How should we as Seventh-day Adventists approach an answer? When we are faced with evil and suffering, how do we grapple for answers? I would suggest that it ought to be within the context of our theology of God, evil, sin, and salvation. Unfortunately, instead of building an understanding of God based on the Scriptures, Christians have traditionally built on philosophical and scientific grounds. >From that perspective, God's providence has been understood as designing and causing everything that happens, both in nature and in history. In other words, whatever happens is thought to be God's will. According to this view, God needs evil and uses it to achieve higher levels of good. In God's mysterious providence, according to this approach, "the end justifies the means," and evil becomes a necessary part of this master plan for the universe.
Greatly complicating the question about God's relation to evil is the fact that God is love, absolutely good, and all-powerful. If God is love, if God is good and all-powerful, why doesn't He intervene to prevent evil? Why didn't He use His power to avert September 11? This way of thinking pervades American culture and has become a powerful argument against God's existence and against Christianity.
For centuries Christian theology has used reason not only to interpret God but also, so to speak, to bail Him out of the problem of evil and suffering. God being seen as "the Prime Mover," the idea of a great controversy between a personal God and an equally personal devil is forgotten. God is assumed to be the only cause of evil, while Satan and company conveniently disappear from the scene.
But what if we refuse to follow theological tradition? What if, instead, we were to shift theological paradigms and navigate the issue biblically, thereby going against most theological thinking? Daring as this may seem, that's what our Adventist pioneers did, bringing to life the Adventist Church.
Let's take, then, this radical approach to find the biblical answer to the "why" of evil.
Mystery-And God
For starters, we must recognize that the question before us is a mystery involving two realities: God (Col. 2:2) and evil (2 Thess. 2:7). In Scripture, however, mystery does not mean something we cannot know, but something we can know only in part (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:3, 4; 6:19). Thus, like Paul, we should be prepared to reach only a partial understanding of God's relation to evil (1 Cor. 13:9, 13), knowing we'll understand better after the Second Coming.
Any answer to the question of God's relation to evil obviously depends on our understanding of God and of evil. Scripture tells us that God is the Creator of the world (Isa. 40:28; John 1:3), that He directly interacts with free creatures in space and time (Ex. 33:11), and that He knows the free choices they'll make in the future (Isa. 46:10; Ps. 139:2, 4).
God's creation reveals that evil was neither designed nor caused by God. God's direct interaction with His creatures within the flow of history shows that He does not timelessly predetermine our free decisions. God's foreknowledge of future free decisions implies that when He created this universe He knew evil would arise.
Evil as Sin
Let's not forget that evil is not only the harm that befalls us but also includes the sin that caused it (Rev. 12:1-9; Gen. 3; Rom. 6:23; 1 John 3:8). Creation helps us understand that God views evil as sin. In creation God designed our planet and the beings on it in a masterful way (Gen. 1:31). According to Scripture, God deliberately formed human beings in His image (verse 27) so that their beings, thoughts, and actions should operate in open relationship with Him (Gen. 2:2, 3; 3:8, 9; Eph. 1:4). According to Ellen White, God's image in us includes free will, the "power to think and to do" (Education, p. 17). This relation of openness and obedience to God is not external to us, but defines the essence of what we should be and do.
This original order was radically changed by sin. By deciding to live independently from God, humans broke their relation to Him, thus replacing God's design with one of their own making (cf. Rom. 7:1-5). As a result, humans brought harm on themselves (Gen. 3; Rom. 6:23). God's view of evil as sin includes not only murder and physical harm but also the entire range of human activities done independently of his design (Rom. 14:23; 1 John 3:4).
This basic biblical truth points not to God but to His creatures as causes of evil (The Faith I Live By, p. 66).
God's Entanglement With Evil
Does that last statement mean that God is off the hook? Isn't He unmistakably entangled with evil? Here is where theologians try to reason God out of His predicament.
