Origins: Why does God allow Evil?

our world has so much death and suffering and as a chief reason why many people reject the God of the Bible in fact it is the most asked question about Christianity sadly many others have left their Christian faith because they have been taught that death and struggle is an essential part of life when we look at the world through the lens of Scripture we find that indeed God has done something about it coming up on today's edition of origins why does God allow evil with Gary Bates [Music] hello and welcome to origins I'm ray Heiple it's an honor to be your host today during this program we showcase interesting guests who present evidence from science along with other important facts validating the truth of creation and the accuracy of the Bible today's guest Gary Bates was once an evolutionist and the creation message had a dramatic impact on his life he now seeks to communicate this life-changing information to the average person on the street in 2009 Gary relocated from Australia to head up the u.s. office of creation ministries international as its CEO he's an author and on the editorial team for creation magazine with subscribers in over 110 countries welcome to the show Gary thank you great to be here right what are we talking about today the problem of evil the problem of evil I've heard that's the Achilles heel of Christianity well I actually think this subject which is believe it or not in my 25 years of ministry this is the most asked question not by skeptics but by Christian existence by Christians why does a good God allow all the death and suffering in the world and far from being the Achilles heels I found when I deal with this subject head-on it's the most powerful presentation of the gospel we can make it provides the answer to why actually Jesus came you know and that is what we want to do on this show is give people a reason to believe show people that the answers are out there yeah so let's stop you know John 16:33 the Lord Jesus turn around and says I have told you these things in this world you will have trouble that sounds like a promise not maybe might you will have trouble so first off if the Lord Jesus tells us we should expect it right and I've kind of distilled the problems down to two areas if you like to find them there are these natural world disasters you know we see tsunamis and earthquakes and we say well you know if God's Creator is in control you know he could have done something about this and we see terrible things and we have to be careful as Christians and creationists we love to use that passage in Romans 1:20 where it says you know we can see God from what has been made well we can but we also need to understand we're looking at a fallen world where death and suffering reigns and animals tear each other apart in Africa so just be a little careful because I'm going to show you God didn't originally create it that way as well so for example when we look at the natural world we see terrible things like tsunamis you know off the coast of Indonesia in 2005 not far from my home country of Australia two tectonic plates built up pressure one slipped and it caused a tsunami wave that rolled across the Indian Ocean reached the east coast of Africa killed 200,000 people but here's the point right whether we're looking at natural world disasters or man inflicted devoured disasters like you know the twin towers they both have the same root cause and that is sin sin yeah well okay we can understand a man is sinful and he might commit acts of terrorism but you know when we go back to Genesis it wasn't just Adam and Eve that was cursed human beings we read the ground was cursed the plants because the animals were cursed see we live in a cursed and fallen world the New Testament tells us the whole creation is groaning and travailing under the weight of sin God's going to create a new heavens and earth why because this one is actually corrupted and it really ultimately gets back to our worldview sadly too many Christians look at death and disease in the world as oh that's normal but that wasn't the way God created if God created a perfect world these things are a problem they're an entrance as a result of sin now here's the issue ideas have consequences if we start accepting and say well why did God create a world with death well he didn't but if we start to think that then we start to think of him being a cruel and capricious creator and that's generally that what the skeptics kind of target us with and also ideas have consequences for those outside the church we've seen school shootings and terrible things this is a an in that happened in Finland this high school student posted this video on YouTube and he went and shot his schoolmates now look at the types of things he said when he posted this video life is just a coincidence result of a long process of evolution evolutions both of theory and a fact creationism is none I as natural selector will eliminate all who I see unfit humanity is overrated where did he get these ideas from well he got them probably from school that's what he get what they teach and so we are teaching in school in public education that man is just an animal so why I you know it'd be nice to another one another and of course Darwin and his famous book Origin of Species he wrote thus from the war of nature from famine and death the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving namely the production of higher animals man directly follows while we said be suffering thankful for death or absolutely as is the creator of life almost you know and that's the problem and so again when we look at the world we see all of these rock layers with fossils in them lots of death and they say that's a record of evolutionary history of the earth you guys creationists we don't have time to talk about it today but we believe that's a general order of burial from the flood and we're all descendants of Adam and that's ultimately the problem today and look back we originally vegetarian I don't know about you but I had a nice pork sausage for breakfast I think there was some meat in there but