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Is God Dead?
This week, we find ourselves continuing to work our way through what God has to say about evil and suffering and possible reasons why he allows them to exist. We have previously looked at what the Bible says about evil and suffering as punishment for sin, as a consequence of other people’s sin, and as an outworking of the fallen angels’ free will manifest in all sorts of natural evil, including disasters and disease.
However, the Bible also speaks of the necessity of some evil and suffering bringing about “a greater good.” Most all of us can think of pain and suffering that we endured only to come later to realize that the suffering brought about a particular state of affairs that could not have been otherwise discovered. This line of argument is often called the greater good defense and is one of the five categories of possible reasons why God allows suffering and evil to exist in the world to bring about God’s desired ends.
The fourth-century bishop, Augustine of Hippo, responded to the idea of a greater-good defense by explaining, “for Almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge, has supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would never permit the existence of anything evil among His works, if he were not so omnipotent and good that He can bring good out of even evil.” The biblical concept of God using evil and suffering for a greater good can be seen in the story of Joseph and his brother (Gen 37-50).
The story goes that Joseph was the youngest of eleven brothers and their father’s favorite. Out of jealousy, the brothers kidnap Joseph and then sell him into slavery, where he eventually ends up in Egypt as Pharaoh’s right-hand man. The position eventually gives Joseph extraordinary wealth and power, even over Pharaoh’s grain stores. As fate would have it, Joseph’s eleven brothers are forced by famine to seek food in Egypt, and, unbeknownst to them, they have to negotiate with the little brother they had long ago sold into slavery. Eventually, Joseph tells them who he is, and they become fearful that their now powerful little brother will exact revenge. Nonetheless, the power of the story comes when Joseph shows mercy upon his brothers and makes the classic greater-good confession in the process.
Of their evil deed done, Joseph tells his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20). In his reply, Joseph acknowledges that the greater-good that was done by Joseph providing food for the victims of famine (evil as the consequences of angelic sin) as a good that could not have come about by another means. In other words, Scripture is clear that some moral goods are impossible apart from responding to particular evils.
This approach often called the soul-making strategy, was put forward by the early church leader, Irenaeus. Origen, another early church father, said, “virtue is not virtue if it be untested and unexamined. Apart from evil, there would be no crown of victory for him who rightly struggled.” Indeed, the apostle Paul, over and again, writes of his struggles and the greater good that could not have been attained by any other means.
In one instance, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, “for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor 1:8). Paul continues, “indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death,” then, Paul lays out the greater-good attained saying, “but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
He delivered us from such a deadly peril and will deliver us again (2 Cor 1:9-10). For Paul, the greater good of faith in God far outweighs his “despair of life itself.” The student of Paul will no doubt find it is hard to read these passages and not recall his words to the Romans, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
Paul also speaks of the greater good realized by God refusing to remove the “thorn from his flesh” so that Paul might not become “too conceited” (2 Cor 12:7-9). Through it all, Paul encourages the faithful to “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4). Here, it seems James is indicating that the greater good of being “perfect and complete” comes from the evil and suffering of “trials of various kinds.” It sounds like Paul has soul-building in mind.
Although we have only scratched the surface of the greater good observed in Scripture, we have touched enough to state with great confidence that one of the reasons given in the Bible for God allowing evil to exist can be found in the greater good of soul-building.
Join us next week as we look at the last of five possible reasons gleaned from the Bible why God may allow evil and suffering to exist, and that is gratuitous evil. Until then, evaluate the evidence, then answer, is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ and live in Ardmore, OK. You can contact him at [email protected].
