Why is there evil, brokenness, and trouble in this world? How did it get this way? Who is responsible for it? Can the world be repaired? Who will repair it? How does it affect me personally? We will discuss answers to these, and other questions, in this writing.
If there were only a physical world, we would not have to answer these questions, because there would be no answers. The merely physical cannot ask why: whatever is, just is. But the fact that we want answers demonstrates that we have hope that there is something more than what we see and experience. If there is also a spiritual world, then we at least have the possibility of finding answers. We will start with a summary of the evidence for a spiritual world.
That which is physical must have a first cause, and that cause cannot be physical. The reason it cannot be physical is that it would still require a cause. We know there must be a non-physical first cause. We call the non-physical “spiritual.” At this point, by “spiritual” we do not mean something religious, we simply mean non-physical reality. Stephen Hawking called the spiritual “the law of gravity.” Plato thought that the spiritual was the only reality and that what we experience is only a shadow. He said this because he knew that the physical world could not explain itself. Eastern religions also believe that the spiritual is the only reality and that what we experience of the physical world is imagined. These answers point to the spiritual, but they do not give an adequate explanation for the existence or the design of the physical, and they do not give an explanation for the actual existence of evil in the world.
On the other hand, Christianity begins with an understanding of spiritual reality. It is only in the context of the spiritual that we can answer the question of why we live in such a broken world. We will show the chain of events that explain our present position in this evil world and how God will repair it. The spiritual beginning of the physical world had to involve a decision and thus a will. So, the beginner or creator is personal. The extent and obvious design of the physical world are evidence that the personal creator is vastly intelligent, powerful, and, as the first being, is perfect. We know about His perfection because if He were not perfect, there would be a perfect one to measure his imperfection and He would be God. All the atheists who formally debate Christians agree on this definition of God. (Without common definitions, there are no meaningful discussions.) There is lengthy and sufficient evidence for each statement we made, but for now, we will suspend the argument for the spiritual and just describe it.
God is spiritual, and He created both spiritual and physical creatures. We all have a sense that we are more than mere physical machines. We are spiritual beings with physical bodies. Our bodies are, in a sense, tools of our real selves. Within the entire spiritual realm, there is a subset that is the called the Kingdom of God in which God is the loving and perfect king. Only that which is loving and perfect can exist in this kingdom. The spiritual realm also contains created spiritual beings who fell from love, and they are not in the Kingdom of God. Any rebellion is removed as a loving act because they who rebel cannot continue to have existence in God’s kingdom. It is a tragedy to be eliminated from the Kingdom, but it is better than annihilation.
When God created the world as part of the created universe, the spiritual Kingdom of God coincided with it. So, the presence of God was always available, and He kept the physical world in perfect condition, just as He created it. The Garden of Eden in the Bible describes the way it was at that time. God’s purpose in creating human beings was to have a close, loving fellowship with people just as the three persons of the Trinitarian God had always had in the spiritual Kingdom before the creation of the world. We see this relationship in the first book of the Bible as the first couple walked and talked with God.
Adam and Eve sinned against the authority of God by exercising their God-given free will to gain what was forbidden, and that was to determine their morals. Because of their rebellion, God kicked them out of the Garden. There they could live, but as spiritual/physical beings they had to live in the physical world and initially be separated from the spiritual Kingdom of God. Great, created spiritual beings guarded the spiritual/physical Kingdom of God, the Garden of Eden, so that no one could enter. There was no longer a physical place on earth that was one with the Kingdom of God. Except for the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and the Temple, the Kingdom of God was now only a spiritual place.
We will see that God would provide a means for people to re-enter the Kingdom but it is not an easy solution. The whole difficulty turns around the righteousness, justice, and love of God. The question, given the nature of God, is: can He defeat evil as an act of love without violence and allow the sinful person to enter a place where sin cannot survive? The short answer is that we must be transformed spiritually back to a righteous moral nature in the Kingdom. We also will see that for now, only our spirits can enter. Physically, humanity has to continue to live in a broken physical world and die. God described to the first family how difficult and evil the world would be outside the Kingdom. The world, outside, would be blighted and would become naturally worse as time went on. Humankind would have to work hard and intelligently to turn back the effects of a world outside the Kingdom. God did not blight the world. The perfect creator and sustainer of the physical did not recreate a broken world. That would be contrary to His perfect nature. The brokenness and the evil of people, and the natural course of the physical without God, was the result of the separation, and the separation was the result of humanity’s rebellion.
