Is God Evil?

"If there is a God, he must be evil"

It is natural to ask, especially at times of pain or suffering in our own lives: "If there is a good God, why does he allow so much pain and suffering?"

Other people are more aggressive in their approach. They say that the Bible itself proves that God is evil, according to any standard of human decency. But see below.

A useful dialogue to read on this subject. Click here to read. I begin to address some of the theological issues in my teaching for new believers. Click here to check it out. Also read here.

This section is still very much under construction. Books could be written on this important subject.

There are many sides to the problem. Firstly, God was not interested in making robots. He gave Adam and Eve the choice between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Their bad choice corrupted them and their offspring after them - since children come from their parents. Most of the bad things that happen are the result of bad decisions of people, and ignorance of natural or spiritual reality, which has allowed Satan and his demons a legal right to get involved in making trouble and suffering for us all.

God made Lucifer a good angel, but with the power to change himself through pride into the one we now know as Satan. The destiny of everyone is determined by rejecting certain possibilities we could embrace and embracing others we could reject. Lucifer corrupted himself and became Satan. This does not imply at all that God is the author of evil.

Some say that the Bible never teaches that mankind has in any sense a free will. This just isn't true. Moses said as a prophet of the Lord to the people of Israel: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendents may live." (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Joshua, who also spoke in the name of the Lord, said to the people after they had conquered the peoples of the land (who incidentally had been totally given over to satanic practices of the worst kind by that time), "Choose this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15). These two passages alone imply that God considers that we have the real ability to make choices.

Besides all this, experientially we all know that we can make choices about many things. Christians do not by any means have to be determinists - though we do believe that God has decided to do some things no matter what we do. For example, Jesus will come back eventually. This will happen when the gospel reaches all people.

People can make good choices and bad choices. Bad choices lead to suffering and ultimately to ruin, while good choices lead ultimately to life and better results, though there may be some suffering along the way. We cannot blame God for the bad choices we and others make. We should thank Him that so many times He intervenes to protect us from evil. We should also be thankful that He trusts us enough to allow us to make significant and real choices. However, with this trust comes an awesome responsibility.

Is the God of the Bible Immoral?

Some people attack the God of the Bible on the grounds that He ordered the Israelites to wipe out entire nations of people upon entering the Promised Land. They feel that such a God is not worthy of our respect at all. Many bitter and blasphemous things have been expressed on this subject. But there are certain things that need to be taken into account here.

1. God is the giver of life. Does He owe anybody anything?

2. Since God is the Creator, He also has the right to be Judge over all. Who are you to say that God has no right to judge His creatures? You may argue that God does not exist, but that is a different issue. Surely if God has created, He also has the right to judge! We entrust certain men in society who are far from perfect the right to judge and pass sentences on criminals. Would not God have that right also?

3. Furthermore, is God obligated to judge according to your limited perspective? Must He operate according to your code of morality? Who are you?

4. Some accuse God of violating His own commands. They quote King James Version of the 6th commandment as "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13) and go on to point out how God kills people and ordered others to kill. In modern, better translations the 6th commandment reads "You shall not murder." There is a big difference between executing the death penalty or fighting in a war, and murder.Otherwise those who fought Hitler's armies to save the world from facism are just as guilty as mass murderers who stalk the streets at night in search of victims.

God was not sending people out to murder. He was sending them out to execute his wrath on his enemies who had been provoking His anger for centuries. It was in the best interests of the whole world that they be wiped out. Except for Rahab the prostitute whose faith saved her and her family, they had passed the point of no return in their devotion to wickedness.

5. The nations God sent to destroy were involved in the worst kind of evil. They slew their own children as offerings to their demon gods and practiced terrible idolatry and wickedness. God waited hundreds of years before it was time to wipe them out. God foresees all things and so told Abram, "But in the fourth generation they [Abram's descendants] shall return here [in Canaan], for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." (Genesis 15:16) God always acts according to justice, and the sins of these Amorites in Canaan had not yet reached the level where God deemed it approproate to slaughter them all.

6. God knew the weakness of the Israelites. He knew how easily they would be corrupted by the Amorites if they mingled with them and inter-married with them. In fact, we know that exactly this happened after the death of the elders who were with Joshua. The Israelites, who had not thoroughly wiped out their enemies in Canaan but instead put them into forced labour ended up going after their false gods and invoking the judgments of God upon themselves.

Further Objections on this Point

a. But why does God say to treat evildoers differently now? Isn't that inconsistent?

We know that when Jesus came he taught his disciples to "love their enemies, and do good to those who hate them"(Matthew 5:44). So there is no justification for anyone to kill off other nations - even evil nations, in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ introduced new possibilities in the way God could deal with people of all nations, and through His own people.

Before the Advent of the New Testament era, things were different. There is no record of demons being cast out of people before the coming of Jesus. That grace had not yet been given. Demonic bondage and evil is generally transmitted from parents to children. There was no way for the Amorite people to become acceptable to God once they had gone too deeply into satanic perversion. They had become like a rotten cancer that had to be eliminated. Even their babies and young children were demonized and programmed towards evil. They could not be reformed.

But now, since Jesus came and gave us the Good News and spiritual authority and power over the works of Satan, we have a better way of destroying Satan's work. Through prayer and faith in the name of Jesus, we can bind and drive out the demon forces that bind even the worst of sinner. God gives us a new way of overcoming evil with good based on the new possibilities that Jesus made available to us as believers.

So instead of griping against God we should be thankful that we still have life and that there is hope for our full salvation through Jesus Christ.

This article may be further developed as the need arises.

God bless you. Please take time to check out the good things that God is doing for people. For examples, look in the testimonies section.

- Michael Fackerell