May 7, 2025 • 30 mins
We need to tread carefully when we ask questions like this. After all, we are talking about God’s intentions, and we must not be guilty of putting words in God’s mouth. Thankfully, there is a passage in the Bible that talks about why God made the world and placed us in it.
There is a reason why we are here. Many live their lives not knowing what this purpose is. Some even say there is no purpose, so forget about looking for an answer because there isn’t one. But there is, and when we understand it, it will give us light in a world of darkness. It will give direction in a hectic world.
Read about this subject
- Scriptures: Acts 17:27; Joshua 24:15; Ezekiel 18
- “God and Evil”—chapter five in Pillars of the Faith
View more on this subject
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My Godin My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
What would you say if someone askedyou, “Why did God create the world?”
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Why did he make us and put us here?
I've been asked thatquestion several times.
One time was in Russia, years ago.
Two college students in Moscow wantedto talk with me about religion.
One of them said, “If there is a God,what purpose did he have for making
all this? What was the reason?”So I took them to Acts chapter 17.
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Paul was speaking to a crowd of peoplewho were mostly skeptics, and one
of the first things he said was thatGod made the world and He made us.
In Acts 17, verse 24, Paul said, “Godwho made the world and everything in it,
since He is Lord of heaven and earth,does not dwell in temples made with hands,
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nor is He worshiped with men's handsas though He needed anything, since He
gives to all life breath and all things,and He has made from one blood every
nation of men to dwell on all the faceof the earth and has determined their
preappointed times and the boundariesof their dwellings, so that they should
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seek the Lord in the hope that they mightgrope for Him and find Him, though He is
not far from each one of us. For in Himwe live and move and have our being.”
Now notice in verse 24 that thefirst thing that Paul does is to
point out that God made the world.
Now remember, he's talking to peoplewho, for the most part, don't believe
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in the one true and living God.
Athens was the intellectual centerof the day, and it was full of idols.
So Paul begins by talking aboutthe fact that God is the Creator.
He created everything and in verse 26,he talks about the fact that God made us.
God created human beings.
Why did He do that?
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He says in verse 26,that God madefrom one blood every nation of men to
dwell on all the face of the earth.
God made us, and He put us here.
Now, why did God put us on the earth?
Why did he create us and place us here?
The answer is in verse 27 (02:26):
so that they should seek the Lord.
It's just that simple.
God made us and He put uson the earth that He made so
that we should seek the Lord.
That's the purpose.
That's the reason.
We're not here to live forever on earth.
We're not here to please ourselves.
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We are here to seek God, to find him,and to glorify him by serving him.
Now, in order to seek God, wemust choose to seek Him, and
that means that we have a will.
We have free will.
That's part of the nature that God gaveus when He created us in his own image.
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Now, animals and trees don't seek God.
They don't make a decisionto give glory to the Creator.
But you and I have a will.
We choose what we do.
God wants us to love and to obey him,but He won't force us to love him.
Love is a choice, if anything isa choice and not forced it's love.
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But that means that a person canchoose not to love God if he wants to.
Human beings have a will, andwe're not perfect like God.
God's will is always pure and right.
But we sin.
We choose to go against the will of God.
That's the starting point.
As far as the question of why there'sevil in the world is concerned,
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we've already mentioned the fact thatAdam was not the first one to sin.
He was the first human beingto sin, but he was not the
first being who committed sin.
That being evidently was Satan.
The Bible says that someof the angels sinned.
Second Peter, chapter two, verse four,talks about the angels that sinned.
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Jude verse six also goes into moredetail about that, and judging from
what Jesus said in Matthew 25, verse 41,it appears that Satan was the leader.
That verse talks about the devil and hisangels, but the same question arises.
Why did the angels sin?
How did evil get a start among them?
And the same answer comes back: because they chose to sin. (04:35):
undefined
They had free will.
We are looking in this series atthe question “Why.” Why is there
evil in the world and why does theall-powerful, all-loving God allow it?
And as we said before,there are two kinds of evil.
There's moral evil, which is sin, and thenthere is natural evil, which is suffering.
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Right now we're focusing on moral evil.
That is sin.
Lord willing, we'll talk in weeks to comeabout suffering and why God allows it.
But we need to begin with theproblem of moral evil or sin.
God is not to blame for the evil of sin.
James one verse 13 says, “Let no mansay when he is tempted, I am tempted of
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because God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt any man.”
So that verse of scripture says thatGod cannot even be tempted with evil.
It's not simply that God cannot sin, it'sthat God cannot even be tempted to sin.
And James goes on to explainthat every man is tempted when
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he is drawn away of his own lust.
That's James one, verse 13 and 14.
The sin problem is man's fault.
Ecclesiastes seven verse 29 says, “Godmade man upright, but they have found
out many inventions.” That is mankind.
We are responsible for theevil of sin in the world.
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So at this stage of the study[and remember, we're just getting
started] we are looking at how manhas abused his free will from the
beginning, Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
Why?
Because they chose to.
God warned them.
They knew better, but they did it anyway.
And as a result, they broughtdeath, spiritual death, or
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separation from God into the world.
12, the Bible says, “Therefore, just asthrough one man, sin entered the world and
death through sin, and thus death spreadto all men, because all sinned.” Now that
verse does not say that we inherited sin.
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In fact, it says just the opposite.
If we read the whole verse, Paulsaid that this spiritual death
came upon or was passed upon allmankind because all have sinned.
Romans 6 23 says the wages of sinis death, so evil in the form of
sin is in the world because Adamand Eve sinned and we follow in
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their footsteps and sin as well.