For instance, some argue that only divine "ignorance" can explain divine "innocence." In other words, God is not responsible for evil, because He was unaware that sin would arise from His creation. However, since Scripture teaches that God knows the future, He knew that evil would arise. Either way, ignorance would not relieve God from responsibility. He is still responsible for creating the possibility of evil and not preventing it. Case in point: September 11.
Foreknowledge is not the only way God is entangled with evil. God not only did not prevent September 11, as He might have; He also gave life to the assassins. This modus operandi is not new. Scripture recognizes God's involvement by indicating that evil comes indirectly from God (Job 2:10; 1 Sam. 16:15, 16; 2 Sam. 19:9).
At first glance, Scripture teaches that sin originated in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve broke God's design by trusting more in their own ideas than in God's word (Gen. 3). A more detailed reading of Scripture shows, however, that evil did not start with Adam and Eve, but with Lucifer (who later became Satan, the "enemy") in heaven: "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work" (1 John 3:8, NIV; see also Isa. 14:12-14; Eze. 28:12-19; Rev. 12:1-9). Thus, the fall of our first parents took place in the broader cosmic context of a "great controversy" between Christ and Satan.
Notably, the New Testament reveals the great controversy in greater detail than the Old Testament because it provides the necessary background to understand Christ's work of salvation. This forgotten biblical theme shows God dealing with evil not from the ivory tower of timeless eternity and absolute omnipotence, but from within an ongoing historical controversy. And since God's work of salvation involves time, we should strive to understand God's relation to evil historically.
Why So Long? The Big Picture
God's entanglement with evil raises many questions. In the face of unspeakable sufferings, Job did not ask "Why me?" but "Why life?" (see Job 3:20, NKJV; cf. Job 10:18). In an indirect way Job was questioning the need for thousands of years of evil and suffering. "Why do You forget us forever? And forsake us for so long?" (Lam. 5:20, NKJV).
If God saved us from evil at the cross, why did He wait 4,000 years to do it; and why the long history of evil and suffering after the cross? Is God sleeping? Does He care? Why hasn't He come back to fulfill His promise? Why does salvation take so much time? Can't God work salvation instantaneously?
But suppose the cross was not the only act God had to do to work out our salvation? Suppose the achievement of salvation involves a process of interrelated historical operations? If that's the case, then we begin to understand why God has not yet put an end to the long history of human suffering.
God knew that He could not defeat Satan's kingdom of sin (Luke 11:18) by force. Killing Satan and his followers without answering their claims would have changed the design of creation from love to fear. Even in death Satan would have destroyed God's creation. Instead, God's answer to Satan's "new cosmic order" is accomplished through the history of salvation. God's redemptive work aims at restoring His design for history from within Satan's earthly kingdom of terror (Eph. 2:1; John 8:44). One day God will bring everything on earth and in heaven under the head of Christ (Eph. 1:10). Redemption required God to maintain the life and freedom of the cosmic terrorist so that his new law of terror could be taken to its logical conclusion, compared with God's law, and be freely rejected by the universe (Col. 1:20).
Christ is the active center of redemption throughout the history of salvation. Because He designed our beings, God knows that both sin and salvation take place in the mind of the believer (Deut. 6:5; Joshua 22:5; Matt. 22:37). Working within a rebellious creation, He promised to act by creating "enmity" against sin in the heart of human beings (Gen. 3:15). Redemption is achieved, not through compulsory predestination, but through ongoing dialogue with sinners (see Isa. 1:18). Christ became one of us so that He might personally defeat Satan's temptations (Matt. 4:1-11), and through perfect obedience and suffering become the source of our salvation by dying for us on Calvary (Heb. 5:7-9).
After His resurrection Christ continued the battle for our salvation in heaven and on earth through His personal representative, the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 17). It's not true that God's salvation required only the cross, as some think. No, Christ "must reign," says the apostle, "until he has put all his enemies under his feet" (1 Cor. 15:25, NIV). Christ's kingdom is still being questioned, and the history of salvation must continue until all doubts are banished and all enemies are vanquished. Christ does not use force to obliterate the enmity; instead, He uses love and truth to disarm it.