So, what was God’s purpose in exposing people to brokenness, tragedy, sickness, and death? It was the most loving thing that He could do. We could not continue to exist in the physical/spiritual kingdom of God. If we were to have a continued existence and the possibility of life in the Kingdom, living in the severely broken world was the only option. God did not impose evil on the world. That would not reflect His perfect love. If His nature was not love, He could have stopped evil in other ways. But God is not violent. We read in John’s letter the following:
1 John 4:18 (ESV)
“18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
Punishment is clearly not God’s nature. God does not rule by fear. God is perfect love, and that love does not involve punishment. The judgment of God, who is not the creator of pain, is a component of his love. And God’s judgment is separation. In the Bible when we read the word “death” it always means separation. Physical death is separation from the body, and spiritual death is separation from God. The worst thing that can happen to us is separation from God, not torture. Like the child who would rather be punished than lose his parents love, we would rather be burned in a garbage pit outside the walls of Jerusalem than be separated from God. It is true that separation from God produces evil, brokenness, tragedy, sickness, and death. We can call these results God’s punishment, but He does not inflict them. The punishment is inflicted from evil people and a broken nature. It is worth pausing here to comment on why seeing God as an angry, vindictive, and hurtful being is so popular in Christian churches. It is a borrowing from Islamic theology that broken people cling to as a justification for their anger, vindictiveness, and hurtfulness. The final separation of all that is not part of God will happen at the end of this age when Jesus returns and once again brings the Kingdom of God to a perfected physical world.
In the world, separated from God, people began their life as sinful beings. The reason is that righteousness requires the input of God’s love, and we all begin life separated and without the necessary love. We call this idea “original sin” because it was caused by Adam’s sin and subsequent separation. Some people in a world devoid of the Kingdom of God become very evil, but the rest of us destroy other people in more subtle ways. All people suffer. The suffering is not the perfect will of God, but separation is His will. God has a dual plan to rescue people and to repair the world. Through Jesus, our core spiritual being can now enter the spiritual kingdom of God although we continue to suffer in the physical world. The final plan is when Jesus comes again and the world is separated from all evil.
Jesus came from heaven and was born as a physical being but without a fallen physical or spiritual nature. He was in the world, but He brought the spiritual Kingdom of God with Him. So, once again, there was a physical place that was the unblemished, perfect Kingdom of God in the physical world. It was Jesus himself, physically on this earth. Jesus explained this to Pontius Pilate:
John 18:36 (ESV)
“36 Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’”
Luke 17:20–21 (ESV)
20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Jesus is God but was born as a man and grew up through childhood and manhood. He lived the perfect life of a human being that we could not live since we were outside of the kingdom. Paul, in his New Testament writings, called Jesus the second Adam because humanity in Jesus has a second chance. Jesus became the door through which we would enter the Kingdom.
John 10:7 (ESV)
“7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”
In Jesus, there loomed the possibility that somehow we could enter the Kingdom and have a joyous and fruitful life eternal. But the perfectly righteous God could not excuse sin. Sins were daily charged to each person by the spiritual adversary, the Devil. How could God be both just and the justifier of people who follow Jesus? God cannot be unjust by violating His righteous standard for entry into the Kingdom and also be the justifier who allows entry. In other words, God cannot accept a sinful/rebellious person into his kingdom. That would not be just. To be just, God would have to transform the person without breaking the law of righteous separation.
Romans 3:26 (ESV)
“26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
There is a conundrum here in which what is necessary seemingly cannot be done. It is something like this: God must transform us inside the Kingdom, but sinful people are not allowed in the Kingdom. But the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and the coming of the Holy Spirit give us the whole understanding of how salvation is accomplished by God.
The way back to the Kingdom of God is Jesus. The following summarizes the way:
The Birth of Jesus:
Jesus was born into the human race, but He was different. His physical body was conceived by the Holy Spirit allowing the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, to exist as one in the human Jesus. We will see the importance of the divine/human nature of Jesus in the ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The Righteousness of Jesus:
Jesus lived the full life as a man but, unlike us, he began without sin and knew no sin in His life. As the only sinless person, He became our provision of righteousness. Since we could not earn our righteous status, His righteousness was our only hope.
