The BEST Answer to the Problem of Evil 2

Conversations That Matter

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:14

So, as we can see, the problem of evil really needs to be phrased in a different manner, especially if we're coming from a

00:21

Christian point of view. If an atheist raises an objection about Christianity, he needs to really enter the

00:26

Christian worldview in order to disprove the Christian worldview. That's what doing an internal critique of a worldview means.

00:33

You can't take all your presuppositions and impose them on the worldview you're critiquing.

00:38

So, when an atheist enters the Christian worldview, he sees that the question is asked in a completely different fashion.

00:45

The script is totally flipped. And the emotional, the psychological aspect of this question, half of it at least, seems to go away immediately, and we're left thinking, oh wow,

00:56

God is merciful to even let us live. Now, there is a third point

01:03

I'd like to make, and I think this answers the other half of the emotional part of the question. Atheists have no way to cope with evil.

01:10

They have no way to answer the problem of evil. In fact, in their world, evil should not even exist. It's just like the color blue and green, it's just a preference, it's not something that is transcendent over all of us.

01:20

They don't have a standard to rely on for good, so they have no evil. Now, if they want to still insist that evil exists by their own arbitrary standard, whatever it may be, then they have no way to cope with it.

01:31

What is, is, in an atheist universe. Physics just functions the way physics functions. And we have no objection that we can raise to it.

01:39

There is no justice after death. There is nothing to cling to in the midst of suffering. That's just the way it is.

01:46

This may be logically viable for some of you. However, emotionally speaking, for those who have lost a brother, who have had cancer, who are disabled, who have watched serious things happen, whether it be the holocaust or a natural disaster, this does not help at all.

02:05

What does help is the person of Jesus Christ, who entered human history as a man, as God, and suffered the things that we have suffered to a much greater extent.

02:16

In fact, in Hebrews, he even talks about how Jesus can relate to our every affirmity because he experienced them himself on the cross, taking our punishment.

02:25

John Lennox is going to talk to you now about the person of Jesus and how, ultimately, he is the answer to the problem of evil.

02:34

Suffering and evil constitute the greatest problem that any of us have when facing these questions.

02:43

One can understand the reaction of many people when they observe cruelty, violence, suffering, evil, and say, well,

02:52

I can't possibly believe in a God. And I can understand that. I must say, as a

02:57

Christian, it constitutes a major problem. And it would seem that, in one sense, atheism has solved the problem.

03:05

That's just the way the universe is. It's surprising anything goes right. It's just basically amoral, blind, purposeless, and so on.

03:14

Well, yes, there is a sense in which atheism does solve the intellectual problem. But we have to notice that it doesn't take away the suffering.

03:26

That's the first thing. And secondly, we notice that it leaves no hope whatsoever.

03:33

Now, of course, that may well be the situation, and we've got to face it. So the equation looks a bit like this.

03:41

The atheist believes that the intellectual problem is solved. It just means there's no

03:47

God, and then it makes sense, although it's horrific. For the

03:52

Christian who believes in God by definition, it constitutes a major problem.

04:00

But the Christian will argue that what the

04:06

Christian has is hope in the face of suffering. Now, the atheist has no hope, because death is the end by definition.

04:16

So there's no hope of compensation. There's no hope of justice. There's no hope of anything to balance out the suffering that people have experienced.

04:28

But the Christian does believe that such a hope exists. And it seems to me that one of the ways into this question, and I put it that way advisedly, because there are no simplistic solutions to this question.

04:44

One of the ways into it is to look at what the New Testament tells us about the nature of God.

04:51

And if the Christian story is true, and I believe it to be true, Jesus Christ was

04:56

God incarnate. And we all know, of course, that he was crucified. Now, if this is

05:03

God, then we have to ask ourselves what this means. And one of the things that I think it means very clearly is that God has not remained distant from our human suffering, but has become part of it.

05:16

In other words, the question then boils down to, do we have enough reason to trust

05:22

God when suffering looms large or evil is there and so on?

05:30

Is there enough evidence to trust God with it? The tragedy, it seems to me, of atheism is that we find ourselves to be moral beings, yet atheism doesn't give any justification for our morality in the sense that there is no ultimate justice.

05:49

If death is the end, and if a person has had a horrible life of suffering and pain, and death is the end, then there's no hope of any kind of compensation.

05:59

Whereas, as a Christian, I believe that God is a God of love, and therefore there is to be ultimate justice.

06:07

That is going to be guaranteed by the fact that life exists after death, and there is to be a judgment where God will sort everything out perfectly fairly.

06:20

Therefore, as a God of love, I believe that there will be real compensation for the sufferings that have been innocently endured.

06:29

So, to sum this up, atheism appears to solve the problem, but it doesn't. It leaves the suffering, and it could be argued that it makes it worse because now there's no hope.

06:41

Very often, human experience tells us that when we're in a situation where there is suffering and pain to be endured, if there's hope to be placed alongside it, it gives us some help to endure and face it.

06:55

But if you remove all hope, as atheism does, then you have a very bleak universe indeed.

07:02

Now, of course, the atheists will say, well, the universe is just like that. It's bleak. But then

07:08

I would want to come back on the fact that where does the evidence point? Does the evidence point to their solution, or is there sufficient evidence, as I believe there is, to come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ really is

07:22

God, and that therefore his suffering on the cross in a very real way opens the door to profound answers to this question?

07:30

I hope that that helps you in answering the problem of evil, maybe to your friends who are skeptical, or to just anyone you meet on witnessing encounters.

07:40

This is such an important topic, and it really, I believe, has a full answer and a rich answer in the

07:46

Christian worldview. There are many other defenses that Christian apologists like to use.

07:54

Go to my blog, check it out. I hope this is helpful to everyone, because it certainly was helpful for me. So have a good week.

08:01

God bless. And I hope that you'll be able to talk with a friend or a family member or someone else about the problem of evil in the next coming weeks, whether you're witnessing or whether the