The Reason Evil Prevails in the World

Ramon Arias | September 8, 2014

When a professing atheist acknowledges the manifestation of evil, I just cannot overlook this priceless asseveration. The following example will serve us well, from the 2012 Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia, the Atheist Foundation, purchased a bus ad that read: “If God exists, I hope he has a good excuse.”

In my many years as a professing atheist, I had no satisfactory explanation for the approximately six thousand years of the historical cycle of human destruction. Not even Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species” in chapter four “natural selection” or “The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” could help me understand human nature. Neither did I find convincing the arguments from those who followed Darwin’s assumptions to consolidate their atheistic worldview. 

At that time, my view for the future of humanity was a horrible end by self-destruction due to their specialty of perfecting weapons of destruction and the obsession of a never-ending hunger to accomplish dominion over others. The dictionary explains the different faces of evil very clear:

Adjective: an evil deed: wicked, bad, wrong, immoral, sinful, foul, vile, dishonorable, corrupt, iniquitous, depraved, reprobate, villainous, nefarious, vicious, malicious; malevolent, sinister, demonic, devilish, diabolical, fiendish, dark; monstrous, shocking, despicable, atrocious, heinous, odious, contemptible, horrible, execrable; informal lowdown, dirty.

Even if we take out all connotations of spiritual or supernatural meaning for the word evil, the picture is a very grim one.  When I was an atheist my rejection of God’s existence could not eliminate the problem of evil.  Until humanity understands the true source of evil we can only expect its manifestation to move from lesser to more aggressive. How did I arrive at this conclusion?

First, atheism places its faith in man and the universe; their social brand of goodness has never worked in spite of social cleansing through murder of hundreds of millions and through slavery. They can only produce failure after failure as they constantly destroy nations in the name of good intentions and the presence of suffering increases with no apparent end in sight.

Second, when I was introduced to the Bible and I was finally able to hold one in my hands for the first time in my life, I began to seriously study it allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. This approach is of utmost importance for every Bible believer due to all the doctrinal contradictions, confusion and created despondency, which is the product of so many interpretations on any given subject within Christianity. Very early on I had to arrive at the conclusion that God’s Revealed Truth is not the problem, the problem is His people when they mix their natural understanding of life and the world and want to force God’s truth into their mold of doctrine.  They want to force a round peg into a square hole, so to speak.

God’s Revealed Truth is unparalleled. Believe it or not, it truly is the solution to all human problems. Once we understand that He is perfect in character and actions as the Almighty, All-powerful and Omniscient God then evil is easily understood.

As for the Australian bus ad, “If God exists, I hope he has a good excuse.” The simple answer is: God does exist, and he needs no excuses for the evil that takes place in humanity. Here’s why: everything that God created from the beginning in heaven is perfect, this includes all the heavenly beings, which included Lucifer, later known as Satan. They had freedom of choice to remain perfect or to abandon their perfection. Lucifer and a host of his followers decided to rebel against heaven’s perfection.

The Genesis story reveals the creation of the universe and the purpose of planet Earth. Adam and Eve were created perfect, also with the freedom to choose to remain under God’s plan or not. Their choice was an alternative offer to disobey the one single commandment they had been given; they chose disobedience and evil became part of the human conflict.

Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of evil by paying the price for human redemption. Jesus’ resurrection is the culmination of his victory over Satan and the host of fallen angels. God’s plan of victory continues to move forward in history until His plan is completed. This is a far more acceptable account for understanding the origin of evil.

The more people understand the source of evil and the option of the unmatched new life offered by Christ with all the benefits of being children of obedience, the better the world will be with their presence and activism as they continue to defeat evil in all its forms as Christ commanded.

Christianity also moves in cycles.  The reason we see evil prevailing in the world is because the majority of God’s people are immersed in deception. But be encouraged, there is hope because history also reveals a coming widespread repentance and a return to godly principles.  The world is going to feel the impact, and it will be another great defeat against evil. In the meantime, God’s people should not despair, give up, or surrender their commitment to making a difference by obedience to God Almighty and Jesus Christ, who has all power and authority over the nations.

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