We are tempted in the same basic waysthey were—through the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride oflife [I John chapter two, verse 16].
Now the specific form of temptationand the setting are different.
We're not in the Garden of Eden andthe devil doesn't come to us in the
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form of the serpent, but the samebasic feelings are at work when we sin.
Eve saw that the tree was good forfood, that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to makeone wise [Genesis three, verse six].
If we ask why God made the world knowingthat man would sin, we can only know what
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God has revealed in his Word, the Bible.
We don't know and we can'tcomprehend all the mind of God.
We can only go as far as his Word teaches,as far as our feeble minds can take us.
But on a human level, the reason moralevil, that is, sin, is in the world is
because we as human beings choose to sin.
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The answer to this problem of evil, evenpart of the answer, is not the doctrine
of inherited depravity or original sin.
The Roman Catholic Church and mostProtestant denominations teach this.
It means that all human beings from Adamare born without that state of grace that
Adam and Eve had when they were created,and we are born deprived or depraved.
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Now, this would mean that wehave no choice in the matter.
We're born sinners.
Some put it this way (08:41):
man is a sinner by nature and not by choice.
That is their alleged answerto the problem of evil.
They say that evil is in theworld because we can't help it.
We are destined to sinbecause we are born that way.
In fact, this doctrine says thatwe are predestined to sin, that
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God ordained evil in the world sothat he could send Jesus to save
only those God chooses to be saved.
Now this is the doctrine of Calvinism.
It basically looks at the problemof evil and says there is no problem
because God wanted it this way.
It was all in his plan.
So evil in Calvinism isactually decreed by God.
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Now, there are many reasonswhy this teaching is false.
In Joshua chapter 24, verse 15, theleader of Israel said, “And if it seems
evil to you to serve the Lord, choosefor yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods which yourfather served, that were on the other
side of the river or the gods of theAmorites, and whose land you dwell, but
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as for me and my house, we will servethe Lord.” Notice what he said: choose
for yourselves whom you will serve.
Here's what Moses said to the Israelitesin Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 19:
“I call heaven and earth as witnessestoday against you, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing andcursing. Therefore, choose life that
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both you and your descendants may live.”
Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 23,verse 37, “O, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the
one who kills the prophets and stonesthose who are sent to her, how often I
wanted to gather your children togetheras a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, but you were not willing.”That means they chose what they did.
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In the book of Hebrews, the Bible saysin Hebrews chapter 11, verse 24 and 25,
“By faith, Moses, when he became of age,refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to sufferaffliction with the people of God than
to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”
Then toward the close of theBible, the scriptures say, “And
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the spirit and the bride say, Come,and let him who hears say, Come,
and let him who is athirst come.
Whoever desires, let himtake the water of life freely
[Revelation chapter 22, verse 17].
Are babies born in sin?
No.
Are little children totally depravedbecause they descended from Adam?
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No.
In Matthew chapter 18, when thedisciples ask Jesus, who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
The Lord set a small child before them,and here's what he said: “Unless you
are converted and become as littlechildren, you will by no means enter the
kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoeverhumbles himself as this little child is
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the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”That's Matthew 18 verses three and four.
Now, in what way must we be likelittle children to enter the kingdom?
We must be humble, not prideful.
The nature of a child ishumility, not pride and not sin.
Jesus taught the same view of childrenin Matthew chapter 19, when some
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brought little children to Jesus.
The Bible says that Hisdisciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, “Let the little childrencome to Me, and do not forbid them, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven” [Matthewchapter 19, verse 14]. This same kind of
innocence is taught in I Corinthians 14,verse 20: “Brethren, do not be children
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in understanding; however, in malicebe babes, but in understanding be men.”
In this book of I Corinthians,Paul rebukes the church at Corinth.
He tells them to stop actinglike babies and act like men.
But here in I Corinthians 14, verse20, he says to imitate children in
another way, and that is in theirattitude toward malice or evil.
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Why?
Because children are pure andinnocent when it comes to evil.
Deuteronomy Chapter one, verse39 is also a very important verse
on this topic we're looking at.
In this part of the book of Deuteronomy,Moses is recounting what the previous
generation of Israelites did when theycame to the border of the promised land.
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Forty years before they had disobeyedGod because they didn't believe him.
As a result, God said that they woulddie in the desert except for Joshua and
Caleb, but what about the little ones?
Now, here's what Moses said.
This is Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 39.
Moreover, your little ones and yourchildren who you say will be victims,
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who today have no knowledge of goodand evil, they shall go in there.”
The infants and the little childrenwere not held responsible for
the rebellion of the adults.
The adults chose unbelief.
They chose to disobey.
God punished them becausethey were accountable.
But the children were not punished.
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Why?
Because they didn't choose to disobey.
They were not knowledgeable enough.
They did not have enough knowledgebetween good and evil to make that choice.
Ezekiel, chapter 18 is anotherpowerful chapter about free will.
We're looking at the fact that evilis in the world in the form of moral
evil because of the free will of man.
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In verses five through nine of Ezekiel18, the prophet describes a man who
is just and does what he says islawful and right, and he shuns evil.
But then in verses 10 through 13,that same good man has a son who
is just the opposite of his father.
He's evil.
And he was not bad becausehe was born depraved.
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He was evil by choice just likehis father was good by choice.
This evil son robbed.
He committed adultery.
He served idols.
Babies and little childrendon't do these things.
They don't even desire to dothem, and they don't have an
inherited propensity to sin.
That's like a ticking time bomb.
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This evil son was evilbecause he chose to do evil.
That's what verse 13 means.