Suffering and pain, now ruling our earth, are the hallmark of Satan's order of things. Yet God became entangled with evil and suffering because His plan of redemption respects the freedom of sinners, even the freedom of those who've rejected His loving invitation and rooted themselves forever in rebellion (Job 2; 2 Peter 2:4).
The history of salvation helps us understand the "Why so long?" question. The answer is Because time is necessary for Christ to achieve His goal of redeeming the universe, not through a quick and sweeping coup d'´etat, but through the sustained operation of His love.
Meanwhile, the enemy uses God's entanglement with suffering to suggest that He cannot be who He says He is. Job's predicament becomes ours. Why did God allow suffering in my life? Besides, couldn't God save us without suffering? Like Job, we have no answers for these existential questions, only the hope that someday God will open the books and we will be able to judge what He has done.
Evil and Judgment
Job wanted to confront God about his suffering (Job 23:1-7), but he saw the God-sinner relation as one that did not favor dialogue. God was too high, too powerful. Besides, there was no referee to arbiter between our complaints and the divine wisdom or decrees (Job 9:29-35). Fortunately, all this changed with Christ. Dialogue was established, and judgment on disputed issues has become possible (John 3:1-10). Yet even Christ was not able toexplain everything while on earth (John 16:12). "I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?" (John 3:12, NIV). Moreover, Christ did things knowing that the disciples would understand them only later (John 13:7).
Clearly we cannot answer the "Why me?" question unless Christ reveals it to us. God's answer to Job suggests that it is highly unlikely that He will reveal this before Christ's second coming (1 Cor. 4:5). Yet after Christ's advent, the saints will judge the angels and the world (1 Cor. 6:2, 3). Then, as the saints search for understanding, many questions regarding Christ's wisdom and justice will be answered from the facts recorded in the heavenly books (Rev. 20:12; Luke 10:20; Ps. 56:8; Eccl. 12:14).
Moreover, since our God is not only a God of open books but a God who opens Himself to scrutiny (see Rom. 3:4; Ps. 51:4), He will answer any concerns we might still have and heal any wounds that might still disturb our inner beings. Then the entire creation will understand that God's entanglement with sin did not involve responsibility. Redemptive judgment will place the responsibility for evil squarely on Satan and his alternate order of creation. At this glorious point in history, every knee in heaven and on earth will bow before Jesus (Phil. 2:10). The conflict is over. Terror has ended. Christ takes up the kingdom. Throughout the universe justice reigns forever and ever.
It's only as we follow the biblical approach to the questions of September 11 that God comes out vindicated. For we then see that the death and terror on that fateful day was neither caused by God nor necessitated by His plan of salvation. Pain and suffering flow, only and always, from Satan's rebellion, and from the creature's willful rejection of God's plan and purpose. Of this we are sure.
Yet when confronted with personal and daily attacks of evil, we should not attempt to go beyond what God has revealed, beyond the assurances He has given. Instead, we should open ourselves to God's revelation as did Job. A personal experience with God will not answer all questions, but will see us through until the time our questions will be answered personally by God.
Until that day, then, let us live by faith in Christ and His wisdom (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17, NASB), with the assurance and hope that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor. 4:17, NIV).
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Fernando L. Canale is professor of theology and philosophy at Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
EPTEMBER 11, 2001, BROUGHT THE question of evil back to the national level in the United States. Before this unspeakable tragedy, the notion of evil had been rapidly disappearing from the American mind frame. Absence of foreign enemies, cultural diversity, postmodern relativism, and an evolutionary worldview had been shaping a culture that had exorcized evil with relative degrees of goodness. After September 11 the smiling mask of optimism fell, and evil's heinous face was exposed before an appalled and horrified world audience.
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