Why does God allow Evil to at times seem to go unpunished? (Dec 2013)

As we close another year and look forward to welcoming in the next, I find myself looking back on my life and wanting to express gratitude for all the wonderful people God has given me the opportunity and privilege to get to know over the years. Also, regardless if I know you or not, I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, but then I realized this was not sufficient.

Now unfortunately, I can’t explain this in a simple one sentence face book post. I have to work through how I arrived at the conclusion for it to make sense. If you will bear with me and read through to the end it will become clear and hopefully you will find this worth the time to read it.

I have noted in the past that it is impossible for me to look at all the complexity in the universe and not conclude there is an intelligent designer, a God of unfathomable creativity and power. While to me the evidence is overwhelming that this is true, simple illustrations such as finding a Phone on the beach and knowing someone designed it, or if we want a biological example seeing my children grow from a single cell into the biologically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually complex beings they have become is a sheer miracle to me and not explainable through random chance no matter what a Harvard mathematician may claim.

I also can’t look at a beautiful sunrise, taste the wonders of chocolate, view the wide array of amazing animals or see my unique DNA / Finger prints and retina without coming to the conclusion the God that created the universe cares about creation and cares about us individually.

However, there is an undeniable difficulty when concluding that God is all powerful and all loving. As many wonderful things as do exist in this world, there is also a large amount of bad that cannot be ignored. Many Christians start to squirm when you bring up certain questions, but for me it is in wrestling through these type of questions that my faith has been made certain.

Question 1: Why would a loving, just, all powerful God allow evil to thrive in this world and at times the wicked to seemingly go unpunished?

Q1: Personal Experience:

To me, this is not simply an academic question I wrestle with in my mind from a far. It is a question I and many others have had to face head on. It is a very personal question. My wife has agreed I can share this example as a difficulty she had to face, and unfortunately far too many other girls have faced. My wife was sexually molested as a child and the man that did it to her never went to prison and lived to an old age. Now, as a father of 2 daughters, I can tell you that if a man did this to one of my girls, my initial reaction would be to beat him to a pulp and then drag his bloody carcass down to the police to stand trial. It would not be to allow him to remain free and live to be an old man. Yet this is what happened. Why?

Q1: What the bible says………….

Well, as I have stated before, I have found enough evidence for me to conclude the Bible is true, so to answer this question about God, I sought out the answer in the bible to see if the bible addresses the obvious true reality that evil is at times allowed to thrive on this planet and at times the wicked do seem to go unpunished.

Here is what I found:

In the book of Jonah I read:

Jon 3:10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

4:1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.

4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

4:4 The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

Most of the time when I have heard Jonah discussed he is portrayed as an ungrateful malcontent. After all, who would be so upset that God was extending mercy to the people of Ninevah. However, as I have aged, I look further into the above discussion and I think about what might not have been included.

What if Jonah’s parents had been brutally murdered in front of him while he was forced to watch. What if those who did it laughed in glee and rejoiced in their wrong doing. What if his sister had been raped, etc. What if this happened years ago and Jonah had been waiting and hoping for justice. Wishing that those who did so would be swiftly punished, only to see God restrain for years until finally declaring it was time. Either the people repented now (After years of chances, time was up) or God was going to destroy them. Finally we had arrived at this point, but as Jonah feared, when the people did repent, turning away from their sin and begging God to forgive them, God relented.

Elsewhere we read:

Eze 33:11 “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’

Or:

Luke 6:32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

6:33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

6:35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful to evil men.

6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Conclusion to Question 1:

According to the bible, the reason we see the wicked sometimes thrive and seemingly go unpunished is because God wants to give them every opportunity to repent and turn away from their sin and turn back to God and ask forgiveness. Now, I love to hear about God’s grace when it comes to me and my family, yet part of me, like Jonah, does not like that answer when it deals with those who are my enemies. To say that God loved Adolph Hitler and the Nazis so much that he delayed their punishment and allowed them to murder 6 million jews and countless Christians seems a difficult teaching to accept.

However, it does not matter to me if I like it or even think it is fair. It only matters if it is true. It does ring true to me and goes a long way to explain why an all powerful God would allow this. When I note that there actually were some Nazi’s that did repent of the evil they did and turned to God for forgiveness and had their entire lives changed, I begin to understand and appreciate more fully God’s plan:

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Question 2: OK, If God is so merciful, why then does God allow children to die of cancer, or really any of us to go through the agony of death?

Q2: Personal Experience:

All of us have experienced the death of a loved one, and none of us know that we will live through till the end of the day tomorrow. While we may not like it, This is undeniable truth.

Q2: What the bible says………….