When it says His blood shall be upon him,that is upon himself, he and he alone is
responsible for his spiritual condition.
Then there's a third generation inEzekiel chapter 18 verses 14 through 17.
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Now, remember, this is the son ofthe evil man in verses 10 through
13, and the grandson of the goodman in verses five through nine.
What kind of man did this son become?
He became what he chose tobe just like all of us do.
This son in verse 14, the Bible says, seesall the sins which his father has done
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and considers, but does not do likewise.
Now, this is the son of an evil man.
He sees the sins of his evil father.
He considers them, he thinks aboutthem, but he decides that he's not
going to do what his father has done.
Now, this is an encouraging verse.
It gives hope to children raisedin bad homes by mean parents.
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The son in verse 14 saw what hisfather did and he thought about it.
He decided not to be like his father.
So we have this old saying, “Likefather, like son,” and that proverb is
often true, but not always. So in allthese verses, and there are many more,
we find that the answer to the problem“Why is there evil in the world?” is
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not because people are born in sin.
It's because people choose to sin.
But what about Psalm 51 verse five?
Does that mean that we are born sinnersand we can't help but sin, and that's
the reason why evil is in the world?
Is that what David was saying?
Here's what he said inPsalm 51, verse five.
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In the King James version, we read,“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me”
The New King JamesVersion is very similar.
It says, “Behold, I was brought forthin iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me” Now, there are many peoplewho believe that this verse teaches
original sin and that that's thereason why we have evil in the world.
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Now, in the first place, we need toremember that the emphasis in this
passage is on David and his sin.
It's not about his mother.
There's nothing in the Scriptureto support the idea that David's
mother was a sinful woman.
In the context, David talks aboutmy transgressions in verse one.
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He talks about my iniquityand my sin in verse two.
He talks about my transgressions inverse three, and then we have that
famous statement “Against you, andyou only have I sinned, Lord” [verse
four]. So David is talking abouthis sinfulness not his mother’s.
That's the first thingthat we need to notice.
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In the second place, Davidis not talking about the
sinfulness of mankind in general.
He's not saying that he wasborn into a sinful environment.
Now again, the emphasis throughthe context is on his sin, not the
sinfulness of the human race in general.
So he's not saying that he wassimply born into a sinful world.
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The title that the ancient Jews gaveto Psalm 51 is a Psalm of David when
Nathan, the prophet, came to himafter he had gone into Bathsheba.
Now, this was an ancient Jewish tradition.
And if this Psalm is not specificallyabout this episode in David's
life, it still shows his remorseabout his sins in general.
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On the other hand, if he didwrite this about his sin with
Bathsheba, it's not surprisingthat he spoke in such strong terms.
The guilt he felt musthave seemed overwhelming.
He had committed adultery with the wifeof a soldier who was very loyal to David.
Then he had that soldier killed.
David had trouble in his family for therest of his life because of this sin.
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The first tragedy was the death ofthe child that he had with Bathsheba.
Then one of his sonsraped David's daughter.
Then another son of David killed that son.
Then that son Absalom starteda war that divided the nation.
In the end, the head of David'sarmy killed Absalom against
the direct order of the king.
Finally, toward the close of his lifewhen he was old and feeble, David's
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son Adonijah tried to take the throne.
Nathan the prophet had told David, “Thesword will never depart from your house”
[Second Samuel, chapter 12, verse 10].
And so in all that, we find thatprinciple that is stated in Galatians
six, verse seven and eight, that whatevera man sows, that shall he also reap.
And that is a very important principle tokeep in mind when you ask: why is there
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so much evil in suffering in the world?
Oftentimes, we bring it onourselves just like David brought
this suffering on himself.
Not every time, not in every case, andwe'll talk about that later, but in the
case of sin, that's definitely true.
Now those fateful words thatNathan told him—the sword will
never depart from your house.
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In other words, you will have trouble.
You will have divisionfor the rest of your life.
Those words haunted Davidfor the rest of his life.
Nathan, the prophet, had told Davidthat God had forgiven him, but he
had to live with the consequencesof his sin for the rest of his life.
Now David oftentimes pours out hisheart to God in this book of Psalms.
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These psalms are called penitentialpsalms because David shows
his deep regret for his sins.
Now, Psalm 51 is a Psalm ofdeep remorse and repentance.
The compliment to these psalmsis another type of Psalm known
as a Psalm of forgiveness.
Psalm 32 is a good example.
Psalm 51 has the same elementof divine forgiveness.
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Now these psalms are very personal.
They're very emotional.
Now this brings us to anotheraspect of the Book of Psalms that
we have to remember if we're goingto understand Psalm 51, verse five.
The Book of Psalms is abook of Hebrew poetry.
Some of it is literal, but muchof it is filled with figures of
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speech and symbols of all kinds.
Now, one of these figuresis known as a hyperbole.
That is an intentional overstatement,a deliberate exaggeration for emphasis.
Now, this figure is notto be taken literally.
Now, for instance, in Psalm six, versesix, David's heart is breaking, which
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is a figure's speech in our times.
He said, “I am weary with groaning allnight. I make my bed swim. I drench
my couch with tears.” Now, wouldanybody say that David cried enough
tears to make his bed float and swim?
We understand what he meanswhen he says I'm crying so much
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that I make my bed to swim.
He's not being literal.
A good example of the same kindof language that is found in Psalm
51:5 is in Psalm 58, verse three.
There David said “The wicked are estrangedfrom the womb. They go astray as soon
as they are born, speaking lies.” Now,does anyone who believes in original
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sin think this means that newborninfants are so evil that they start
lying the moment that they're born?
