THEODICY: WHY
GOD ALLOWS
EVIL
Robby Lashua
DSCC Oasis
Feb. 16th, 2014
Recap
• God can allow evil, while
being all-good and allpowerful, if He has good
reasons to do so.
• Evil is not a thing, it is the
lack of a thing, specifically the
lack of good.
Recap
• There are two types of Evil
• Moral Evil: evil that is
committed by free moral
agents
• Natural Evil: evil that occurs
from the natural order and
is not brought about
primarily by free moral
agents
Recap
Four types of Natural Evil:
1. Evils that can be attributed to
human agency
2. Disorders caused by genetic
malfunction
3. Natural disasters
4. Diseases that result from
bacteria or virus
THEODICY
Theodicy Defined
From the Greek:
θεός theos =
“God”
δίκη dikê =
Theodicy Defined
“A defense shows at most that the
critic of theism has failed to make
his case. A theodicy, on the other
hand, attempts to show that God
is justified in permitting evil.”
–Ronald Nash
Theodicy
What would our world
be like if God prevented
all evil from happening?
GOD’S INTENTION FOR
MANKIND
Genesis 1:26-31
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our
image, according to Our likeness; and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds
of the sky and over the cattle and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth.” God created man in His
own image, in the image of God He created
him; male and female He created them. God
blessed them; and God said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-31
Then God said, “Behold, I have given you
every plant yielding seed that is on the surface
of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit
yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to
every beast of the earth and to every bird of
the sky and to every thing that moves on the
earth which has life, I have given every green
plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that
He had made, and behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning,
the sixth day.
God’s Attributes
• Communicable:
Attributes of God
that are more
shared by us.
God’s Attributes
Spirituality, Invisibility,
Knowledge, Wisdom, Freedom,
Truthfulness, Goodness, Love,
Mercy, Grace, Patience,
Holiness, Peace, Righteousness,
Jealousy, Wrath, Will,
Perfection, Blessedness, Beauty,
and Glory.
God’s Attributes
• Incommunicable:
Attributes of God
that are less shared
by us.
God’s Attributes
Independence, Immutability
(unchangeableness), Eternity,
Omnipresence, Unity,
Image Bearers
• Made in the image and
likeness of God
• Made to rule and have
dominion over creation
WHERE DID EVIL COME
FROM?
Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded
the man, “You are free to eat from
any tree in the garden; but you
must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for
when you eat of it you will surely
die. The man and his wife were
both naked, and they felt no
shame.”
• The tree of knowledge of good
and evil was necessary
• Truly free beings (IOG) must
have the opportunity to use
their freedom in a wrong way.
Genesis 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any
beast of the field which the LORD God had
made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed,
has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree
of the garden’?” The woman said to the
serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the
garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the
tree which is in the middle of the garden,
God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or
touch it, or you will die.’ ” The serpent said
to the woman, “You surely will not die!”
Genesis 3:1-7
“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 LIE
• Adam and Eve believed the lie
that God was holding out on
them and that He did not
have their best interests in
mind.
Precisely because a created will belongs to a
creature, that creature, if sufficiently reflective, can
reflect on its creaturehood and realize that it is not
God. Creaturehood implies constraints to which the
Creator is not subject…. The question then
naturally arises, Has God the Creator denied to the
creature some freedom that might benefit it? Adam
and Eve thought the answer to this was yes…. As
soon as the creature answers yes to this question, its
will turns against God. Once that happens the will
becomes evil. Whereas previously evil was merely a
possibility, now it has become a reality. In short, the
problem of evil starts with thinking that God is evil
for withholding benefits he could readily have
conferred.”
–William Dembski
• The Christian worldview
believes that God created and
has put us into an open
system.
• This means that although the
laws of nature exist, God can
and does intervene through
miracles and mankind can
also intervene, which he did in
the fall
The Curse of Genesis 3:16-19
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have
listened to the voice of your wife, and have
eaten from the tree about which I
commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat
from it’;
The Curse of Genesis 3:16-19
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life. “Both thorns and
thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
Origin of evil
• In this passage we find the
origination of human sin,
which brought about evil,
both moral and natural.
• Moral evil is human evil.
• Natural evil is: cancer, germs,
disease, tornadoes, hurricanes,
etc…
Adam
• Adam ‫אדם‬is cursed
• The ground ‫אדמה‬is cursed
• Connection between mankind
and the ground we were
created from.
Romans 8:19-22
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits
eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not
willingly, but because of Him who subjected
it, in hope that the creation itself also will be
set free from its slavery to corruption into the
freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans
and suffers the pains of childbirth together
until now.”