What Is Evil?

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries. Welcome to Truth for a New Generation Radio.

And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. What is evil? Does evil actually exist? And if evil exists, what's the solution for it? What's the origin of it?

Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to the Truth for a New Generation radio program. You know, every worldview has to deal with what scholars call the problem of evil. Now there are several ways to approach this, and I think we know what evil is because we see deeds done by people and we say that was wrong, that was bad, and when we really want to emphasize how something was profoundly wrong, we'll say that was evil. There's even another word that's very strong and it's probably the most powerful adjective that we could invoke when talking about bad deeds, sinful actions.

It's the word wicked. I mean, some things are an inconvenience, some things are undesirable, but there are things done in this world that can only be described as wicked. Years and years ago, the Menendez brothers were in the news. They were in their late teens, young adults, and yet they murdered their parents for insurance money. Clearly, that was evil.

In my own home state of North Carolina some years ago, the world was shocked as two preachers' sons, they were adults, they plotted the murder of the wife of one of the sons, grisly, horrible murder, they worked hard to cover it up, and with the life insurance money, bought motorcycles and boats. That was evil. Evil exists. Now some people, many of the skeptics with whom I've debated, they've said the world is so full of bad things, clearly a loving God must not exist. In fact, there was a thinker years and years ago named Epicurus, and he was elaborated on by the Scottish writer David Hume, but they said basically, if God is willing to prevent evil but he doesn't, then he must not be good. If God is willing to prevent evil but he's not able to, then he's not omnipotent. But if God is willing that evil happen, then maybe he's not good.

It was phrased this way by Hume. Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he's impotent, said Hume, who by the way denied the supernatural and denied miracles. If God is able but not willing, then he is malevolent. Is God both able and willing? Then whence evil? In other words, why does evil exist? Perhaps you know in Robinson Crusoe, the famous novel, where Friday asks the question, if God is all-powerful, why he no kill the devil? Well, in the Christian worldview, we acknowledge that evil exists and that God is all-powerful. Now, on the surface, these two things might seem to be irreconcilable. An all-powerful, all-good, all-wise God, and yet evil, pain, suffering, rottenness, sin, wickedness exists.

How do you reconcile these two things? Well, some say, clearly the biblical God just must not exist. But let's ask the question, does the present reality of sin and evil necessarily mean that God isn't real, or God as the Bible describes him? Now, the reason I invoke the word necessary is because this means, is it a logical necessity that we conclude there is no God? Now, if we see a pipe burst and water spray all over the room, it is logically necessary that there's going to have to be a clean-up. There are some things that logically follow.

2 plus 2, logically, mathematically, must equal 4. But a loving, powerful, wise God, who is able and is willing and who knows how to vanquish evil, it doesn't necessarily follow that such a being doesn't exist because there's evil right now. In fact, only the Christian worldview really has a plausible, workable, I would say compelling, very encouraging solution to the problem of evil. Secularism and naturalism really denies the existence of evil. Because evil, if something is objectively wrong, it's not merely my opinion, I'm not just saying, look, I don't like it.

No, I'm saying it is objectively, factually, absolutely, the scholarly word would be ontologically wrong. What Putin is doing in the Ukraine is wrong. Not only does it violate the standards of NATO and treaties and civil government, it violates the rights of people, it violates human conscience.

We look at what Putin is doing in the Ukraine and we know that is evil. This is wrong. There was something in the news this week about a girl in New York City, a 26-year-old, said to be socialite, was going through New York City and shoved down to the ground an 87-year-old lady, who it turns out was a beloved vocal coach, a Broadway performer in her own right, and was a vocal coach for pop stars like Blondie, who's made many popular records. Well, the lady hits her head on the concrete and is bleeding.

The girl watches what she's done and then flees away and the lady dies. And the lawyer's defense, now this woman is being charged with manslaughter, the lawyer says, but my client who shoved the woman to the ground, my client is moral and just and upright. And of course the Internet is melting down saying, no, this woman is evil and needs to be accountable for what she's done. Well folks, when we come back, I'm going to continue talking about what evil is from a biblical perspective, a biblical definition. 1 John 5.19 says, we know that we are children of God, yet the whole world is under control of the evil one.

That's Satan. 1 Corinthians 13.6 says, love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Evil exists. Secularism might deny it. Spiritualism says it's part of the yin and the yang. Christianity says, no, evil exists and it is bad and it is wrong, and yet God really honestly does have a solution. Stay tuned, we're going to talk about that solution when truth for a new generation returns.

DNG Radio. Alex has written many books to help you defend your faith. One of them answers questions from skeptics.

It's cleverly titled, Ten Answers for Skeptics. Today's skeptics are looking for authenticity, integrity, and straightforward truth. And in the book, Alex McFarland identifies the ten most common types of skepticism that plague doubters' minds and offers believers proven strategies for connecting intellectually and spiritually with those who are skeptical about the claims of Christianity. Learn how to answer intimidating questions, identify the root issue behind those questions, and dismantle the spiritual bombshells dropped by atheists.