This can't be literal.
It has to be symbolic.
It is a hyperbole.
Newborn babies don't lie.
They can't even talk.
This is a figurative way of describinghow evil these adult people are.
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They are so thoroughly sinful that theirwhole life is one of continual evil.
It is as if they began tospeak lies as soon as they were
born—figuratively speaking.
It's even more obvious that Psalm58 verse three is figurative
when you look at the next verse.
It says, “Their poison”—that isthe poison of these people—“is
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like the poison of a serpent.
They are like the deaf cobra thatstops its ear.” That's verse four.
So if verse four is not literal,then neither is verse three.
And if Psalm 58, versethree is figurative, then
so is Psalm 51, verse five.
In Psalm 51, verse five, where theBible says, “Behold, I was shapen in
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iniquity and in sin my mother conceivedme” David is expressing deep feelings of
remorse in the language of Hebrew poetry.
Psalm 51 5 is not any more literalthan Psalm 58, verse three.
Both are cases of hyperbole.
David was so overwhelmed with grieffor his sin that he's saying in
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a highly figurative way that hiswhole life was stained by his sin.
It was as if he was sinful sincethe moment he was conceived,
just like he spoke of thewicked in Psalm 58, verse three.
In Psalm 51, verse five, David ispoetically describing how he felt, not
literally stating the history of his sin.
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So far, we've been looking at the viewthat the nature of man, spiritually
speaking, is what causes sin in the world.
We are not sinners though,because we are born in sin.
We're not sinners because we areborn with inherited total depravity.
It's not true that man is a sinnerby this nature instead of by choice.
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This is what I would call theview of a spiritual nature
causing the evil in the world.
But let's look at a variant of that.
Another idea about the reason for evilin the world is that we can't help it
because we are born that way genetically.
This idea says that some people atleast are biologically predetermined
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to do what they do, to have thelifestyle that they live in other words.
It denies free will.
Now, modern psychology and modernsociology are full of this kind of idea,
and it goes directly against the Bible.
It goes against the versesthat we've already looked at.
The Bible teaches thatman chooses what he does.
This idea says, for instance,that some people are homosexuals
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because they're born that way.
They inherited that condition.
They don't choose to be homosexuals.
They're just that way becauseof genetics, and that is false.
Now, there may be things in the bodythat influence a person's behavior.
There's no question about that,but influence and predetermination
are two different things.
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The thing that does not enter intothe thinking of many people in the
field of psychology and sociologytoday is the idea of free will.
Everything is either nature or nurture.
Everything is either geneticsor biology or the environment
around the person in question.
If you want to do something interesting,just pick up a college textbook on
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sociology or psychology and see if youcan find one word about free will in it.
I'm not talking about specificallythose very words, but see if you
can find anything about the conceptor the idea of free human choice.
It's all about genetics or environment.
And speaking of environment, that isbeing blown out of proportion, and
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it's being used to give an excuse topeople for the sins that they commit.
The idea of environment now isbeing used to say that the evil
that is in the world is becauseof the environment of the world.
Well, who made the environment?
People are not even thinkingabout that question.
They're not thinking at all aboutthe question of how this arrived.
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At this point, they're notlooking at Bible history at all.
Many times they don't even believe that.
That doesn't enter into their thinking.
But if you look at it from the Biblestandpoint, you find that God created us
with free will and we choose what we do.
Now, the environment doeshave an effect on us.
There's no doubt about that.
But still what we find in the Biblefrom beginning to end is that man,
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regardless of the environment that heis in—the home that he's raised in, the
town that he lives in, the culture thathe's a part of—man is able to choose
his own way to either find God or toreject God, to do right or to do wrong.
But man is always looking forsomeone or something to blame.
He's always looking fora way to excuse himself.
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This idea that we're talkingabout is just one more idea.
We're looking at two differentbasic ways that people use to try
to say are the reasons or are thereason why evil is in the world.
Some people say, “Well, that'sjust our nature.” Then there are
other people that say it's becauseof the environment that we're in.
We really can't help it.
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And this latter one isreally quite old as well.
I'm looking at a statement madein 1902 by a famous lawyer.
He was at the Chicago County Jail, andhere's what he said to the inmates there.
“There is no such thing,”he said, “as a crime, as the
word is generally understood.
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I do not believe there is anysort of distinction between
the real moral condition ofthe people in and out of jail.
One is just as good as the other.
The people here can no morehelp being here than the people
outside can avoid being outside.
I do not believe that people arein jail because they deserve to be.
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They are in jail simply becausethey cannot avoid it on account of
circumstances which are in entirelybeyond their control and for which
they are in no way responsible.”
Now that attorney was the one wholater defended John T Scopes in
the famous evolution or monkeytrial in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925.
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His name was Clarence Darrow.
That was long ago.
And it makes you sometimes wonderthough what that man would've said
if a vicious criminal had brokeninto his house and beaten and killed
his wife and murdered his children?
Would he have said, “Well, you can'treally blame that criminal because society
made him that way, so we don't even needto prosecute him. And I won't feel angry
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toward him because he couldn't help it.”
But there's a story in the Bible longago that refutes this kind of thinking.
It's the story of Cain and Abel.
Cain murdered his brother Abel.
The New Testament asks thequestion: why did he do that?
In first John chapter three, verse12 the Bible says we are not to
be as Cain who was of the wickedone and murdered his brother.
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And why did he murder him?
That's the very question that we'retalking about, and the Bible says that
the answer is this, because his works wereevil and his brother’s were righteous.
It was because of spite.
It was because of envy, andit was because of his choice.
