Credo
17 Nov 2025
The problem of evil and pain poses a fundamental challenge to the Christian faith and the notion of an all-powerful, benevolent God.
Eighteenth Century Scottish philosopher David Hume provided a pithy articulation of this problem, citing the Greek philosopher Epicurus:
“Is (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing: whence then is evil?”[i]
This conundrum has long exercised the minds of Christians, even turning some from the faith. Charles Darwin had difficulty reconciling the horrors of the natural world with the design of a perfect creator. Eminent American philosopher John Rawls lost his faith during the Second World War amid the death and bloodshed he witnessed as a solider in the trenches. Noted New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, too, attributed his abandonment of Christianity to the philosophical question of evil and suffering.[ii]
Much suffering is no doubt caused by “moral evil” – which Christians can attribute to sin and the Fall of Man – but there is also “natural evil” such as floods and earthquakes, and the law of the jungle, which suggest either random natural processes or an imperfect design.
The Bible depicts persecution and suffering as integral to the life of a believer. The Psalms are replete with plaintive cries to God for deliverance from enemies, called out from the pit of despair. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me”. (Matthew 16:24) The apostle Paul wrote, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12)
Although suffering can build faith and character, much suffering that people and animals experience appears to be pointless and excessive. We are faced with both the logical problem of evil (can it logically coexist with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient God?) as well as an evidential problem (is the suffering experienced gratuitous?).
The “Free Will Defence” articulated by philosopher Alvin Platninga is regarded by many contemporary philosophers as an adequate response to the logical problem of evil.[iii] In gist, Plantinga argues that the moral value of granting creatures free will – and hence the capacity for moral good – is a credible justification for God to permit the existence of evil, since it would be impossible to create beings with free will that would never make evil choices.
While the Free Will Defence may resolve the logical problem of moral evil, we are still confronted with the evidential question of evil: Are there compelling reasons for God to allow the breadth and depth of evil, both moral and natural, that manifests in the world?
The Greater Good: God’s Sacrificial Love and Greater Glory
The theist may assert that the evil we observe is in fact means to a greater good. Over the centuries, Christian thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, John Wycliffe and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz have alluded to felix culpa (“happy sin”), the notion that the Fall of Man has worked out for the greater good of humanity and all of creation. Leibniz wrote in his Theodicy:
“I have shown that the ancients called Adam’s fall Felix Culpa, a happy sin, because it had been retrieved with immense advantage by the Incarnation of the Son of God, who has given to the universe something nobler than anything that ever would have been among creatures except for this.” [iv]
According to the Bible, Creation was subject to futility and corruption as a result of the Fall (Romans 8:20-21). Death entered what had once been paradise, for spiritual separation from God necessitates physical separation. Work no longer brings pleasure, for the ground itself is cursed and tilling it for food becomes a slog. Envy, strife, murder and selfish ambition have become part of the human DNA. At the societal and global level, the taint of sin manifests itself in crime, poverty, war, disease and environmental degradation.
How can any good come from this? In the cosmic drama in which all creation partakes, temporal evil provides the setting in which God’s character and love is fully manifested, and his glory fully revealed, enabling God’s people to fully appreciate and enjoy God for eternity.
God’s perfection in the Christian concept extends beyond his omnipotence and omniscience; it is the character of sacrificial love that sets the Christian God above and apart from other concepts of the divine.
Sacrificial love can only be manifested if there is someone or something to sacrifice for. A world without evil or blemish does not provide cause or opportunity for sacrifice. The Fall is the context within which God shows love for his enemies through Atonement, the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross to reconcile man with God. Only when God is hated “without a cause” (John 15:25) can he return hatred with love.
The Christian creed holds that the glory of God is the ultimate good and purpose of creation. While God would no doubt deserve praise and honour for Creation alone, the act of Atonement reveals the fullness of his glory.
The glory of God revealed through Atonement is also the highest good for man, whose purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It takes believers’ experience of God to another level, deepening their love for and enjoyment of God throughout eternity. As Jesus taught in his parable of the two debtors, “whoever has been forgiven little loves little”. (Luke 7:47, NIV).
Suffering and Overcoming
The perfection of relationships in the New Creation requires that God’s people reflect the character of God. Suffering is necessary for Christians to imitate and identify with Christ, and thus share in his glory. This is the reason Jesus requires his disciples to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24). Through the imitation of Christ, believers are moulded in his image, and in so doing, enter into his glory.
