DK: Why does God allow people to do evil things to others?
Ed: The world is full of human wickedness of all kinds. From the petty selfishness of people who throw litter, to the heartless deceit of the internet fraudster, to the unthinkable evil of the cold-blooded murderer.
The Bible has a word for human wickedness—‘sin’. We sin when we rebel against God. We are all sinners because of our fallen human nature (Jeremiah 17:9), which we inherit from our ancestors Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). When you think about it, we all do evil things—including you and me.
God deplores sin, in all its forms. But what is He doing about it? He could stop bad things happening: maybe He could jam the car window so the beer bottle can’t be thrown out, or freeze the computer so the fraudster can’t rob his victim, or deflect the knife to prevent the murder happening.
Is this what God should be doing—constantly overriding our bad actions? The sin would still be there, whether or not the actual acts were allowed to happen. And if there were no consequences of evil intentions, people would act on them all the more.
The Bible shows us what God is doing: He is addressing the root cause of the evil. He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die as a sacrifice to take away our sins (John 1:29). He works with people, gently, patiently, calling out of the nations ‘a people for his name’ (Acts 15:14). These people—you and me, if we want it—will be changed when Christ returns, so that we’re no longer sinful (1 Corinthians 15:50–53).
Meanwhile, we are sinners and we live in a world that is beset by sin. The Bible shows us what we need to do to take advantage of God’s offer of salvation, and how we must try to live, resisting sin and following God. You and I won’t change the world by what we do, but we can at least make it a better place for ourselves and those around us. And we have the tremendous comfort of the knowledge that it won’t always be like this. In God’s good time, sin and its consequences will be eradicated, when God restores the world and its population to perfection (Habakkuk 2:14).