It wasn't because he was born a sinner.
It wasn't because he wasbiologically predisposed to sin.
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It wasn't because he wasraised in a bad environment.
He sinned because he chose to sin.
And that is the bottom lineto the question, why is there
moral evil in the world?
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
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or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate
programs study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My Godin My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
What would you say if someone askedyou, “Why did God create the world?”
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Why did he make us and put us here?
I've been asked thatquestion several times.
One time was in Russia, years ago.
Two college students in Moscow wantedto talk with me about religion.
One of them said, “If there is a God,what purpose did he have for making
all this? What was the reason?”So I took them to Acts chapter 17.
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Paul was speaking to a crowd of peoplewho were mostly skeptics, and one
of the first things he said was thatGod made the world and He made us.
In Acts 17, verse 24, Paul said, “Godwho made the world and everything in it,
since He is Lord of heaven and earth,does not dwell in temples made with hands,
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nor is He worshiped with men's handsas though He needed anything, since He
gives to all life breath and all things,and He has made from one blood every
nation of men to dwell on all the faceof the earth and has determined their
preappointed times and the boundariesof their dwellings, so that they should
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seek the Lord in the hope that they mightgrope for Him and find Him, though He is
not far from each one of us. For in Himwe live and move and have our being.”
Now notice in verse 24 that thefirst thing that Paul does is to
point out that God made the world.
Now remember, he's talking to peoplewho, for the most part, don't believe
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in the one true and living God.
Athens was the intellectual centerof the day, and it was full of idols.
So Paul begins by talking aboutthe fact that God is the Creator.
He created everything and in verse 26,he talks about the fact that God made us.
God created human beings.
Why did He do that?
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He says in verse 26,that God madefrom one blood every nation of men to
dwell on all the face of the earth.
God made us, and He put us here.
Now, why did God put us on the earth?
Why did he create us and place us here?
The answer is in verse 27 (02:26):
so that they should seek the Lord.
It's just that simple.
God made us and He put uson the earth that He made so
that we should seek the Lord.
That's the purpose.
That's the reason.
We're not here to live forever on earth.
We're not here to please ourselves.
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We are here to seek God, to find him,and to glorify him by serving him.
Now, in order to seek God, wemust choose to seek Him, and
that means that we have a will.
We have free will.
That's part of the nature that God gaveus when He created us in his own image.
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Now, animals and trees don't seek God.
They don't make a decisionto give glory to the Creator.
But you and I have a will.
We choose what we do.
God wants us to love and to obey him,but He won't force us to love him.
Love is a choice, if anything isa choice and not forced it's love.
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But that means that a person canchoose not to love God if he wants to.
Human beings have a will, andwe're not perfect like God.
God's will is always pure and right.
But we sin.
We choose to go against the will of God.
That's the starting point.
As far as the question of why there'sevil in the world is concerned,
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we've already mentioned the fact thatAdam was not the first one to sin.
He was the first human beingto sin, but he was not the
first being who committed sin.
That being evidently was Satan.
The Bible says that someof the angels sinned.
Second Peter, chapter two, verse four,talks about the angels that sinned.
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Jude verse six also goes into moredetail about that, and judging from
what Jesus said in Matthew 25, verse 41,it appears that Satan was the leader.
That verse talks about the devil and hisangels, but the same question arises.
Why did the angels sin?
How did evil get a start among them?
And the same answer comes back: because they chose to sin. (04:35):
undefined
They had free will.
We are looking in this series atthe question “Why.” Why is there
evil in the world and why does theall-powerful, all-loving God allow it?
And as we said before,there are two kinds of evil.
There's moral evil, which is sin, and thenthere is natural evil, which is suffering.
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Right now we're focusing on moral evil.
That is sin.
Lord willing, we'll talk in weeks to comeabout suffering and why God allows it.
But we need to begin with theproblem of moral evil or sin.
God is not to blame for the evil of sin.
James one verse 13 says, “Let no mansay when he is tempted, I am tempted of
God (05:20):
because God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt any man.”
So that verse of scripture says thatGod cannot even be tempted with evil.
It's not simply that God cannot sin, it'sthat God cannot even be tempted to sin.
And James goes on to explainthat every man is tempted when
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he is drawn away of his own lust.
That's James one, verse 13 and 14.
The sin problem is man's fault.
Ecclesiastes seven verse 29 says, “Godmade man upright, but they have found
out many inventions.” That is mankind.
We are responsible for theevil of sin in the world.
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So at this stage of the study[and remember, we're just getting
started] we are looking at how manhas abused his free will from the
beginning, Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
Why?
Because they chose to.
God warned them.
They knew better, but they did it anyway.
And as a result, they broughtdeath, spiritual death, or
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separation from God into the world.
12, the Bible says, “Therefore, just asthrough one man, sin entered the world and
death through sin, and thus death spreadto all men, because all sinned.” Now that
verse does not say that we inherited sin.
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In fact, it says just the opposite.
If we read the whole verse, Paulsaid that this spiritual death
came upon or was passed upon allmankind because all have sinned.
Romans 6 23 says the wages of sinis death, so evil in the form of
sin is in the world because Adamand Eve sinned and we follow in
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their footsteps and sin as well.
We are tempted in the same basic waysthey were—through the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride oflife [I John chapter two, verse 16].
Now the specific form of temptationand the setting are different.
We're not in the Garden of Eden andthe devil doesn't come to us in the
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form of the serpent, but the samebasic feelings are at work when we sin.
Eve saw that the tree was good forfood, that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to makeone wise [Genesis three, verse six].
