Recently, I’ve been considering the question of the justice of God. As a case in point, I’ve heard the question posed, “How can it be just for God to have killed most of the world’s population in the great Flood?” In other words, the question is, how can Christians consider the flood to be the act of a righteous God, and not see it as an act of mass murder? In simpler terms, how can God kill so many innocent people and still be called good?
In addition, should not God be held responsible for allowing evil, when he knows it will occur, and has the power to stop it? Was it not wrong to create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil described in Genesis, knowing that Adam and Eve would disobey God’s command, and eat from that tree?
There are several problems with these questions.
First, we must remember that God is the creator of this universe. He has the right to judge our actions, and punish us in whatever way is appropriate. He has this right not simply because he is powerful, and there is no one to challenge Him, but because He is the Creator, and therefore owner, of the universe and all that it contains. In the same way that a king rightly has authority over his lands and its inhabitants, God has rightful authority over His lands and its inhabitants. In fact, God more so, because He never received His authority from someone else, but actually created His lands and its inhabitants for His own purposes.
Secondly, we must remember that physical death or sickness in this world is not always the judgment or punishment of God. We live in a world that is obviously flawed, where suffering and death do exist, but not everything that happens that we think of as bad is God punishing us. The prime example of this is in the book of Job, where God spoke of Job as a righteous man, yet allowed him to suffer sickness and loss.
We have become accustomed to thinking of death as a bad thing. This is a bad assumption. In many cases, when a person dies physically, their soul is indeed thrown into hell. As is written in Luke 12:5 (NKJV) “…Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell…” To be sentenced to an eternity in hell after death is certainly a terrible thing, but in other cases, physical death is merely passage to eternal life and joy in the presence of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:23 (NKJV), “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better…” In the first case, death is indeed bad, but in Paul’s case, it was a great good.
The problem of the flood is actually dealt with simply. We have to consider the key word “innocent.” The Bible makes it clear that there is no one who is righteous. The first several chapters of the book of Romans deal with this in detail. In particular, there is the statement in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Bible makes clear that, by the time of the flood, the population of the Earth had become totally corrupt, violent and evil in every way. If God has the authority to judge, which he must, then the question really becomes, “Why did God allow anyone to live through the flood?” By rights, he could have simply killed absolutely everyone and been done with it.
But consider those who were children at the time of the flood. Was it not wrong to kill those who cannot be held responsible for any sin? Actually, no. If, and that’s a big if, any person died in the flood who was truly innocent, by God’s perfect standard, then that person must be in heaven with God now. How can this be considered an act of evil, when all God did was bring that person into his own presence to enjoy eternal life?
We must also consider the possibility that even young children cannot be considered innocent by God’s perfect standard. The human race is entirely flawed, and every parent knows how quickly children turn to selfishness and stubbornness. The challenge of parenting is teaching children decency and respect for others. They learn how to be bad all on their own. Even the most wonderful children in the world are natural-born sinners. There has only ever been one good human to walk this earth, and He is the Son of God.
So we have the age-old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”. The answer is, they don’t.
We all deserve to be destroyed, that God has withheld justice for so long is an act of mercy. The destruction by God of any person is entirely just. To accuse God of injustice because, in some cases, he executes justice instead of extending mercy is entirely wrong. God is just to destroy sinners. In no way whatsoever is God obligated to extend mercy. He does so because He loves us. The ninth chapter of Romans discusses this in more detail.
So what about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? How can God not be responsible for the existence of evil, when he created the opportunity for it, knowing it would be used? Simply put, it is wrong to blame God for the choices we make.
When God created humanity, he gave us free will. He gave Adam the ability to choose whether he would obey God or disobey. The catch is that the ability to choose would have meant nothing without the opportunity to choose. In fact, there could be no ability without the opportunity. I don’t think that the tree itself had any special properties, it was simply the only opportunity to disobey. Being that opportunity is what made it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God gave us free will, and with it, the consequences of our choices. He chose (as was His right) to allow us to shape the world as we saw fit. We get the ability to choose good or evil, and so we also get the world that is the result of our choices. The fact that this results in so much death and destruction is properly laid at our feet, we cannot rightly blame God for the evil we have caused simply because He does not always stop it, even though He saw it coming, or rather, sees it happening. Remember, God created time. Actually, God can often use these circumstances, both to bring His own people into His presence, or destroy those who would continue in evil.
It is clear that God does not prevent all evil. To do so would actually be to violate free will. Jesus equated a lustful look with the sin of adultery. The Bible speaks of the heart of man being desperately wicked. To prevent all evil would require the elimination of our free will. That God does not always prevent the outward evil that we see in the world is simply a matter of degree, and it is not wrong that we, as a race, suffer the consequences of our sins anyway.
Lastly, we must recognize that God does, indeed, restrain evil in this world, though he often works through human agency to do so. Working subtly is another way to preserve free will. In the case of the flood, God intervened directly to destroy a branch of humanity that would have continued to do great evil, and might have wiped out the human race altogether. God later used the Israelites to destroy the people of Canaan so that their evil would be stopped. The Canaanites and the other tribes there were guilty of rampant idolatry which included the ritual murder of children. In modern history, the realm of Nazi Germany was destroyed by other nations. God has often used nations to deal with other nations who were guilty of terrible sin. Even Israel itself was no exception, when God brought Assyria and Babylon to conquer them as punishment for Israel’s idolatry.
The Bible also makes clear that at some point in what we call the future, God will eliminate evil and sin entirely and permanently. The fact that sinners will go with their sin does not make God unjust. It shows that the Judge of all the earth will do what is right.