If God Is Good, Why Does Evil Exist? The Problem of Evil Answered

This question comes from two places. Some ask it from the raw wound of personal suffering — a child lost, a relationship destroyed, a war that took everyone they loved. Others ask it as a philosophical argument against the existence of God. Both deserve a serious answer. Evil exists because free will exists. And free will exists because love — real love — cannot be compelled. But there is more to say than that, and this article will say it.

The Two Sources of the Question

The problem of evil is actually two different problems that often get conflated. The first is the logical problem: can an all-good, all-powerful God and a world containing evil logically coexist? Philosopher Alvin Plantinga’s free will defence, published in God and Other Minds (1967) and expanded in The Nature of Necessity (1974), is widely considered to have resolved the logical problem to the satisfaction of most philosophers of religion, including many atheist philosophers. His argument is that God, in order to create beings capable of genuine love and moral virtue, necessarily had to create beings with the freedom to choose evil.

The second is the evidential problem: even if evil does not logically disprove God, does the amount and distribution of evil in the world make God’s existence unlikely? This is the harder question, and it is the one most people are actually asking when they sit in hospital waiting rooms or watch the news.

Why Evil Exists: Free Will and Real Love

God gave humanity free will. This is not a theological cliche — it is the structural explanation for everything. God desired a genuine relationship with human beings. Genuine relationship requires genuine choice. A love that is forced is not love; it is compliance. If God had created human beings incapable of rejecting Him, He would have created something like a factory — not a family.

I often give this thought experiment: Imagine if God were like Hitler — a tyrant who demanded worship under threat of destruction. Would anyone choose atheism in that universe? Almost certainly not — because the response to a tyrant is fear, not disbelief. The very fact that atheism exists is, in a strange way, evidence that God is not that kind of God. He does not coerce. He loves. And love that preserves freedom must accept the possibility of rejection — and all the destruction that rejection trails behind it.

But Why Doesn’t God Stop It?

Most people who ask this question think of evil as something that happens to them. They rarely pause to consider the evil they themselves produce. I ask simple questions: have you ever lied? Gossiped? Cheated? Used someone? Almost everyone says yes to at least one.

Then I share a real story. A woman prayed a desperate prayer: “God, all I want in my life is truth.” She had been burned by dishonest relationships and was done. Now — if you are the person who lied to that woman, and God answered her prayer by removing all the evil touching her life, He would have to remove you. You would not exist in her story any more.

If God were to eliminate all evil right now — not just the dramatic, televised kind, but all of it, including yours — the human race would be nearly empty. Because the problem of evil is not primarily “out there.” It is “in here.” Romans 3:23 is blunt: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Every single person who has ever asked “why doesn’t God stop evil?” is themselves a person God has not yet stopped.

The Ripple Effect: Evil Does Not Have the Final Word

We cannot fully explain the reason behind every specific tragedy — a faithful pastor who loses his child, an innocent baby born with a severe illness. Scripture does not promise explanations for every suffering. But it does reveal a principle: our actions, whether good or evil, create ripple effects that extend far beyond what we see.

There is a documented story of a woman who was raped, became pregnant, and chose to keep the child. She later gave her life to Christ and raised her son in faith. That son became a pastor who has ministered to hundreds. The evil that entered her life produced a ripple of redemption that she never could have predicted. I know of a pastor who lost his son in a sudden accident. In his darkest moment, he thought of another minister who had lost two sons on the same day — and yet continued to serve God. That knowledge sustained him. The suffering of one man decades earlier became a lifeline for another.

This is not a celebration of evil. Paul is explicit in Romans 6:1–2 that we should never sin “so that grace may abound.” But it is a testimony to the truth of Romans 8:28: that God works all things together for good for those who love Him. “All things” includes the ones that don’t make sense yet.

God’s Answer to Evil: The Cross

The most profound response to the problem of evil is not a philosophical argument — it is a historical event. When confronted with a world full of suffering, God did not send a memo from heaven explaining why it is necessary. He entered the suffering Himself. He was born into poverty, raised in an occupied nation, misunderstood by His family, betrayed by His closest friend, arrested, tortured, and executed. He absorbed evil at its most concentrated. And He did it to make a way for the rest of humanity to escape it.

The cross does not explain why evil exists. It demonstrates what God does about it. For a deeper examination of whether the existence of evil actually disproves God, or whether it points in the opposite direction, read our article on whether evil disproves God.