THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
But are not the evil and misery of the world, is not all that which we
know as "sin" and pain, in manifest contradiction to this Christian
conception of a GOD of Love? Most certainly they are: and it has been
the strength of Christianity from the beginning that--unlike many
rival systems and philosophies, including the "Christian Science"
movement of modern times--it has always faced facts, and in particular
has never regarded pain and sin, disease and sorrow and death, as
anything but the stubborn realities which in point of fact they are.
If we ask, indeed, how and why it was that evil, whether physical or
moral, originally came into the world, the Gospel returns no answer,
or an answer which, at best, merely echoes the ancient mythology of
Jewish traditional belief--"By the envy of the Devil sin entered into
the world, and death by sin": an answer which indeed denies
emphatically that evil had its origin in GOD, and declares its
essential root to lie in opposition to His will, but without
attempting any explanation of the difficulty of conceiving how
opposition to the will of GOD is possible.
The Gospel is concerned with issues that are practical rather than
strictly theoretical: and the really practical problem with regard to
evil is not how it is to be explained but how it is to be overcome. If
we ask how evil first arose, the only honest answer is that we do not
know: though we can see how the possibility, at least, of moral evil
(as distinct from mere physical pain) is implicit of necessity in the
existence of moral freedom. The question is sometimes asked, "If GOD
is omnipotent, why does He permit evil?" But the doctrine of Divine
omnipotence is misconceived when it is interpreted to mean that GOD is
able to accomplish things inherently self-contradictory. GOD is
omnipotent only in the sense that He is supreme over all things, and
able to do all possible things. He is not able to do impossible
things: and to make man free, and yet to prevent him from doing evil
if he so chooses, is a thing impossible even to GOD. Man is left free
to crucify his Maker, and he has availed himself of his freedom by
crucifying both his Maker and his fellow-man.
If we ask, "Why does not GOD prevent war? Why does He permit murder
and cruelty and rapine?" the answer is that He could only prevent
these things by dint of over-riding the will of man by force: and
moreover that it is not the method of GOD to do for man what man is
perfectly well able to do for himself. For wars would cease if men
universally desired not to fight.
We are really raising a much more difficult question if we ask, "Why
does GOD allow cancer?" And to this, it may be, there is no completely
satisfactory answer to be given: though it is possible to see that
cancer and other diseases have a biological function, and also to
recognize that the endurance of pain in some cases (though not in all)
ennobles and deepens character. The writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews does not hesitate to say of Christ Himself that He "learned
obedience by the things which He suffered."
In general it must be said that Christianity does not afford any
complete theoretical solution of the problem of evil: what it does is
to provide a point of view which sets evil in a new light, and which
is adequate for the purposes of practical life. It teaches us that
physical suffering, so far as it is inevitable, is to be endured and
turned to spiritual profit, as a thing which is capable of bearing
fruit in the deepening and discipline of character: and that moral
evil is to be overcome, by the power of the grace of GOD in Christ.
If we ask, "Why should the innocent suffer?" the Christian answer is
contained in the Cross. "Christ also suffered, being guiltless": and
although, if Christ were regarded simply as a man and nothing more,
this fact would merely intensify the problem, the matter assumes a
different complexion if Christ be regarded as the revelation of GOD.
For if so, then suffering enters into the experience of GOD Himself,
and so far from GOD being indifferent to the sorrow and misery of the
world, He shares it, and is victorious through it. "In all their
affliction, He was afflicted." GOD is Himself a Sufferer, the supreme
Sufferer of all, and finds through suffering the instrument of His
triumph. But if this be true, then all suffering everywhere is set in
a new and a transfiguring light, for it assumes the character of a
challenge to become partaker in the sufferings and triumph of the
Christ. "Can ye drink of the Cup that I drink of?"
So interpreted, suffering ceases to be a ground of petulance or of
complaint. It is discovered to have a value. It is judged to be worth
while. And it is possible to find in such a faith the grounds of a
conviction that behind and beneath all suffering is the love which
redeems it and the purpose which shall one day justify it, and that in
very truth no sparrow falls to the ground without the Heavenly
Father's knowledge and care.