Several years ago my family was on vacation in Northern California and stopped to check in to our motel in Fairfield. As I approached the front desk, I heard another customer at the desk asking the clerk how there could be a God when there was so much evil in the world. Since this question had been a favorite study of mine for at least the previous ten years, I listened intently. I knew this had to be a divine appointment.
During the mild rant, the man mentioned his name. We’ll say it was “Bill.” After I’d been there for five minutes or so, Bill turned around and saw me. He apologized for holding me up and stepped back to give me access to the desk.
I said, “That’s okay, Bill. God has sent me here to explain the Problem of Evil to you.” He jumped back and said, “How did you know my name.” Since I recognized this as a divine appointment, I said, “I told you, Bill. God has sent me here.”
Well, I have to say, he listened intently as I presented the argument you will read below. I’m not sure what happened with Bill. We were there a couple of days and so was Bill. He avoided me at every turn, though.
The Problem of Evil is the most asked question to Christians. And, it was not sufficiently answered until a philosophy professor named Alvin Plantinga wrote his book God, Freedom, and Evil, near the middle of the last century. It’s called the Freewill Defense, and it goes like this:
If God is good, He would not want evil in the world.
If God is all powerful, He could end evil.
If God is all knowing, He would know how to end evil.
Evil exists.
Therefore, a good, all powerful, all knowing God does not exist.
Dr. Plantinga says this, God is love, and He wants us to love Him as well.
If we were programmed to love God, it would not be genuine love because we would have no choice not to love Him.
In order for us to love God with genuine love, we need to be able to reject His love and not love Him.
Therefore, because man has freewill to love or not to love God, he also has the choice to act righteously or unrighteously.
So, when we see evil like the planes flying into the Twin Towers and killing 3,000 people, we can’t blame God. He gave those men the freewill to act unrighteously.
This freewill seems to be an irrevocable principal of God’s relationship. He gives us the choice to follow Him or not to follow Him.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 