Making Evil Good

Theodicy is the defense of God in the face of evil. The question of the skeptic is how a good God can allow evil. The accusation is that He is either not powerful enough or not loving enough to fix that problem. Open Theists try to excuse God by saying that He doesn't know what Free Will Humans will do and, so, can only respond to them, not prevent them. Others argue only slightly less offensively that God has limited His Sovereignty to Man's Free Will and is "forced" (they would never use that term) to let them sin. The Bible has a different response to the problem.

What we have today as the New Testament is largely a product ... of evil. Many of our New Testament books were letters written by Apostles for the purpose of correcting heresies. The Corinthians suffered from licentiousness and an over-emphasis on sensuality. The Galatians had a problem with legalism. The Colossians were battling Gnosticism. Paul's letters to Titus and Timothy condemned heretical teachings and teachers. Peter, John, and Jude warned against false teachers and their "destructive heresies" (2 Peter 2:1). The Revelation's letters to the churches addressed many heresies already present in churches. Now, there is no doubt that heresy is evil. And before the end of the writing of the New Testament, there was a lot of evil already present.

But that's a good thing, you see. Not the evil, but what God did with it. He produced, from all that evil, our Bible today. From the necessity of addressing all that error God brought forth the Word of God that teaches us today His will and His thoughts and His commands. And that's a good thing.

In Genesis, Joseph's brothers sought to kill him, then opted instead to sell him into slavery. It went bad for Joseph from there. Falsely accused of rape, imprisoned and forgotten, it all looked bad. And it could not be described as less than evil.

The outcome, however, was not. When Joseph reflected on it, he told his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." This affirms that it was evil and was intended to be evil. On the other hand, it affirms both that God intended for it all to happen (He wasn't just a passenger along for the ride hoping to make something good out of Human Free Will) and brought about good because of it. Evil is evil; God used genuine evil to produce good.

"Yeah, yeah, but what about the real evil -- people going to Hel?. How can eternal punishment be classified as good?" Funny thing. That one, a very popular complaint to be sure, is not regarding evil. It is regarding justice. First problem there, then, is that we (not God) fail to comprehend the magnitude of sin. Okay, fine. But, still, we're talking about eternal torment. How can that be good? Paul said that it was God's will that He would "demonstrate His power and wrath on vessels of wrath prepared for destruction." Obviously, as a "vessel of wrath prepared for destruction", that wouldn't seem good, but from the perspective that God is the Number One value in the universe, displaying His power and wrath would definitely be classified as "good". Indeed, without human sin, all sorts of attributes in God's character would be invisible. Power and wrath would start the list, but other important characteristics like holiness, justice, mercy, and grace would never be seen if there was no need for them.

In all these things, there is evil. Evil remains evil. It is the intent of the enemies of God. It isn't accidental and it isn't good. In all these things, God used the evil of His enemies to produce good. The Word, the salvation of Israel, the display of His character, these are just a few examples. In all of them there is the clear intent of sinners for evil and the clear intent of God for good. The title, "Making Evil Good", is misleading. Evil cannot be made good. But in all cases God does produce good from evil. How do you defend a God who allows evil to continue? If He is producing good with it, it's kind of unnecessary to defend Him, isn't it? And when you face evil, remember God. He works all things together for good. Even the evil you face.