anyway it's clear and Adam and Eve human beings were originally herbivores okay but guess what the animals also so when we do see you know lines tearing down a zebra in Africa you know it isn't nice I've been there you know we think it's a nice quick kill animal suffer and God cares about his creation and the point is when we see all this bad stuff happening in the world ray it should be a reminder to us something's wrong yeah because if you and I are going to die and this world is winding down ultimately what's going to happen to us it can't continue forever and so death came to man when man sinned and I want you to think about this in context Adam knew who God was says he came and walked with him in the garden and they kind of said yeah we yeah we know we know what you did God we know who you are but we want to go this way we want to live our lives this way and ultimately that's what America's like today Australia's like most people live their life as if God didn't exist and actually that's what sin is again we have to be careful as Christians because we often say to people well you're a sinner and people in their own mind think well you know I don't rob banks and murder people good person but here's the issue the Bible is a history book it's not what we do that makes us a sinner it's who we are that's why Jesus you know you know it says that Jesus came while we were yet sinners kind of helpless sinners he needed to rescue us and the first death is not recorded in the Bible here in Genesis 3:21 when God killed an animal to cover up Adam and Eve's nakedness in other words when they became self-aware of their offense before God and after the flood guess what now we get a permission to eat meat in Genesis 9:3 and there are creationist explanations because you know the mandate was only to save land air-breathing animals on the ark it's possible some of the protein bearing plants were destroyed after the flood and of course we get most of our amino acids you know from meat that we eat today so you know just quickly running through these but here's the kicker - if death had been around for millions of years and it is normal what do we do with passages like Hebrews 9:22 which says without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness what's special about Jesus's death are out to pay for our sins if death had been on the earth you know for hundreds of millions of years through this process and you think about it death itself I mean everything that it comes short of that disease suffering I mean that aging even it's it's a form of death exactly and so you know I want to look here at some some passages of Scripture well Jesus kind of got asked this question about death and suffering and here we have in Luke 13 and it says there was some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galilee and who Pilate talking about Pontius Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices now look did jesus a jesus answer the question of why those Galileans were killed that way no he doesn't he says do you think that they're worse sinners than the rest I mean that's kind of what we think today they must have done something wrong God got them worse exactly and he says I tell you no but unless you repent you will perish so what he's really saying here ray is you know what you need to be safe today because you don't know whether you're gonna be the next face in the crowd the pilots gonna pull out yeah in a sense we should be asking the question not why did the tower fall on those Galileans but why didn't it fall on you exactly and here we go 18 we're talking about a tower okay when the Tower of Siloam fell on them he didn't answer it again but he says do you think they were more guilty than the others living in Jerusalem look what he repeats unless you repent you too will perish so death is coming one way or another and I don't want to make light of this but you know how bizarre was it that at 9/11 do you think people went to work that day thinking well you know what an airplane might come through my office window that's why the Bible is very very clear that today is the day of salvation and so I kind of think you know particularly with Christians you know we say well Lord I followed you and why did this happen in my family etc and we kind of questioned why me Jeremiah had this issue right he complained to God yeah I've been following you they're trying to kill me and stone me and he said you know you're always righteous to the Lord but I would speak to you about your justice why does the way of the wicked prosper why do all the faithless Liberties and I would actually say ray instead of asking why me why not me I'm a sinner I don't even deserve to draw the breath that I have but for the grace of God he is the creator he owns the cattle on a Thousand Hills as the Bible says and here's our lesson how we handle it because our time on this earth is temporary if God's the creator and it's going to restore our new heavens and earth that's where the big picture is that's where the main game is that's what we're all looking forward - and the only thing we are taking to heaven with us other people we lead to Christ that's it we're not taking a nice shiny cars and a Xboxes and our Playstations or whatever and Jesus says here in Matthew 5:45 he says he causes the Sun what is it to rise on the evil and the good rain on the righteous and the unrighteous so Christians and non-christians were all you know sharing this mud ball spinning in space that's that's been affected by sin and of course we're part of that and you know people often say well you know why do innocent people suffer and I'm not trying to you know be uncaring but it's very clear there is none good because we are born sinners because of history real Genesis history you and I descended from the first man and woman and that's why we are helpless sinners and you know in this I just want to want to touch on this something personal you know I I didn't get saved until I was an adult and I became the first Christian in my family and I saw my my mum saved my dad saved my sister saved and my sister and my dad died from