The human tendency to desire control, and to rely on one’s own strength and wisdom, usually asserts itself when all is going well. Only when at wit’s end are we able to cast ourselves completely into the hands of God, as the patriarch Jacob did when he wrestled with God and his fear turned into faith. The songs of desolation became our own in those moments. Yet the Christian draws strength from the knowledge that “because [Christ] himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18)
However great temporal pain may be, the Bible contends that it will come up short against the eternal weight of glory. Paul asserted that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) He wrote, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) Any injustice in this age will similarly have all eternity to be redressed, as suggested by the parable Jesus told of Lazarus the beggar who received into heaven after having suffered much in his life (Luke 16:19-31).
The question may be asked: how can God do right by those who suffer but are not saved? While some Christians trust that God will eventually redeem all people and living things, many others believe that the Bible teaches that only some will be saved, and others eternally damned to an existence apart from God. If so, there are no clear answers as to how distributive justice, at least from the human perspective, will be satisfied.
The Bible simply asserts that this is the province of God’s sovereign will, just as a potter has full control over the clay he moulds (Romans 9:21). It is not for the creature to stand in judgment of the Creator, whose ways are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Christian must simply trust that God redeems all evil by making it work towards the greater good in a way that is perfectly just.
A Role for Both Moral and Natural Evil
Some point to the cruelty of the natural world – nature red in tooth and claw – as well as apparent defects in the function of body systems and parts as suggesting the outcome of chance and natural forces rather than the design of a Creator. Surely these “evils” must pre-date the supposed Fall of Man, they argue, and hence the world could not have been created perfect.
Among Christians, some attribute the marring of creation to a cosmic fall – the rebellion of Lucifer and his angels – that preceded the Fall of Man. Others suggest that the world was created “good” (Genesis 1:31) but not perfect, in a state conducive for humanity to exercise free will, with the opportunity to demonstrate faith, patience, kindness and mercy, before the redemption of all things.
If one accepts that suffering follows from moral as well as natural evil, both forms of evil contribute to a tapestry of suffering suited for the struggle to overcome on the part of the suffering person, as well as for compassion and self-sacrifice on the part of others – the acts of heroism by which believers may follow in the footsteps of Christ.
The Bible recounts specific instances where evil is turned by God to serve a greater purpose. In the book of Genesis, for instance, the patriarch Jacob’s favourite son Joseph is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. As a slave in Egypt, Joseph gains the pharaoh’s favour and is appointed his next-in-command. He stores up food supplies in anticipation of a famine, enabling him to save his family from starvation. In showing kindness to those who had hated him, Joseph is a “type” or reflection of Christ. Joseph told his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20, ESV). It is noteworthy that both the moral evil of Joseph’s brothers and the natural evil of famine play a role in this story of redemption.
The prevalence of death and suffering in the world can stir in souls a lament for the fallenness of the world, a hatred for sin and death, and the desire to participate in the cosmic struggle against evil. The greater the opposition, and the longer the wait for the renewal of the heavens and earth, the greater the faith that must be exercised, and the deeper the satisfaction in the eventual victory over evil.
The Silmarillion, a collection of writings by J.R.R. Tolkien setting out the fantasy world of The Lord of the Rings, begins with a Creation narrative called the “Music of the Ainur”. The all-powerful Creator gathers a group of spirits or demiurges (called the Ainur) to participate in the making of a cosmic overture. Melkor, the mightiest among the Ainur, attempts to elevate himself above his station, introducing discord in the music. Such is the disruption to the cosmic harmony that some of the Ainur become despondent, while others align themselves with Melkor’s strain. At this point, however, the Creator introduces a new theme, weaving in the discordant notes of the rebel spirits to produce music of peerless beauty. The Creator declares:
“And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.”[v]
This is an echo of the Christian narrative, which begins with the marring of the world through the Fall – man’s act of disobedience that severs the relationship between God and man. The story reaches its climax with the Atonement that restores this relationship, leaving the world better and more glorious than if the Fall had not occurred in the first place.
If the chief purpose of man, per the Westminster Shorter Catechism, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, then suffering in this world, and our deliverance from sin and evil, elevate both God’s glory and man’s enjoyment of him forever.
[i] David Hume, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, ed. with an Introduction by Norman Kemp Smith (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1980), Part X, 198.
[ii] Freedom from Religion Foundation, interview with Bart Ehrman, 2014, https://ffrf.org/outreach/awards/emperor-has-no-clothes-award/item/21383-ffrf-s-emperor-honor-to-truth-telling-bible-scholar?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=pmd_SRs0Y1Ap1aT_Gm_mibESzcEFjdwolPYxnSLd2JKjHhA-1631407442-0-gqNtZGzNAzujcnBszQh9.
[iii] Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977).
[iv] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, The Philosophical Works of Leibnitz, trans. George M. Duncan (New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1890), 194-95.
[v] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977), 17-18.
Terence Ho is an academic who has written books on public policy and governance in Singapore.