Q & A from Suffering & Evil in JOB Pt. 2

There were a few questions we did not have not to answer this past Sunday during our panel conversation on suffering & evil in the Book of Job.  

We welcome your comments or further questions.

What about the role of freedom/free choice God gave his creation as the source of evil? How greatly Americans value this but was it not the source of evil?

Job trusted ultimately in the character of God.  When we consider difficult questions such as this we should too.     

First, the holiness of God dictates that God is not - indeed cannot be the source of evil – even in the way He created us (with free will).   In many places Scripture affirms that God is not the author of evil: "God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone" (James 1:13). "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33).

Second, God is sovereign over evil. Job held on to this truth throughout his ordeal.   And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21).  Job acknowledges that his blessings and curses were both from the hand of God.   Tthere is a sense in which it is proper to say that evil is part of His eternal decree in that God planned for it. It did not take Him by surprise. It is not an interruption of His eternal plan.

Finally, You are absolutely right to note that our culture is violently individualistic. Any encroachment upon someone's right to do anything at all is often met with fierce push back. When we think back to the our first parents, Adam and Eve, we should also be careful to see that it wasn't the gift (free will) that was the issue, but what we did with that gift (choose wrongly). God's redemptive work from Genesis 3:15 has been to make us a new creation. We don't need to be a better me, we need to be new people -- born again. We need God as our Father rather than Adam (Romans 5-6). When we are born again, regenerated, made new creations, which is brought about by faith and repentance in Jesus, God becomes our Father, is no longer our Judge. The result of this work is that the Holy Spirit lives in us to renew every part of us -- especially our wills. Instead of freely choosing evil, we can now -- for the first time in our lives -- actually begin to desire and choose good. It's not immediate, and it's never complete until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6), but it is real.

In other words, God has been actively fixing our sin that we freely chose.