cancer a few years ago and you know I had to travel from one side of Australia to go and say goodbye to her we knew she was going to die lying in a hospital bed and you know I was obviously upset and I was crying and my sister turned around me and she said don't cry for me I'm going to see you again how could she do that because she believed that God was creator and capable of raising her dusty bones back from the ground and she never complained about her lot my young children who were raised as creations they never asked why because even at a young age if you teach them creation I believe they understand starting in Genesis that the world around us is not so good so just summing up here at the end of this first section you know this is famous passage in John 3:16 well what has God done about all the death and suffering in a world well guess what he sent Jesus God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son right but here's a second part that we often forget God did not send his son in the world to condemned the world but that the world might be saved through him God has done something about all the death and suffering see when we go back to Genesis Adam and Eve sinned we inherit that as their descendants Adam and Eve would have lived forever eternally so if God had actually not brought the curse we would have been eternally separated from God in fact it's now only through death if you believe in the one whom God sent that we can be reconciled back to our Creator and being the creator and sinless is the only one that has the ability to do that for us well I hope you're listening and staying with us we're talking about the problem of evil we're going to return to that subject right after this break [Music] you [Music] welcome back to origins we're talking to Gary Bates who's been sharing about an important question people are asking why does God allow evil Gary why does God allow evil well I think he allows it to continue as we've said to remind human beings that we are mortal and that our time on this earth will come to an end and of course you know our worldviews will basically say well what happens to us when we die what your worldview will determine that if we're just evolved there's nothing after you die but if we're Christians we believe that God is creator we believe in a life after death but you know we all do no Christian or otherwise that we are going to die and so we have to ask the question ultimately what's after that you know it's really I think the unbeliever who has a bigger problem because he can't answer the question why is there evil and in a sense he can't even say that there is evil because you know what's there to compare it yeah it's an objective or subjective opinion because they're usually usually using Christian morality to try to judge what is good and what is bad and evolution can't give you a moral code so going back you know we talked about the fact that the curse was brought into the world plants animals and human beings and that's how we know that we're living in a cursed Informer and the New Testament confirms that so it's always important when people can say well it's an Old Testament thing doesn't matter there are you know over a hundred references to the book of Genesis in the New Testament like this one in Romans 8 that says the whole creation groans and Labor's with birth pangs until now and this is referring back of course to Genesis chapter 3 the fall but note what it says here what I've highlighted we were saved in this hope what hope ok we eagerly wait for it with perseverance I love the way that the New Testament describes the pain and suffering of this world that in a sense it's a birth pangs that it's that it's to give birth to something greater yes and of course if God is the creator he did it once before he's going to do it again and the scripture is clear that death is an enemy you can see here one Korean since 15 death will finally be put under the feet of Christ the last enemy to be destroyed is death death is not normal Christians when when loved ones die as I mentioned you know my own family through cancers when bad things happen it's not the way God made it when you look at it you should say sin sin that's why Jesus cried at the tomb of his friend Lazarus it's it he was looking at what sin had been done to distort this world and course so much pain and suffering on it you know what a contrast with what we hear in the world today you know I think of the the Disney movie yeah with the circle of life it's all just part of life you know there's this circle when we die and then we go to the ground and then some other life comes out of that and isn't it all pretty but it isn't pretty it's awful and people know that and you know I think about you know one of my heroes John Owens book the death of death and and that's what you're talking about there's going to be a day when God is going to put death to death and that's good news we need to tell people that well you know I'm a former evolutionist and I can remember back to my pre-christian days and I was watching those African famines Ethiopian famines and they were building concerts around the world to try to raise money and I'm ashamed what I'm about to tell you okay but but it was consistent with my evolutionary worldview I can remember saying to my wife why should we be doing that because they're obviously overpopulating you know if we feed them now it's going to happen again in a few years the land can't support them we should allow evolution to take over cold the week etc natural cycle right it's all part of but no we're talking about human beings that were made in the image of God Christ came and died for them and that's why Christians went overseas as missionaries and we build hospitals because we recognize fallen humans needed God's love and compassion of course God showered his compassion upon us when he came as Jesus Christ and moreover a we've talked about it already God's going to make a new heavens and earth now this is the second last chapter in the whole Bible God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither should be any more