.1 (1979): http://s3amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/journal-issues/5.1_Davis.pdf
[7] Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People New York: Schocken Books, 1981 (p. 176)
[8] Fred Phelps, “‘God Loves Everyone’ The Greatest Lie Ever Told: 701 Passages Proving God’s Hate and Wrath for most of Mankind,” http://www.westborobaptistchurch.com/written/reports/20060331_god-loves-everyone-lie.pdf
[9] Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People New York: Schocken Books, 1981 (p. 134)
[10] A.J. Hoover, Evangelical Dicitonary of Theology Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Academic 2009 (p. 489)
[11] James Moreland and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, Il. Intervarsity Press, 2003 (p. 538)
[12] Ibid. p.539
[13] James Moreland and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, Il. Intervarsity Press, 2003 (p. 541)
[14] Philip Yancy. Where is God when it Hurts. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan Publishing House, 1990 (p. 234)
[15] Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes. When God Weeps. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan 1997 (p. 125)
[16] Philip Yancy. Where is God when it Hurts. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan Publishing House, 1990 (p. 235)
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