Plus find encouragement to face hostility by persevering in love. The ultimate apologetic Christians can offer as a witness to our loving God. Check out Ten Answers for Skeptics when you visit alexmcfarland.com. The Apostle Peter wrote 1 Peter to remind us that Christians have true and lasting hope in their Savior Jesus Christ. Because Jesus conquered death in an incorruptible glorified body, we can be sure that our salvation has permanence as we walk through everyday life. The Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove presents Jesus Christ, Hope That Lives, Hope That Lasts for Every Believer, a special three-day seminar with Alex McFarland. Alex will dig into 1 Peter to help you gain truths to live by and assurance to keep going. Come to the Cove near Asheville, North Carolina, July 8 through 10, for three days of in-depth Bible study, fellowship, and refreshing. Jesus Christ, Hope That Lives, Hope That Lasts for Every Believer, a study of 1 Peter with Alex McFarland.

Find out more and register at thecove.org. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit alexmcfarland.com. Welcome back to Truth For A New Generation.

Alex McFarland here. Thank you for listening. We're talking about the problem of evil, the problem of pain and suffering. Christianity posits that yes, a good, loving, all-powerful God exists, but yes, there is sin in the world. Now, people often ask this question, if God created everything, did God create evil? So if you said, well, God created everything, evil is a thing, therefore God created evil. Point A, God created everything. That's true. God created the heavens and the earth, all of the physical reality, the world, the universe.

Yes, God created. That is true. And then point B, here's a presupposition. Now, you know, a presupposition is a truth claim, a statement.

You are hearing my voice right now. Is that true or false? It's true. You are. Okay. Evil is a thing. That is a presupposition for sure. All right. What we've got to do is realize that for a line of thought to be valid, in other words, the conclusion of a line of thought, and the technical word for this is the word syllogism.

You know, point A. If A, if B, therefore C. Well, a lot of people, this is where so many atheists are, they say, well, God created everything, evil is a thing, therefore God must have created evil. So apparently God wants us to suffer all that we're suffering. Apparently God is okay with all this evil in the world. Well, this is wrong on a lot of levels because we know for God to exist and God to be eternal, there can be no evil in God because sin brings death. So we've got to make sure that our premises are valid in order to make sure that our conclusion is true.

So let's really set this thing up in a valid form. Yes, God did create everything, but evil is not a thing, not like a material, physical thing. Evil is a corruption of a thing. In other words, evil is like a parasite on a host. And we can thank some great thinkers like St. Augustine for helping us in this way. You see, like 1 Corinthians 5.22 says, reject every kind of evil.

Isn't that something? So if God created evil, what we're assuming, wrongly, but we're assuming that evil is like a thing. Now God created the heavens and the earth. Now, earth was good over and over. It says God looked over all of his creation. God saw it was good. It was good. You read Genesis 1 and 2 and repeatedly we see that it's good. Adam and Eve were in the garden.

It was paradise on earth, and that was good. But you look at the world and there is killing, lying, adultery, immorality, theft, credit card fraud. There's a lot of bad stuff in the world.

And then there's a Russia that invades the Ukraine. That's evil. Okay. God didn't create evil because God is not the author of death. God is not the author of injustice. Now, it could be said, and please listen very carefully.

We don't want to lose each other at this point. The most that could be said if you're wanting to accuse God of something. God did not create evil. God did create the possibility of evil by giving us something called volition.

V-o-l-o-t-i-o-n. Volution. V-o-l-i-t-i-o-n. Volition is the ability to make moral choices. But look, while free will makes it possible for humans to do bad things, it also makes it possible for humans to do good things, like have a relationship with their Creator and Savior.

So the world is the way it is because it couldn't be any other way in order for us to have a relationship with God. Human beings had to have the capacity for moral decision making. Adam and Eve had the capacity for moral decision making. And a moral decision, a very morally and spiritually charged decision that they made in the Garden of Eden was to disobey God and listen to the lies of the serpent rather than the truth of God. Now it is our ability, our volitional capacity to make moral choices that is part of our humanity.

And do you know what? While the good news, the good opportunity is that we can use our abilities, our words, our actions, our influence to do good things. We can tell people that we love them. We can learn how to cook food and feed an elderly grandparent.

We can learn how to work a job and make money and provide for ourselves and our family. We can use our moral faculties to do good things. We can also use our moral and physical abilities to do bad things.

And that is what evil is. Now people have often said to me, in fact we have corresponded over the last 25 years with hundreds of people and sometimes people will say, well if I were God I would not have given man free will. People have said this to me, if I were God people would have free will but they would not have the ability to use it for bad. But that is not free will.

You see, humanity has this capacity. God offers His love but He does not force it. God shows us the right way.

In fact the Bible promises that God will not put on us more than we are able to bear and with every temptation will provide a way of escape that we may be able to bear it. And so for the person that would reason in a less than correct way and wind up with a God that is guilty of evil, they have made a mistake but let me just say this. What they are doing is actually called a counterfactual.

They are arguing against reality. God does exist and He is good. God is powerful. God is wise. But humans do have free will. And it is that free will that even makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. Because free creatures who cannot sin, that is really an oxymoron or a contradiction.

