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The beauty, variety, and design in creation lead many to believe there must be an intelligent Creator. Yet, for many others, the biggest stumbling block to their belief in God is the existence of suffering and evil in the world. If ‘God is love,’ why does he allow so many bad things to happen to good people? Are there valid reasons for God’s permitting evil? Is there reason to believe that evil will end in the near future?

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

At the base of the San Salvador volcano in El Salvador sits the town of San Ramón. On the morning of September 19, 1982, it was hit by three huge waves of mud. Fed by torrential rains, the first wave was nearly two stories high and carried boulders and tree trunks. Carving out a canyon 160 feet deep and 250 feet wide, it rolled down the side of the volcano, picking up momentum and size as it went. Reaching the bottom, it slammed into the adobe homes in its path.

Ana’s home collapsed under the unrelenting wave in one terrifying instant. Her daughters grasped at Ana and cried, “Pray for us!” Then the mud engulfed them . . .

By chance, though, a roofing tile lodged itself in front of Ana’s face, leaving her some breathing space. “I just kept calling and calling for help,” she says. About four hours later, neighbors heard her cries and began to extricate her. She was found buried in mud up to her armpits, with the bodies of her daughters pressed up against her in the suffocating mud.

THE people of San Ramón were humble and friendly. Among the dead were a number of dedicated Christians, including a newlywed couple, Miguel and Cecilia, and a family of five whose bodies were found locked in an embrace.

Calamity, though, makes no distinction between good and bad people, a fact many find hard to reconcile with belief in a loving God. ‘What kind of God,’ they ask, ‘would allow such a needless waste of life to occur? Or for that matter, how could an all-powerful Deity watch the elderly go unsheltered, hardworking families lose their life savings, young men and women in the prime of their lives being struck down by fatal illnesses​—and do nothing?’

Harold S. Kushner, a Jewish rabbi, asked such questions when he learned that his son would die of a rare disease. The baffling injustice of this puzzled Kushner. “I had been a good person,” he recalls. “I had tried to do what was right in the sight of God. . . . I believed that I was following God’s ways and doing His work. How could this be happening to my family?” Out of his search for answers came his popular book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

Kushner is just one of many theologians who have tried to answer the question of why God permits evil. In effect, man has placed God on trial. What verdict have Kushner and other theologians reached? Is their verdict a just one?

How Some Explain God’s Permission of Evil

GOD​—guilty or innocent of authoring human suffering? This question looms large over calamities, whether personal or large-scale such as at San Ramón. Says the British journal The Evangelical Quarterly: “One of the greatest hindrances to belief in an all-powerful, all-loving God is the existence of apparently undeserved suffering in the world.”

Some would therefore fault God for tolerating​—if not actually causing—​suffering. Wrote theologian John K. Roth: “History itself is God’s indictment. . . . Do not take lightly what God’s responsibility entails.”

Many religious thinkers since Augustine, though, have argued eloquently for God’s innocence. Seventeenth-century philosopher Leibniz coined a term for this endeavor: theodicy, or “justification of God.”​—See page 6.

Modern Theology Takes the Witness Stand

Efforts to clear God of blameworthiness have continued into modern times. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church, tried to resolve the problem by denying that evil exists in the first place! In Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, she wrote: “God . . . never made man capable of sin . . . Hence, evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis.”​—Italics ours.

Others have excused God on the basis of there being supposed virtue in suffering. A rabbi once said: “Suffering comes to ennoble man, to purge his thoughts of pride and superficiality.” Along similar lines, some theologians have theorized that suffering on earth is “necessary to prepare us as moral personalities for the life of the future heavenly Kingdom.”

But is it reasonable to believe that God brings or allows disasters so as to purge and punish people? Certainly those buried alive at San Ramón had little chance to improve their moral development. Did God sacrifice them so as to teach a lesson to the survivors? If so, what was the lesson?

Understandably, then, Kushner’s book When Bad Things Happen to Good People has popular appeal. Because its author personally knew the pain of suffering, he attempted to comfort his readers, reassuring them that God is good. However, when it came to explaining just why God permits the innocent to suffer, Kushner’s reasoning took a strange turn. “God wants the righteous to live peaceful, happy lives,” explained Kushner, “but sometimes even He can’t bring that about.”

Kushner thus proposed a God who is not wicked but weak, a God somewhat less than almighty. Curiously, though, Kushner still encouraged his readers to pray for divine help. But as to just how this supposedly limited God could be of any real assistance, Kushner is vague.

