As soon as I tell the world that I believe in one almighty Creator God who loves like a Father, I have to face a blast of hostile voices. “If there is a God like that, why did he make such a dreadful world?” Everybody knows that living in this world is by no means one long, uninterrupted, idyllic, luxurious, lovely and delightful experience. There is poverty, strife, treachery, disease, disaster, and death. The most faithful soul must cry, “Why, O why?” Even Jesus had his dark hours. So what shall I say? Jesus never explained these great problems. But he did do something about them. He fed the hungry. His spirit of humble, forgiving, serving love brought peace, reconciliation, and brotherhood. His loyalty to truth, at whatever cost, opened a spring of honesty that flowed far and wide into the world. He healed the sick and offered men an eternal life that would see them through any disaster and death. The kind of life that Jesus poured into the world has done great things in relieving and preventing distress. But nevertheless Jesus himself came to a cross. Surely, if there is any way around human suffering, God would have found it for such a wonderful person as his own Son. But Jesus was spared nothing. There must be sufficient reasons for the existence of evil in the world, even though we don’t yet know what they are. Someday I shall understand. But whether I understand or not, I still have to live in the same troublous world. It certainly won’t help me to face this world more adequately if I tum my back on the Savior who has done so much to remove the problems I have to face.
I think I can understand some of the reasons why what I call evil has to exist in this created world. (After all, this is a created world. It is not God.) For example, this world from the beginning contained something of the nothingness out of which it was created. There had to be a kind of nothingness called space in between things to separate them and give them room to move and change and live, choosing directions. But when things move into empty spaces, smashups and blowups are possible, to say nothing of wrong choices, strife, and death. A created world is bound to be dangerous. Is it better to create a world in which the possibilities are both wonderful and terrible, or not to create any world at all? God decided that it was worth risking tragedies like the cross if a person like Jesus could ap~ pear in the world he would create. God gave men enough intelligence to control or avoid the world’s dangerous threats. But we misuse our brains, our freedom, and God’s world. God did something even about our misdoing by giving us Jesus Christ, whom we promptly reject. God has given us everything we need to make the most of this world. We ourselves are the real problem of evil. It’s up to us to stop our nonsense and get on with God’s work instead of complaining about the way he made the world. No man has ever thought up a kind of world which hadn’t the slightest possibility of evil in it, and which any human being would want to live in. I still trust in the Almighty Creator in whom Jesus trusted.
Books by Dr. John A. Ross