If we ask why God made the world knowingthat man would sin, we can only know what
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God has revealed in his Word, the Bible.
We don't know and we can'tcomprehend all the mind of God.
We can only go as far as his Word teaches,as far as our feeble minds can take us.
But on a human level, the reason moralevil, that is, sin, is in the world is
because we as human beings choose to sin.
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The answer to this problem of evil, evenpart of the answer, is not the doctrine
of inherited depravity or original sin.
The Roman Catholic Church and mostProtestant denominations teach this.
It means that all human beings from Adamare born without that state of grace that
Adam and Eve had when they were created,and we are born deprived or depraved.
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Now, this would mean that wehave no choice in the matter.
We're born sinners.
Some put it this way (08:41):
man is a sinner by nature and not by choice.
That is their alleged answerto the problem of evil.
They say that evil is in theworld because we can't help it.
We are destined to sinbecause we are born that way.
In fact, this doctrine says thatwe are predestined to sin, that
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God ordained evil in the world sothat he could send Jesus to save
only those God chooses to be saved.
Now this is the doctrine of Calvinism.
It basically looks at the problemof evil and says there is no problem
because God wanted it this way.
It was all in his plan.
So evil in Calvinism isactually decreed by God.
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Now, there are many reasonswhy this teaching is false.
In Joshua chapter 24, verse 15, theleader of Israel said, “And if it seems
evil to you to serve the Lord, choosefor yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods which yourfather served, that were on the other
side of the river or the gods of theAmorites, and whose land you dwell, but
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as for me and my house, we will servethe Lord.” Notice what he said: choose
for yourselves whom you will serve.
Here's what Moses said to the Israelitesin Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 19:
“I call heaven and earth as witnessestoday against you, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing andcursing. Therefore, choose life that
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both you and your descendants may live.”
Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 23,verse 37, “O, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the
one who kills the prophets and stonesthose who are sent to her, how often I
wanted to gather your children togetheras a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, but you were not willing.”That means they chose what they did.
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In the book of Hebrews, the Bible saysin Hebrews chapter 11, verse 24 and 25,
“By faith, Moses, when he became of age,refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to sufferaffliction with the people of God than
to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”
Then toward the close of theBible, the scriptures say, “And
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the spirit and the bride say, Come,and let him who hears say, Come,
and let him who is athirst come.
Whoever desires, let himtake the water of life freely
[Revelation chapter 22, verse 17].
Are babies born in sin?
No.
Are little children totally depravedbecause they descended from Adam?
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No.
In Matthew chapter 18, when thedisciples ask Jesus, who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
The Lord set a small child before them,and here's what he said: “Unless you
are converted and become as littlechildren, you will by no means enter the
kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoeverhumbles himself as this little child is
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the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”That's Matthew 18 verses three and four.
Now, in what way must we be likelittle children to enter the kingdom?
We must be humble, not prideful.
The nature of a child ishumility, not pride and not sin.
Jesus taught the same view of childrenin Matthew chapter 19, when some
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brought little children to Jesus.
The Bible says that Hisdisciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, “Let the little childrencome to Me, and do not forbid them, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven” [Matthewchapter 19, verse 14]. This same kind of
innocence is taught in I Corinthians 14,verse 20: “Brethren, do not be children
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in understanding; however, in malicebe babes, but in understanding be men.”
In this book of I Corinthians,Paul rebukes the church at Corinth.
He tells them to stop actinglike babies and act like men.
But here in I Corinthians 14, verse20, he says to imitate children in
another way, and that is in theirattitude toward malice or evil.
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Why?
Because children are pure andinnocent when it comes to evil.
Deuteronomy Chapter one, verse39 is also a very important verse
on this topic we're looking at.
In this part of the book of Deuteronomy,Moses is recounting what the previous
generation of Israelites did when theycame to the border of the promised land.
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Forty years before they had disobeyedGod because they didn't believe him.
As a result, God said that they woulddie in the desert except for Joshua and
Caleb, but what about the little ones?
Now, here's what Moses said.
This is Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 39.
Moreover, your little ones and yourchildren who you say will be victims,
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who today have no knowledge of goodand evil, they shall go in there.”
The infants and the little childrenwere not held responsible for
the rebellion of the adults.
The adults chose unbelief.
They chose to disobey.
God punished them becausethey were accountable.
But the children were not punished.
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Why?
Because they didn't choose to disobey.
They were not knowledgeable enough.
They did not have enough knowledgebetween good and evil to make that choice.
Ezekiel, chapter 18 is anotherpowerful chapter about free will.
We're looking at the fact that evilis in the world in the form of moral
evil because of the free will of man.
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In verses five through nine of Ezekiel18, the prophet describes a man who
is just and does what he says islawful and right, and he shuns evil.
But then in verses 10 through 13,that same good man has a son who
is just the opposite of his father.
He's evil.
And he was not bad becausehe was born depraved.
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He was evil by choice just likehis father was good by choice.
This evil son robbed.
He committed adultery.
He served idols.
Babies and little childrendon't do these things.
They don't even desire to dothem, and they don't have an
inherited propensity to sin.
That's like a ticking time bomb.
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This evil son was evilbecause he chose to do evil.
That's what verse 13 means.
When it says His blood shall be upon him,that is upon himself, he and he alone is
responsible for his spiritual condition.
Then there's a third generation inEzekiel chapter 18 verses 14 through 17.
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Now, remember, this is the son ofthe evil man in verses 10 through
13, and the grandson of the goodman in verses five through nine.
What kind of man did this son become?
He became what he chose tobe just like all of us do.
