Intro: In dealing with the question and problem of evil, it helps very much to have specific examples. That is one of the beauties of great literature. It makes the general specific. It makes the universal concrete. It makes the abstract and theoretical specific and concrete by way of personalizing it. What do I mean? Think of Job in the Old Testament. The book that bears Job’s name is filled with grand theology. It’s replete with discussions of ‘unjust’ suffering, of Satan and his power, of human sin, of God’s providence, of God’s sovereignty, and more. But still there’s this glaring reality right in front of us the whole time–Job himself. Here is a man that is Exhibit A, if you will, in the whole book of Job. He’s a husband, a father, a successful businessman and provider for his family, a man with a few close friends, who sometimes give him what he needs and who also sometimes give him horrible theological counsel.

My point is that if we read Job only as a textbook on suffering, pain, and/or evil, we miss the fact that it’s written about a real historical character who literally put skin in this issue (Job 2:7-8). The book of Job, in other words, makes the abstract problem of evil concrete and specific. It shows what was done to a man in order that he (and we by extension) might take heart, learn, and embrace the truths revealed in Job’s story.

Options for the Problem of Evil:

• Monism is one option that fails to adequately answer the problem. Evil is viewed in monistic systems as a “necessary counterpart to goodness.” Michael S. Horton’s writings on Providence are helpful on this and have helped me think through these matters more. Star Wars is an example of how monism is peddled to the masses via an engaging narrative. Choosing the ‘good,’ or ‘using the Force’ are just ways of dramatizing how pantheistic monism pervades pop culture in so many people’s thinking. If “all is one, and one is all,” then there’s nothing to gain in trying to solve the problem of evil.
• Dualism is a second option that fails to adequately answer the problem of evil. Dualism views evil as ”attributable to an equally sovereign deity . . . .” Horton calls our attention to Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism as examples of dualism in some people’s worldviews. Dualism does not actually solve or even adequately address the problem of evil.
• Thirdly, there is Christianity. Christianity teaches that evil does indeed exist but that it is under the sovereign authority of the triune God of Scripture. In front of me I have my Westminster Shorter Catechism. Question 11 goes to the heart of this issue: “What are God’s works of providence?” Answer: “God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.” In other words, evil is under the control of God. Proverbts 16:33 reminds us of the same truth: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

It’s theology 101, if you will. How so? It is fundamental in that it cuts through the bromides to the doctrine of God, to the doctrine of man, and to the doctrine of redemption. We all know that this world is fallen, that we all suffer, and that we instinctively long to know that our lives have meaning and purpose. And we long to know how evil, suffering, and meaning can be reconciled with belief in a transcendent holy God.

The short answer, I am convinced, is that outside of Christianity there is no answer of redemption and restoration. Why? Because pantheism fails to distinguish good from evil. No amount of yoga is going to transform the human heart’s fallenness, but it may make you more limber. Secondly, no system of dualism does justice to the complexity of the questions surrounding the problem of evil. There cannot logically be two equal gods who are sovereign (one of light vs. one of darkness). Because then sovereignty does not mean what it does mean, and you are lost in a postmodern soup of self-referential linguistic word salad. In Christianity alone, you get answers to the enduring questions we all face about who we are, what is ultimately real, what’s wrong with the world, and what can fix it.

We are creatures fashioned in the Imago Dei, the image of God.

What is ultimately real is the triune God of Scripture.

What’s wrong with the world is that it is fallen, because we are fallen sinners who failed and continually fail to keep God’s law.

What can fix it is the One who bore the wrath that we deserve and who satisfies the justice of God. This requires a perfect sacrifice to both remove our guilt and satisfy God’s righteousness. And this One is God the Son, Christ, the Anointed prophet, priest, and king, Lord of lords, and King of kings.

Job’s Last Words: Throughout the exquisite book that bears his name, Job received much theological counsel from his friends. Some of it was okay, but much of it was quite poor and short-sighted. Because his friends assumed that Job’s sin was unconfessed, or that he just needed to do more good than bad, or that he was trying to hide from God’s holy eyes. But that was not true. Job just wanted to know that God was there, that God was good, and that God saw and cared. And when you get to Job 42, well, it’s exactly what I have written about above, namely, God uses evil but for his sovereign purposes to ultimately redeem a people for himself. Listen to Job’s words after God speaks to him:

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:1). And just a few sentences later he says, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Job had seen things too wonderful for him to fully grasp (Job 42:3b). It reminds me of Paul’s doxology of God’s sovereignty:

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).