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So as I examine this statement “For the wages of sin is death” I ask myself does this seem true?

Well, the wages of lying leads to the death of trust.

The wages of bitterness and unforgiveness leads to the death of relationships

The wages of sexual immorality can lead to physical death (aids, abortion) but also to emotional and spiritual death

Those all seem self evident to me at least. If then I accept that God is the true source of Life, to turn away from God would then naturally lead to death. It is the same concept as when a cell phone is not charged up, it will stop working.

I then ask myself if I have ever turned away from God? According to the bible, we all have:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Yes, but I am not the sinner Adolf Hilter was. Compared to him, I am a good person, why would God allow me to die?

Isa 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;”

So actually, per above, while I think I am a good person when I compare myself to someone evil like Hitler, if I compare myself instead to a Holy and righteous God my own good deeds are like filthy rags. We may not have murdered anyone, but have we ever had hateful thoughts towards anyone?

1 John 3:15 “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

Again, it really in the end does not matter if I think it is fair that God would allow us to die, it is obviously true because all of us will experience death. So either God is not powerful, God does not care about us, or as the bible depicts, God has a strong sense of justice.

However, I also see this famous verse:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

The 2nd portion gives us hope. Yes God is a God of Justice and we all are condemned to die an initial physical death for our sin, but God is also a God of Mercy and has made a provision where we can be saved. Per the bible, our path to salvation does not involve us doing good works:

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So we can not earn our way to Heaven. One does not turn around and pay someone back for a birthday present they receive else it is no longer a gift. Also, If God owns everything, we can no more earn or buy our way into heaven than we could work and buy every home, business and plot of land on the planet.

To even attempt to do so would seem silly.

But rather our path is through the saving faith that Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone is the only path to God and eternal life:

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

But this is not just about the future and physical death, it is also about the present:

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If we are willing to acknowledge we are flawed and need Gods help and willing to repent and turn from our sin, the bible promises if this is where our heart lies, God will help clean us up and mend our brokenness.

God can take a liar and make them love the truth and where trust was dead can bring it back to life.

God can take a bitter and unforgiving person like the famous scrooge and turn their heart and where relationships were dead they can be restored.

God can raise the dead, not just physically in the future, but we who are spiritually dead and broken God can mend, if we will simply allow it. As one of the broken, I can attest to that truth as I have seen it in my life and year by year God has cleaned me up a little more.

As for children, I love the quote from the movie Couragous when the father has just lost his child to a drunk driver, the pastor says he has a choice . He can remain angry with God for the time he has lost with his child, or he can thank God for the time he had with his child and can have in the future. We are angry with God for what we think the child lost on earth, but I wonder if we will be equally angry with God if we see a 1 day old baby get the same or even more rewards from God in heaven that we who have toiled through the difficulties and hardships of living will receive. At this point will our hearts turn away from the child?

Final conclusions:

The past few years have been tough on my family. My wife has been on medications that have caused her at times to not be able to stand up, to sleep for 20 hours a day, to scream at the top of her lungs in agony as her legs feel like they will explode. One medicine caused her to have heart attack like symptoms. We tried no medicine and that was a disaster. I have seen her not be able to sleep for weeks on end (A method in war used to break prisoners). The results which I will not describe in detail have been devastating. She has had heart issues, liver issues, diabettees and Bi Polar.

At 46 she had to start taking oxygen in 2014.

So, wishing me a Happy New Years the last few years proved fruitless. Happiness is defined by our circumstances. If we get a raise , have a new baby, UK wins the national championship, etc. we are temporarily happy. Happiness however is fleeting and does not last.

I have had years in my past when everything went right and my circumstances led to temporary happiness, and yet I did not have peace. Despite all the chaos we have been through these past 10 years, I have never felt closer to my wife, closer to God and never had as much peace in my life.

We all have to choose where we will place our hope.

Will you place your hope in family? What happens if they are all killed in a car crash and you are left alone?

What about your Job or Career? What happens if you are laid off ? How will it matter in 100 years?

What about the Church? I love my church and my Pastor, but they can not save me.

What about the Government? How will either a Democrat or a Republican add a single day to your life?

What about science? Can Science solve all of our problems with greed, selfishness, etc. Can science hold back the hand of God?

Will you trust in your own good works to save you?

Will you turn to the gods and goddesses of the east? Will the force or the universe save you?

As for me and my household, we have decided that whatever comes our way, we will trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ alone as Gods plan of salvation. Our peace is not dependent on our current circumstances, but in the eternal knowledge that God loves us and has a long term plan for us:

Jer 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

So, while I do wish health and happiness for you and your family in the coming year, more so I wish you to find peace that can withstand the storms of life and the hope that only Jesus provides.