An Ancient Debate

The world’s religious thinkers have thus failed to mount a convincing defense for God and to render real comfort to victims of evil. Perhaps what should be on trial is not God but theology! For these conflicting theories merely echo the hollow reasonings uttered nearly four millenniums ago. At that time a debate took place centering around the sufferings of a God-fearing man named Job, a wealthy and prominent Oriental who became the victim of a series of calamities. In rapid succession Job suffered the loss of his wealth, the death of his children, and, finally, he was afflicted with a loathsome disease.​—Job 1:3, 13-19; 2:7.

Three so-called friends came to Job’s aid. But rather than rendering comfort, they assailed him with theology. The gist of their argument was: ‘God has done this to you, Job! Obviously you are being punished for having done something wrong! Besides, God has no faith at all in his servants.’ (Job 4:7-9, 18) Job could not understand why God seemingly had ‘set him up as a target for himself.’ (Job 16:11, 12) To his credit, Job maintained his integrity and never directly ascribed evil to God.

Nevertheless, Job’s comforters had, in effect, ‘pronounced God wicked,’ by implying that every sufferer of calamity was being punished for evildoing. (Job 32:3) But God soon corrected their erroneous views.

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Cover: FAO photo

Examining Evil From Augustine to Calvin

IN HIS book The City of God, fifth-century theologian Augustine argued that man, not God, was responsible for the existence of evil. Wrote Augustine: “God, the author of natures, not of vices, created man upright; but man, being of his own will corrupted and justly condemned, begot corrupted and condemned children . . . And thus, from the bad use of free will, there originated the whole train of evil.”

The bad use of free will may explain much, or most, of the evil that has afflicted people. However, could a disaster, such as at San Ramón, be blamed on man’s free will? Are not many disastrous events caused by circumstances beyond the control of man? And even if man did willfully choose evil, why would a God of love allow evil to continue?

In the 16th century, French Protestant theologian John Calvin, like Augustine, believed that there are those “predestined [by God] to be children and heirs of the heavenly kingdom.” However, Calvin took matters a step further, arguing that God also predestined individuals to be “recipients of his wrath”​—condemned to eternal damnation!

Calvin’s doctrine had frightening implications. If a man suffered any sort of misfortune, might that not indicate that he was among the damned? Furthermore, would not God be responsible for the actions of those he predestined? Calvin had thus unwittingly made God the Creator of sin! Calvin said that “man sins with the consent of a very prompt and inclined will.”​—Instruction in Faith, by John Calvin.

However, the concepts of free will and predestination proved hopelessly incompatible. Calvin could only gloss over the embarrassing contradiction by claiming that “the crudity of our mind could not indeed bear such a great clarity, nor our smallness comprehend such a great wisdom” as predestination.

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Augustine

John Calvin

Evil and Suffering​—How Will They End?

BITTER experiences often embitter. What, though, if there is a legitimate reason for human suffering? With that in mind, let us continue the account regarding Job. After three rounds of bitter debate have elapsed, a young man named Elihu speaks up. He says to Job: “You have said, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s.’” Yes, Job had been self-centered and self-justifying. “Look!” says Elihu. “In this you have not been in the right, I answer you; for God is much more than mortal man.”​—Job 35:2; 33:8-12.

God has left abundant evidence that he is good. (Acts 14:17; Romans 1:20) So is the existence of evil any reason to challenge the goodness of God? Answers Elihu: “Far be it from the true God to act wickedly, and the Almighty to act unjustly!”​—Job 34:10.

God​—Powerless Against Evil?

Could it be, then, that God was simply not powerful enough to intervene on Job’s behalf or that of anyone else? On the contrary! Out of a fear-inspiring windstorm, God now speaks for himself, powerfully confirming his almightiness. “Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth?” he demands of Job. Why, far from being limited, he speaks of himself as the One who can control the seas and govern the heavens and its living creatures.​—Job 38:4, 8-10, 33; 39:9; 40:15; 41:1.

True, God does not explain to Job why he permitted him to suffer. But “should there be any contending of a faultfinder with the Almighty?” God asks. “Really, will you invalidate my justice? Will you pronounce me wicked in order that you may be in the right?” (Job 40:2, 8) How presumptuous, then, to blame God for the world’s ills or fabricate philosophical defenses for him! As Job is now moved to do, such ones would do well to “make a retraction” of their contradictory theories.​—Job 42:6.