The Death of Jesus:
The unjust death of Jesus at the hands of evil men allowed the just God to condemn sin in the flesh and to move his plan forward to eliminate evil. It was now just that God the Father could put Jesus forth as the way into the Kingdom. Now we could be forgiven and enter the Kingdom in Jesus. We can now also be transformed one step at a time into the likeness of Jesus that we may again stand before God. Through the unjust death of Jesus, we can now also die to our selfish nature in Him.
Revelation 12:10–11 (ESV)
“10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.”
Note: Forgiveness of our sins gives access to the Kingdom, but if we insist on living for ourselves we will not be transformed and will not see God.
Hebrews 10:26 (ESV)
“26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, “
The Resurrection of Jesus:
When Jesus rose from the dead, he created a new law that would operate within himself. He conquered the law of sin and death. He was victorious over sin and death. And He created, in himself, the way for us to conquer death and separation in Him. In the resurrection of Jesus is the power of salvation.
The Ascension of Jesus:
When Jesus ascended into the highest heaven, He took his body with Him. From that point on, the Godhead included the righteous human person of Jesus. The ascension is very necessary for the next step.
The Coming of the Holy Spirit:
A question that the more curious might ask is how can one human, Jesus, give himself to all who ask. The answer is that is the job of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, can bring to each of us the human/divine person of Jesus. Now that the man Jesus is in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit can bring Him from the Godhead to many people at the same time.
John 14:16–20 (ESV)
“16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
Our spiritual access to the Kingdom of God gives us everything we could ever want in our spirit, the core of our being. We find pure love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-24). Everything we desire in the physical world, including health and wealth, will not satisfy our soul. Our soul will be completely satisfied in Jesus. We must bring our physical needs to Jesus so that He can lift the burden from our souls and give us His love.
Philippians 4:6–7 (ESV)
“6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
We know that for now we remain in and suffer in the physical world, but this condition is not permanent. When a person who is in Jesus prays, he/she will always be given the wonderful presence of Jesus. It should not be expected that God will miraculously fix our worldly circumstance to make us happy. He knows that it will, in fact, not make us happy. That does not mean that miracles are not possible. But, we are more likely to see miracles in the physical world when we walk with Jesus and when we minister to others in the name of Jesus.
Jesus Returns to Earth:
When Jesus comes again physically to this earth, the spiritual Kingdom of God will again be one with the physical earth, and God will make the earth new. There will be no sin, no evil, no sickness, no death and no destruction in all the earth. Those who are not transformed in Jesus will be taken away just as in the days of Noah when the unrighteous were taken out of this world by the flood.
Matthew 24:37–40 (ESV)
“37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. …39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.”
We want to be the ones left when Jesus comes bringing the Kingdom. Then we will abide forever with unbreakable bodies and enjoy in the physical everything that God now promises in the spiritual.
Summary:
Why is there evil in this world? It is because the physical world is separated from the Kingdom of God.
How did it get this way? Mankind dispensed with God in wanting to make his own morals. He could not in that state survive in the Kingdom of God.
Who is responsible for the evil? All of mankind is responsible, beginning with the first couple.
Why does not God fix it? He will, but the fix is to remove all evil and that includes everyone who does not have a close personal relationship with God.
Can the physical world be repaired? Yes, it can, at the second coming.
Who will repair it? Jesus.
How does it affect me personally? We suffer the effects of evil in the physical world while we look to the spiritual Kingdom of God to provide meaning, fulfillment, purpose, and enjoyment.
We also learn that there cannot be any other way to God. We often hear people say that there is more than one way to God. That idea is based on the assumption that what we have described is derived from humankind alone in our quest to reach upwards to God. This is religion without God’s revelation and the necessity of Jesus. Without the revelation of Jesus, we would be left with our ideas and nothing more. Salvation without Jesus would be based on our activity alone. Then we could argue the relative merits of each religion and think that more than one would work. But we have seen that we are powerless to find life eternal without Jesus. Salvation is not something that even God could grant based our merits. We must have Jesus.
It is our prayer that every person we meet will give up his independent life of frustration and offer it to Jesus, that he or she might be forgiven and begin a life of transformation in the Kingdom of God.
Please contact us at rescuedforlove.org for answers to your questions, further discussion, or to tell us of your personal victories.