Why does God allow evil to succeed?

McClatchy Newspapers

Voices of faith: Why does God allow evil to succeed?

The Rev. Fran T. Cary, pastor of Trinity A.M.E. Church, Kansas City, Kan.: I do not believe that God has allowed evil to succeed.

Many will disagree with me when they think of the likes of our current economic crisis and crime rates.

I will concede that evil does hold a major place in our world today; however, what we see now will not always be.

The Bible is full of promises that brighter days are ahead. God assures us in Isaiah 54:17 that “no weapon that is formed against us will succeed.”

Just because there are occurrences or formations, God says that they will not ultimately triumph over us.

In Matthew 8:29, the author narrates a story in which Jesus meets two men who were possessed by demons. Upon Jesus’ approach, the demons asked, “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”

There is an old saying that states, “You may get by, but you won’t get away.” This lets us know that there is a time when the “wicked shall cease from troubling. “ In John 16:33, Jesus himself encouraged his followers by saying “be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

The apostle Paul continued the encouragement in his writings as well. He penned a wonderful line in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “thanks be to God which always causes us to triumph in Christ.” There is no failure in our God!

Rabbi Mark Levin of Congregation Beth Torah, Overland Park, Kan.: Knowing the divine mind is always tricky business. If we primarily know what God is not (via negative), then how can we possibly claim to understand God’s purposes for creation? This is made very clear in the Out of the Whirlwind speeches in Job, chapter 38ff.

Nonetheless, this important question demands an answer from us.

Theodicy nags at the human conscience. So the question is more our issue than God’s. It is we who are unsettled about God’s justice in allowing human beings to act immorally. God, who witnesses the big picture over centuries rather than our limited time and space perspective, understands how justice plays out when we do not.

In the Genesis creation narrative we are told that our human progenitors, Adam and Eve, ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than the Tree of Life. This is not history but rather an etiological story explaining that we humans are morally responsible for our actions.

If God intentionally allowed human beings moral freedom, then God must sit back and weep at our confounding God’s creation by choosing the immoral options rather than doing the right thing.

We human beings, in our existential freedom, must accept responsibility for the choices we make and live with their consequences.

Thus, God maintains the divine-human partnership no matter how aggravating that might be.