pain for the former things have passed away where's what form of things where did that come in Genesis chapter 3 and look at this the very last chapter in the Bible in the midst talking about the New Jerusalem there was the tree of life again restoration and there be no more curse Genesis chapter 3 in that was why it was here because of the curse because of man's sin and God in the plan of redemption has undone that right ladies and gentlemen this is the gospel what we see in the beginning is undone at the end that is God's great big plan there's in the sense unless we really start with the fall and pain and suffering in death there's really no reason for Jesus to die on the cross exactly and I want to finish by talking about the book of Job you know there has been so much written about job you know this man of trials and suffering and people looking for deeper meaning I think it's pretty simple but you know earlier on I said why not me well have a look here now let's put this in the context job had lost his wealth he'd lost his family his friends came along and they kind of said you know what's going on in his life you know finger pointing and here's you know he doesn't see what's going on in the heavenlies there's satan making an accusation and God says okay and I think the reason Rey as he hoped or he knew rather that man was worth Redemption because job would love God for who he is not for what He gave him there's another lesson in other words not why me why not we me he says here though he slay me yet will I hope in him and you know one of the most for me personally one of the most profound passages in all of Scripture and again look at the context job can't see what's happening in the heavenlies he hadn't seen Christ we haven't had the Incarnation right this is before then and yet job says I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the physical earth after my skin has been thus destroyed yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold Not Another he makes it very clear doesn't he that he knows he's going to live again in a in a body and he's gonna see his redeemed physical restoration and you know as I said he hadn't seen Christ come but you know what was important here when you look at towards the end of the book of Job God's lights creation passages to him were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth and and look at this creature behemoth he ranks first that makes the works of God so even though Jobe had not seen Christ come he believed that God was creator and capable of raising his his wasted body back to life in a future restoration so let's just finish here because I started off with Jesus saying I've told you these things you will have trouble but I did leave a little bit out of that first passage he said so that in me you have may have peace ladies and gentlemen we will have trouble I loved ones will die of cancer what some bad things will happen to us but in Christ you can have peace because he is the creator and look what he says take heart I have overcome the world here's the creator you know by by things all all things were made by him for him through him and you know the Lord Jesus it says is the same yesterday today forever he is our eternal hope ray that's that's where we need to place our faith and trust and of course 2nd Corinthians 2 the well-known today is the day of salvation if people are watching out there and they've been sitting on the fence or two got into Christianity well we are going to die and you might not know when it could be today that's why today you need to be saved you know you think about God's mercy in giving the way of salvation to sinners who don't deserve it and that yes there are horrible things that are happening there's going to be a worse thing there's going to be a final judgment win which is gonna make even the flood of Noah look like you know of a small shower compared to the judgment that's coming and yet God's plan and offer of salvation is there for you today and that's course what it says in aphasia it's a gift of God it's by grace it's not anything we do and what is grace grace is commonly described as unmerited favor you and I everybody who confesses Christ we got what we didn't deserve that's a loving God that is a God of love amen Gary what a great message I want to thank you for being active and I want to thank you for joining us we've been talking about why does God allow evil sometimes people say well if God is all-powerful and if God is all good how can there be evil and you know the answer I think what we've seen today is because God is also merciful God is merciful and so he doesn't give everyone what they deserve and there would be no evil there were just the immediate judgment but God is merciful and he allows a sinful world to continue which means bad things are going to happen and yet in the midst of those bad things what does he say I've sent a savior if you just admit that you're a sinner and trust in him you will be saved and no matter what trouble befalls you in this world as we saw from Scripture in Christ you will have peace and some day just like Joe you will stand on the earth in a new body that will never get old that will never suffer that will never know pain and your eyes will see the salvation of the Lord you know it just goes to show you that even evil itself shows us that we know what the Bible says is true and the proof is all around you thank you for joining us for this edition of origins we'll see you next time thank you for watching this edition of origins for a DVD of this series you can order online or send a twelve dollar donation to cover shipping and handling and write to you origins program number eighteen thirteen cornerstone network wall Pennsylvania one five one four eight this presentation was made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of you our cornerstone family [Music]

Channel: Cornerstone Television Network

Views: 12,471

Rating: 4.0498085 out of 5

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Id: WLedSJ756WY

Length: 26min 32sec (1592 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 17 2018