God and Evil

By D.R. Brooker @ http://drbrooker.net

It says on the back cover of this book:

For centuries those who have opposed the Christian faith have argued that if God is good, he cannot be all-powerful, since there is evil in the world; and if God is all-powerful, he cannot be good, since there is evil in the world. Either God is good or he is all-powerful, but he cannot be both—or so the argument goes. For centuries, Christian theologians have attempted to refute this argument, and they have failed. Now one American Christian philosopher has succeeded. God and Evil is the masterful solution to the ancient problem of evil.

I remember when the hurricane and flood hit New Orleans a couple of years ago just after the tsunami hit Asia killing thousands, that many started asking anew the age old question, ‘How can a good God allow these evil things to happen?’ I even posted on the anti-Christian comments of Tony Campolo (here) saying that these events are not a part of His eternal plan: “Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad answers. One such answer is that somehow all suffering is a part of God’s great plan.” Utter nonsense! Not only does this position deny what the whole of scripture teaches, but it does nothing to comfort those in the midst of such tragedies. The only comfort comes in knowing that God has eternally purposed “whatsoever comes to pass” and controls absolutely everything, even those things we would label evil; natural or otherwise.

This book demolishes the alleged problem of evil. Quite simply, the problem only exists where there is an errant view of the character of God. When one considers all that the Bible teaches about who God is and what He is like, this argument ceases to have any power. Unbelievers have used arguments of this nature to try and disprove the Christian God since the beginning. Many have questioned how a good God could allow so much evil in this world. While we will not go into the many variations of these arguments, we should know that these arguments do nothing to cast aspersions on Christianity. That being said, there is only one approach to this alleged problem that can solve the allegations levelled against the Christian faith.

God and Evil is the fifth chapter of Gordon Clark’s best work (IMO), Religion, Reason, and Revelation, and it sets forth the only coherent and consistent answer to the problem. Clark states from the outset that only “the system known as Calvinism…offers a satisfactory and completely logical answer.”

It is only about 60 pages in length and includes an exhaustive scripture index. Clark also gives a brief history of the objections and interacts with the writings of John Gill and Augustus Toplady on the subject matter. You simply will not find a more succinct treatment of the problem of evil; which in the end is really no problem at all.

Without trying to give away everything, here are a few choice statements from Clark:

“Certainly, if the Bible is the Word of God, free will is false; for the Bible consistently denies free will.”

“God is sovereign. Whatever he does is just, for this very reason: Because he does it. If he punishes a man, the man is justly punished; and hence the man is responsible.”

“Let it be unequivocally said that this view certainly makes God the cause of sin. God is the sole ultimate cause of everything. There is absolutely nothing independent of him. He alone is the eternal being. He alone is omnipotent. He alone is sovereign. Not only is Satan his creature, but every detail of history was eternally in his plan before the world began; and he willed that it should all come to pass.”

“God is not the author of this book, as the Arminian would be the first to admit; but he is its ultimate cause as the Bible teaches. Yet I am the author. Authorship therefore is one kind of cause, but there are other kinds. The author of a book is its immediate cause; God is its ultimate cause.”

“The sinner, therefore, and not God, is responsible; the sinner alone is the author of sin. Man has no free will, for salvation is purely of grace; and God is sovereign.”

The book is available here at MonergismBooks. This is what they had to say:

Highly Recommended! Probably the best work available on the subject at hand and required reading for long time visitors to monergism.com. Standing on the foundation of the Word of God, Clark has given us an answer to the theodicy issue. This little book is also an excellent refutation of all forms of Arminianism: deeply and convincingly tackles the issue of free will., exposing false systems of understanding.