If we truly have free will we could use it for the good or for the bad. Now stay tuned Truth For A New Generation will be right back after this. A very deep, philosophical, theologically filled episode but it's worth talking about because God is good and there is a solution to the problem of sin and suffering.

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You're listening to Truth for a New Generation Radio. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here.

Before we resume our talk about the problem of sin and suffering, I want to remind people that I am on the road traveling. My schedule is on the newly updated website alexmcfarland.com. March 30th through April 3rd I'm in San Angelo, Texas. This is basically the San Antonio area First Presbyterian Church of San Angelo, Texas. I'll also be speaking at San Angelo State University. I'm going to be in Cincinnati, Ohio April 10 Landmark Baptist Church. That's Palm Sunday. I'll be preaching about the book of Revelation, Bible prophecy, so many things coming up and I'm very excited about that, albeit East Tennessee State University, Salem, Illinois.

But listen to this. Our youth camp is coming up July 17-22. The theme is Unashamed, Building Your Biblical Worldview. We're talking to kids about walking with the Lord, being a Christian, defending the faith.

We're also talking about America. And friends, we have got to stand for God and country. So do you know it takes $91 for a child to come to our camp? And many of the kids that want to come to our camp, middle school and high schoolers, they want to come. We want them there, but they don't have the money to go to camp.

We have never in 24 years of doing camps, never turned any child away and we never will. But we could use your help. $91 and that's programs, t-shirt, books, insurance, food, horseback riding, swimming, all the camp stuff. Your tax-deductible gift will be gratefully received, faithfully used. And would you consider, I really do need actually a couple of hundred people to donate $91 each to help underwrite this year's camp.

And God will use it. You can write to us at P.O. Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313, just Alex McFarland, or you could just put TNG, as in Truth for a New Generation, TNG, P.O. Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina. Or you can donate securely online, AlexMcFarland.com.

I would encourage you to pray about becoming a monthly partner with us. We're doing events, publishing, broadcasting, sharing the gospel all around America and beyond, standing for truth, and helping people think biblically and factually and critically. Evil, it exists. But it's really, if you want to be very technically precise, evil is a corruption of a thing. Let's say you've got a beautiful painting in an art gallery and it's beautiful, and yet in one quadrant of the picture there's a rip in the canvas.

And that blemish is so glaringly evident. It's a bad thing. You see, the rip is not a thing in itself. It's a bit of damage to another thing that was good.

God did not create evil, but the possibility of evil existed in us having free will. Now, do you know what? I'm talking about this because of a news story that came out in the third week of March as the Ukrainian conflict escalates, and the threat of conflict between Taiwan and China escalates, and the threat of terrorism against Israel escalates. Well, here's a problem for the US military. During the years of President Obama back in 2012, there was a law that we imposed on ourselves, really for no good reason, that we could not be involved in more than one military conflict at a time.

Why? Well, the utopian liberal view that man is basically good. And then President Obama back in 2012 said that he wanted to, quote, streamline the military.

And so there was a doctrine or law, or really a protocol put in place. Now, hopefully, leaders in our Pentagon will overthrow this or strike this from the books, though under the current administration, I would not say hold your breath. But look, the idea that, first of all, we shouldn't have a strong, robust military ever at the ready to advocate for the rights of American citizens, and the idea that we as a nation could never be involved in more than one conflict at a time because, quote, people are basically good. And the assumption that somehow we can usher in this global utopia, that's a worldview.

For one thing, it's false. But do you see the outflow of one's beliefs? Some people think people are basically good, and yet that view causes the world to be less good, and in fact more evil. Christianity and the viewpoint of America's founders said, no, people have a bent towards sin. We have a fallen nature. People are basically bad, but that belief makes the world less evil and more moral because we live and we govern by an objective moral standard, a binding, absolute moral standard that we all agree to follow. And so look, God did create everything, and He created humans and angels, each of which have free will. But God knew that some would use their free will to choose sin and rebellion, and so God has made a way for us to be saved. Please listen very carefully.

We'll have to hit the pause button for today. We agree that this is not the best world yet. This world is not heaven.

And the Federalists, like Alexander Hamilton, acknowledge this. If men were angels, no government would be necessary, but man is fallen. But here's the thing. While this may not be the best world, it's the best way to the best world. In fact, it's the only way to the best world, a world of eternity where everybody goes where they want to go.

You know, the Moody Blues were right in that song, Nights in White Satin, that just what you want to be, you'll be in the end. In other words, if you don't want to go to heaven, God is not going to make you go to heaven. If you don't want to go to heaven, God is not going to force you to go there. But if you do want to know the Lord, you can. And Jesus is as close by as a prayer.

If ever there was a time, we need to know that sin exists, sin is serious, sin will be the downfall of any individual, sin will be the condemnation of any country. And we know the right and the way to it. It's the God of the written revelation, the Bible, and His Son Jesus. And through Him alone, there is salvation. We must know truth in this time of evil and be committed to stand for it. Our ministry, Truth for New Generation and Alex McFarland Ministries, we are here to help you know truth, stand for truth, live truth, grow in the truth, and even defend the truth.

May the name of the Lord be praised. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-YES-GOD1.

That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to program archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment, AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time for more Truth for a New Generation on TNG radio.