Issues to Be Settled

Job did not realize that his sufferings involved a number of monumental issues that had been raised shortly after man’s creation. At that time a rebellious spirit creature called Satan (“Resister”) had led man into sin. God had commanded Adam and Eve to avoid eating from “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.” They had to respect God’s right to determine what was good or bad for them. The Resister, however, planted doubts in Eve’s mind, saying: “Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?” Next he contradicted God: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God.”​—Genesis 2:17; 3:1-5.

Satan’s slanderous words raised imposing issues: Was God a liar when he decreed death for eating the forbidden fruit? Even so, what right did he have to rob his creatures of independence and to impose his standards upon them? Was he not a selfish God, holding back what was good from his creatures? Could it be that independence from God was desirable?

Killing off the rebels would have done little more than raise more questions. Only by allowing independence from God to go unchecked for a sufficient period of time can it be proved​—once for all time—​that Satan’s offer of independence is an invitation to disaster. Yes, “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one,” Satan the Devil, not in the power of God. (1 John 5:19) Disease, injustice, economic slavery, heartache​—all of these have been the fruitage of man’s choosing independence from God and coming under satanic rule! And in spite of any technological progress, world conditions continue to worsen​—often because of modern technology.

God’s toleration of all this indescribable misery, however, does not make him unrighteous. On the contrary, man’s unrighteousness has ‘brought God’s righteousness to the fore.’ (Romans 3:5) How?

Suffering Eliminated​—Forever!

“All creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together until now,” said the apostle Paul. (Romans 8:22) Yes, 6,000 disastrous years of human independence have shown the words of Jeremiah 10:23 to be true: “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” Soon, though, God will righteously intervene and begin directing the affairs of mankind.

With the catastrophic consequences of human independence so thoroughly exposed, God can then eliminate all the things that have caused suffering: wars, disease, crime, violence​—even death itself! (Psalm 46:8, 9; Isaiah 35:5, 6; Psalm 37:10, 11; John 5:28, 29; 1 Corinthians 15:26) It is as the apostle John heard in a heavenly vision: “God . . . will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”​—Revelation 21:3, 4.

Interestingly, God ended Job’s sufferings by restoring his health and wealth and by blessing him with a large family. (Job 42:10-17) Similarly, the Bible promises us: “The sufferings of the present season do not amount to anything in comparison with the glory that is going to be revealed . . . The creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:18, 21) Wickedness will thus be virtually erased from our memories!​—Compare Isaiah 65:17.

Living With Evil

Until that freedom comes, we must endure living in a wicked world, not expecting God to shield us from personal calamity. Satan the Devil raised a false hope when he enticed Jesus Christ to jump off the temple, twisting the Bible text at Psalm 91:10-12, which says: “No calamity will befall you . . . For he will give his own angels a command concerning you, to guard you.” Jesus, though, rejected any notion of receiving miraculous physical protection. (Matthew 4:5-7) God promises to guard only our spiritual well-being.

True Christians therefore do not become “enraged against Jehovah himself,” even when tragedy strikes. (Proverbs 19:3) For “time and unforeseen occurrence befall” Christians too. (Ecclesiastes 9:11) Yet, we are not helpless. We have the hope of living forever in a righteous new world, where evil will no longer exist. We can always approach Jehovah God in prayer, for he promises to endow us with the wisdom needed to endure any trial! (James 1:5) We also enjoy the support of fellow Christians. (1 John 3:17, 18) And we have the knowledge that our faithfulness under trial makes Jehovah’s heart rejoice!​—Proverbs 27:11.

Still, enduring evil is never easy. Thus, when comforting one in the midst of suffering, it is good to ‘weep with those who weep’​—and offer practical assistance. (Romans 12:15) Ana, mentioned at the outset, was thus helped to recover from disaster. She is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and found that her fellow Christians were more than willing to assist, offering her temporary housing. Even though she occasionally feels depressed, she finds refuge in the Bible’s hope. “I know my children will come back in the resurrection,” states Ana. Her faith in the God of goodness is thus stronger than ever.

If you are going through a period of suffering, ask Jehovah’s Witnesses to help you with your questions and doubts. From them you can also obtain the book You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, which has the helpful chapters “Why Has God Permitted Wickedness?” and “You Are Involved in a Vital Issue.” True, right now bad things happen to good people, but soon all of that is to change. Find out more details for yourself by contacting Jehovah’s Witnesses in your neighborhood or write to the publishers of this magazine.

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In God’s righteous new world, evil will be but a fading memory