Yesterday we asked, “If God’s so good, why does evil exist?”
Several possible answers have been proposed, but each one seems to spark more questions.
And, we’re not going to be able to exhaustively answer that question here today either.

We have begun to provide a bit of a framework to help us understand how a good and loving God could allow evil and suffering to be so prevalent in our world.

We began our discussion with three Statements that Appear Contradictory:
A. God is all good.
B. God is all powerful.
C. Evil exists.

We answered, ”Is God all good?” with a resounding YES.

Now, we look at the second premise…

Is God all powerful?

Well, let’s see. Just by speaking,

* God created the world and everything in it.
* He created the stars and arranged them in galaxies throughout the universe.
* He gave life to every plant, every animal, every person.
* He set the moon in orbit around the earth and organized all of creation down to the smallest particles of an atom.
* He built Mount Everest,
* and wrote the blueprint for our DNA.

From the vastness of space to the minute details of life itself, God is in control. Seems to me that the creator of the cosmos is pretty powerful.

Let’s see what the Bible has to say…

Isaiah 40:25–31 (NIV84)
25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth….”

Is God all powerful? YES

Of course, answering “YES” to both of those questions leaves us in a bit of a bind. If God is all-good, it seems logical to believe that He would want to destroy evil.

If God is all-powerful, it seems logical to believe that He would be able to destroy all evil.

So we must ask…

C. Why does evil exist?

We will begin to explore that tomorrow, but for today, worship an all-powerful God.