It is not uncommon in light of so much pain and suffering around us for people to wonder why God didn’t choose to create a world without evil. If God is supremely powerful and loving, it seems, we reason, that evil wouldn’t exist. Since evil does exist, that same reasoning suggests, perhaps God is not all powerful or loving after all.

However, when we look closely at the beginning of our story, the creation of earth and humanity (Genesis 1 and 2), we quickly discover that in the Garden of Eden, God’s original intention for us was not only a world without suffering, but a perfect world. It was a life designed to be peaceful, without corruption, where we walked in relationship with our creator. But what we also see given to mankind in those early pages of our history is free will.

Now, when people discuss free will in relation to suffering, it is often tempting to suggest that God could or should have somehow given us free will but also muted the possibility for evil. Let’s look to that question first.

In essence, that way of thinking is really asking why God didn’t give his creation the ability to make only good choices. In other words, we’d have the freedom to choose, but only from a limited set of predetermined options, and that isn’t really free will, is it? The idea of a simultaneously free and limited will is certainly convenient, however, it is ultimately a logical impossibility. Author Dinesh D’Souza has this to say, “The very definition of free will includes the real capacity to choose evil, in the same way that the very definition of a triangle includes three-sidedness” (91). To believe that God could give men free will, but also limit that will simultaneously, is rhetorically nonsensical. Free will is simply that, a will that is free to choose what it wants. Once this understanding of free will is established, we can more easily understand that freedom of the will brings both good and evil actions.

This brings us to the next question. If free will is such a risk, if it can produce so much evil, aren’t we better off without it? Knowing all the dangers, why would God still want to give us free will? C.S. Lewis makes this argument:

“… free will, though it makes evil possible is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata – of creatures that worked like machines – would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.”

Since God could not conjointly give men free will and remove the option for evil, he had to decide which was more valuable, a world free from all potential suffering or a world with truly free creatures. In his infinite wisdom he chose to create free will. You see, free will is absolutely necessary in order for actions and decisions to be meaningful; otherwise our world would be pointless. Once free will is gone, all value, feeling and beauty is diminished or lost completely. The only way for something to truly have value, is for it to be freely chosen. Without free will, there cannot be things such as liberty, love, loyalty or courage, and it is these things which we value most. If God had wanted to create humanity to be his own living version of Farmville or Hay Day, then free will would not be necessary. If God’s primary objective was for his creation to be, and only be, happy, then free will would not be necessary. However, if God’s intention was to create a meaningful world, one in which free creatures could respond first to him, and then to others, then yes, free will is absolutely necessary.

Just as this article opened by referencing the beginning of mankind’s story in Genesis, it is fitting to end with the promised conclusion of that same story in Revelation. It is there that believers are assured a finale of restoration to God’s original intention for his creation: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21.4). Those who persevere in the faith, will inherit an eternity without suffering and pain. So, it is not as though God has lost forever his original intention for this world. He is not somehow settling for the way things just have to be. In fact, we can be confident that while evil is tolerated now, Christ will have the final word and evil will be vanquished forever. Yes, the evil, the pain and the suffering we experience in this life will be completely overshadowed by the light of eternity.

This of course is not an exhaustive discussion on the problem of evil, but hopefully it can bring some perspective on a topic that is difficult for many of us to understand. We will look more at this subject in the near future. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about the problem of evil, I recommend clayjones.net. Professor Jones teaches on the Problem of Evil at Biola University.

Sources for this article:
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.
Dinesh D’Souza, God Forsaken. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2012.
Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011.