This is an excerpt from my current work in progress – a book all about sharing the Gospel. I’m putting the finishing touches on the first draft and am due to submit the manuscript to my editor next week. I’ll have more info soon! In the meantime, please enjoy the excerpt. Sign up for email updates to have these posts delivered in advance to your inbox!
Brother in Christ, Sister in Christ – your ability to address this challenging question is a powerful tool for your Gospel-sharing toolbelt. I regularly receive comments on social media like these:“If he exists why does he allow so much hate n murder n crime in his so-called loved children?”“What kind of God allows kids to get cancer and murders to occur? A sick god.”Now- this “problem of evil” is a worthy question to tackle for Christians and agnostics. It is important, however, to understand that the existence of evil is a truly absurd reason for an atheist to use as justification for why they reject the God of the Bible.According to atheists, God does not exist. We are cosmic accidents with no ultimate meaning in a universe that does not care. So, what exactly is the problem with a purposeless accident of nature being hungry? Or being killed? Why should anyone care? In an atheistic worldview, there is no good or evil. Dr. Richard Dawkins, the poster child for modern atheists, puts it this way, “The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.” That is atheism in a nutshell. No good, no evil, just pitiless indifference. The holocaust? Not evil. Slavery? Not evil. Terrorism? Not evil. Because there is no such thing as evil in their worldview. Things just happen and then you die, and you’re gone. So, when an atheist says something like, “Tell that to all the starving children in the developing world that God seems to have forgotten about” – their conscience is revealing the hypocrisy of their purported beliefs. Their moral indignation is a direct contradiction to their stated worldview. Why are they upset if they believe that these starving children are meaningless overgrown germs? It is, in fact, evidence that they are suppressing the truth of God as stated in Romans 1:18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. This argument is summarized masterfully by former atheist, CS Lewis. “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But just how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe to when I called it unjust? If the whole show was so bad and senseless, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be a part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?”
Continued in Part 2…