What if?

Since the beginning of time, it seems, the single most common objection to the existence of God is the problem of evil. If God exists and God is good and God is all-powerful, why is there evil? Why does He allow it to exist? What's wrong with God? The answers to these kinds of questions vary from "Obviously there is no God" to "God allows that which He hates to accomplish that which He loves." But what if? We know there is a God (Rom 1:18-21), so the "there is no God" answer doesn't work, but what if God actually did remove evil? What would that look like?

The first thing we'd have to allow is that all of history would change, starting with Adam and Eve. The moment they sinned, they would not have been sent out of the Garden; they would have been annihilated ... end of story. If humans existed at all after that, they would have existed with different parents, a new start. In the absence of evil, there would have been no evil. ("Thanks, Stan. You're a genius.") I mean, no murders, no crimes, no wars, no sins, no theft, no jealousy, no ... none of it. This world would be so foreign to us that imagining it, I'm quite sure, is far beyond our comprehension, accustomed to sin as we are. And you might start to think of it as Utopian. But think farther.

From a purely practical perspective, if God were to show up today and -- boom! -- eliminate evil (hopefully by removing evil itself rather than those who are evil), what would happen? Well, every security company would be out of business. All the people who work on securing networks and credit cards would have to look for a job elsewhere. No doctors, therapists, rehab centers, that sort of thing. I suspect a lot of people in entertainment and sports would no longer have jobs, but neither would pastors, missionaries, or the like. No law enforcement. In fact, no law-related jobs at all. No courts, no lawmakers, no legal system. No government at all. There would be a huge loss of jobs. And no heroes. No one would stand out as being good, honorable, honest, loving, caring, all the good that we understand because in the absence of evil everyone would be equally good. Another clear loss would be the loss of the freedom of the will. That is, you could no longer choose to do what is wrong -- only what is right. As such, there would be no credit for those who choose to do the right thing rather than the wrong since that was their only choice. But it goes far beyond that.

We comprehend things largely through contrast. Your eye catches motion -- instantaneous change -- better than anything else. We most easily perceive differences rather than similarities, contrasts rather than uniformity. Much of our concepts are defined by this contrast. Wikipedia's article on evil begins with "Evil, in a general context, is the absence or opposite of that which is described as being good." Hate is the absence of love. Mercy is the withholding of justice for the act of forgiveness. Justice is the making wrongs right. We live on contrasts. One of the biggest contrasts is between God and Man. And some aspects of our understanding of God depend on the existence of evil.

God has many attributes. All of His attributes are interrelated and work together. However, as it turns out, many of His attributes would be a complete mystery to us in the absence of evil. For instance, if justice (an attribute of God) is the act of making wrongs right, we could not grasp the justice of God in the absence of wrongs. Scripture describes God as "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26), something which could not be seen in the absence of sin. In Romans Paul says that it was God's will to "show His wrath and to make known His power" (Rom 9:22), but this could not be accomplished without sin. Beyond those, we could never see mercy (Rom 9:22-23) or grace if there was no reason for Him to be merciful or gracious. Jesus said that God loved the world in a particular way; that particular way was to send His Son to save sinners (John 3:16). God's amazing love could not be comprehended in the absence of the need for His Son.

For humans, James says that trials produce completion or perfection (James 1:2-4). Now, in this case, the objection might be "In the absence of sin, we would already be complete," but I think that it should be obvious that the strength of character based on the absence of evil is not the same as the strength of character that is developed through adversity. In fact, the author of Hebrews says that Christ "learned obedience from the things which He suffered." (Heb 5:8) No evil, no suffering, and Christ's obedience is nullified. Suffering serves to erase the notion that we are self-sufficient. The people of God share in God's hatred of evil (Prov 8:13). No evil, no shared hatred of it. So the existence of evil can serve to make us more like God. Jesus said, "He who is forgiven little, loves little." (Luke 7:47) The existence of sin that is forgiven increases our love for God. No evil, no increased love for God.

When Joseph's brothers came to apologize for their behavior, Joseph told them, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." (Gen 50:20) The statement speaks of intentions -- intentions of Man and intentions of God -- for a single event. Scripture holds, then, that evil is evil but God intends it for good. He intends it to more fully display His character and, as such, His glory. He intends it to provide benefits to His people. What if God were to remove evil? God's intentions for good for His glory and our benefit would not be fulfilled. As such, removing evil would be bad -- a contradiction that cannot be resolved.