This son in verse 14, the Bible says, seesall the sins which his father has done
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and considers, but does not do likewise.
Now, this is the son of an evil man.
He sees the sins of his evil father.
He considers them, he thinks aboutthem, but he decides that he's not
going to do what his father has done.
Now, this is an encouraging verse.
It gives hope to children raisedin bad homes by mean parents.
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The son in verse 14 saw what hisfather did and he thought about it.
He decided not to be like his father.
So we have this old saying, “Likefather, like son,” and that proverb is
often true, but not always. So in allthese verses, and there are many more,
we find that the answer to the problem“Why is there evil in the world?” is
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not because people are born in sin.
It's because people choose to sin.
But what about Psalm 51 verse five?
Does that mean that we are born sinnersand we can't help but sin, and that's
the reason why evil is in the world?
Is that what David was saying?
Here's what he said inPsalm 51, verse five.
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In the King James version, we read,“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me”
The New King JamesVersion is very similar.
It says, “Behold, I was brought forthin iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me” Now, there are many peoplewho believe that this verse teaches
original sin and that that's thereason why we have evil in the world.
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Now, in the first place, we need toremember that the emphasis in this
passage is on David and his sin.
It's not about his mother.
There's nothing in the Scriptureto support the idea that David's
mother was a sinful woman.
In the context, David talks aboutmy transgressions in verse one.
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He talks about my iniquityand my sin in verse two.
He talks about my transgressions inverse three, and then we have that
famous statement “Against you, andyou only have I sinned, Lord” [verse
four]. So David is talking abouthis sinfulness not his mother’s.
That's the first thingthat we need to notice.
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In the second place, Davidis not talking about the
sinfulness of mankind in general.
He's not saying that he wasborn into a sinful environment.
Now again, the emphasis throughthe context is on his sin, not the
sinfulness of the human race in general.
So he's not saying that he wassimply born into a sinful world.
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The title that the ancient Jews gaveto Psalm 51 is a Psalm of David when
Nathan, the prophet, came to himafter he had gone into Bathsheba.
Now, this was an ancient Jewish tradition.
And if this Psalm is not specificallyabout this episode in David's
life, it still shows his remorseabout his sins in general.
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On the other hand, if he didwrite this about his sin with
Bathsheba, it's not surprisingthat he spoke in such strong terms.
The guilt he felt musthave seemed overwhelming.
He had committed adultery with the wifeof a soldier who was very loyal to David.
Then he had that soldier killed.
David had trouble in his family for therest of his life because of this sin.
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The first tragedy was the death ofthe child that he had with Bathsheba.
Then one of his sonsraped David's daughter.
Then another son of David killed that son.
Then that son Absalom starteda war that divided the nation.
In the end, the head of David'sarmy killed Absalom against
the direct order of the king.
Finally, toward the close of his lifewhen he was old and feeble, David's
(19:28):
son Adonijah tried to take the throne.
Nathan the prophet had told David, “Thesword will never depart from your house”
[Second Samuel, chapter 12, verse 10].
And so in all that, we find thatprinciple that is stated in Galatians
six, verse seven and eight, that whatevera man sows, that shall he also reap.
And that is a very important principle tokeep in mind when you ask: why is there
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so much evil in suffering in the world?
Oftentimes, we bring it onourselves just like David brought
this suffering on himself.
Not every time, not in every case, andwe'll talk about that later, but in the
case of sin, that's definitely true.
Now those fateful words thatNathan told him—the sword will
never depart from your house.
(20:12):
In other words, you will have trouble.
You will have divisionfor the rest of your life.
Those words haunted Davidfor the rest of his life.
Nathan, the prophet, had told Davidthat God had forgiven him, but he
had to live with the consequencesof his sin for the rest of his life.
Now David oftentimes pours out hisheart to God in this book of Psalms.
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These psalms are called penitentialpsalms because David shows
his deep regret for his sins.
Now, Psalm 51 is a Psalm ofdeep remorse and repentance.
The compliment to these psalmsis another type of Psalm known
as a Psalm of forgiveness.
Psalm 32 is a good example.
Psalm 51 has the same elementof divine forgiveness.
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Now these psalms are very personal.
They're very emotional.
Now this brings us to anotheraspect of the Book of Psalms that
we have to remember if we're goingto understand Psalm 51, verse five.
The Book of Psalms is abook of Hebrew poetry.
Some of it is literal, but muchof it is filled with figures of
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speech and symbols of all kinds.
Now, one of these figuresis known as a hyperbole.
That is an intentional overstatement,a deliberate exaggeration for emphasis.
Now, this figure is notto be taken literally.
Now, for instance, in Psalm six, versesix, David's heart is breaking, which
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is a figure's speech in our times.
He said, “I am weary with groaning allnight. I make my bed swim. I drench
my couch with tears.” Now, wouldanybody say that David cried enough
tears to make his bed float and swim?
We understand what he meanswhen he says I'm crying so much
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that I make my bed to swim.
He's not being literal.
A good example of the same kindof language that is found in Psalm
51:5 is in Psalm 58, verse three.
There David said “The wicked are estrangedfrom the womb. They go astray as soon
as they are born, speaking lies.” Now,does anyone who believes in original
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sin think this means that newborninfants are so evil that they start
lying the moment that they're born?
This can't be literal.
It has to be symbolic.
It is a hyperbole.
Newborn babies don't lie.
They can't even talk.
This is a figurative way of describinghow evil these adult people are.
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They are so thoroughly sinful that theirwhole life is one of continual evil.
It is as if they began tospeak lies as soon as they were
born—figuratively speaking.
It's even more obvious that Psalm58 verse three is figurative
when you look at the next verse.
It says, “Their poison”—that isthe poison of these people—“is
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like the poison of a serpent.
They are like the deaf cobra thatstops its ear.” That's verse four.
So if verse four is not literal,then neither is verse three.
And if Psalm 58, versethree is figurative, then
so is Psalm 51, verse five.
In Psalm 51, verse five, where theBible says, “Behold, I was shapen in
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iniquity and in sin my mother conceivedme” David is expressing deep feelings of
remorse in the language of Hebrew poetry.
Psalm 51 5 is not any more literalthan Psalm 58, verse three.
Both are cases of hyperbole.
David was so overwhelmed with grieffor his sin that he's saying in
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a highly figurative way that hiswhole life was stained by his sin.
It was as if he was sinful sincethe moment he was conceived,
just like he spoke of thewicked in Psalm 58, verse three.
In Psalm 51, verse five, David ispoetically describing how he felt, not
literally stating the history of his sin.
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So far, we've been looking at the viewthat the nature of man, spiritually
speaking, is what causes sin in the world.
We are not sinners though,because we are born in sin.
We're not sinners because we areborn with inherited total depravity.
It's not true that man is a sinnerby this nature instead of by choice.
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This is what I would call theview of a spiritual nature
causing the evil in the world.
But let's look at a variant of that.
Another idea about the reason for evilin the world is that we can't help it
because we are born that way genetically.
This idea says that some people atleast are biologically predetermined
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to do what they do, to have thelifestyle that they live in other words.
It denies free will.
Now, modern psychology and modernsociology are full of this kind of idea,
and it goes directly against the Bible.
It goes against the versesthat we've already looked at.
The Bible teaches thatman chooses what he does.
This idea says, for instance,that some people are homosexuals
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because they're born that way.
They inherited that condition.
They don't choose to be homosexuals.
They're just that way becauseof genetics, and that is false.
Now, there may be things in the bodythat influence a person's behavior.
There's no question about that,but influence and predetermination
are two different things.
(25:38):
The thing that does not enter intothe thinking of many people in the
field of psychology and sociologytoday is the idea of free will.
Everything is either nature or nurture.
Everything is either geneticsor biology or the environment
around the person in question.
If you want to do something interesting,just pick up a college textbook on
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sociology or psychology and see if youcan find one word about free will in it.
I'm not talking about specificallythose very words, but see if you
can find anything about the conceptor the idea of free human choice.
It's all about genetics or environment.
And speaking of environment, that isbeing blown out of proportion, and
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it's being used to give an excuse topeople for the sins that they commit.
The idea of environment now isbeing used to say that the evil
that is in the world is becauseof the environment of the world.
Well, who made the environment?
People are not even thinkingabout that question.
They're not thinking at all aboutthe question of how this arrived.
(26:42):
At this point, they're notlooking at Bible history at all.
Many times they don't even believe that.
That doesn't enter into their thinking.
But if you look at it from the Biblestandpoint, you find that God created us
with free will and we choose what we do.
Now, the environment doeshave an effect on us.
There's no doubt about that.
But still what we find in the Biblefrom beginning to end is that man,
(27:04):
regardless of the environment that heis in—the home that he's raised in, the
town that he lives in, the culture thathe's a part of—man is able to choose
his own way to either find God or toreject God, to do right or to do wrong.
But man is always looking forsomeone or something to blame.
He's always looking fora way to excuse himself.
(27:27):
This idea that we're talkingabout is just one more idea.
We're looking at two differentbasic ways that people use to try
to say are the reasons or are thereason why evil is in the world.
Some people say, “Well, that'sjust our nature.” Then there are
other people that say it's becauseof the environment that we're in.
We really can't help it.
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And this latter one isreally quite old as well.
I'm looking at a statement madein 1902 by a famous lawyer.
He was at the Chicago County Jail, andhere's what he said to the inmates there.
“There is no such thing,”he said, “as a crime, as the
word is generally understood.
(28:09):
I do not believe there is anysort of distinction between
the real moral condition ofthe people in and out of jail.
One is just as good as the other.
The people here can no morehelp being here than the people
outside can avoid being outside.
I do not believe that people arein jail because they deserve to be.
(28:31):
They are in jail simply becausethey cannot avoid it on account of
circumstances which are in entirelybeyond their control and for which
they are in no way responsible.”
Now that attorney was the one wholater defended John T Scopes in
the famous evolution or monkeytrial in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925.
(28:55):
His name was Clarence Darrow.
That was long ago.
And it makes you sometimes wonderthough what that man would've said
if a vicious criminal had brokeninto his house and beaten and killed
his wife and murdered his children?
Would he have said, “Well, you can'treally blame that criminal because society
made him that way, so we don't even needto prosecute him. And I won't feel angry
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toward him because he couldn't help it.”
But there's a story in the Bible longago that refutes this kind of thinking.
It's the story of Cain and Abel.
Cain murdered his brother Abel.
The New Testament asks thequestion: why did he do that?
In first John chapter three, verse12 the Bible says we are not to
be as Cain who was of the wickedone and murdered his brother.
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And why did he murder him?
That's the very question that we'retalking about, and the Bible says that
the answer is this, because his works wereevil and his brother’s were righteous.
It was because of spite.
It was because of envy, andit was because of his choice.
It wasn't because he was born a sinner.
It wasn't because he wasbiologically predisposed to sin.
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It wasn't because he wasraised in a bad environment.
He sinned because he chose to sin.
And that is the bottom lineto the question, why is there
moral evil in the world?
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
(30:24):
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate
programs study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
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