⚡ Problem of Evil — Cheatsheet
Use this when: a skeptic argues that the existence of suffering disproves God, or when someone is sitting in grief and needs the theology of the cross — not a philosophy lecture. There are two modes: intellectual and pastoral. This cheatsheet covers both.
Lead With This: The Objection Borrows Christian Capital
Before answering the problem of evil, note what the objection itself requires.
When a skeptic says "A good God would not allow this suffering," they are making an objective moral judgment — not just a preference. Bone cancer in a child is not merely something the skeptic dislikes. It is really, genuinely wrong. That moral judgment requires an objective moral standard. And an objective moral standard requires a Lawgiver who transcends humanity.
On a purely naturalistic worldview, human moral outrage is just an evolved survival instinct with no more binding authority than any other primate's preferences. There is no cosmic ledger in which a child's suffering is marked as wrong. C.S. Lewis saw this clearly:
"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line."
The problem of evil, as an argument against theism, borrows theism's moral framework to make the argument. It is structurally self-defeating. Note this — then move on. The objection still deserves a full answer within the Christian framework.
Power Point 1 — Job: God Rebuked the Glib Answers
Job is described by God himself as "blameless and upright" (Job 1:1, 8). He loses everything — children, wealth, health — not because of sin, but by divine permission. His friends arrive with tidy theological explanations: You must have sinned. God is just. This is deserved.
God rebukes the friends — not Job: "You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:7)
Glib theodicy — "everything happens for a reason," "God has a plan," "they're in a better place" — is explicitly condemned by God in the book he inspired. The Psalms are one-third lament, with language that makes modern skeptics look polite:
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?... I cry by day, but you do not answer." (Ps. 22:1–2)
Scripture does not demand that the suffering person perform theological composure. It provides a vocabulary for lament and makes that lament to God, not away from him.
When God finally answers Job from the whirlwind, he does not explain the backstory. He reveals himself — his sovereignty, his intimacy with creation, his immensity. Job's response: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." (Job 42:5) Job didn't get an explanation. He got a theophany. And it was enough — not because the suffering was small, but because the God who permitted it is worthy of trust.
Power Point 2 — God Didn't Watch from a Distance. He Entered.
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14)
The eternal God did not remain in transcendent safety and issue instructions when evil entered his creation. The Son took on a human body. Hebrews 4:15 says he "sympathized with our weaknesses" — the Greek is συμπαθῆσαι (sumpathēsai): to suffer together with.
Jesus was not abstractly familiar with suffering. He:
- Was hungry, tired, and thirsty
- Wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35)
- Was betrayed by a close friend
- Cried in Gethsemane: "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26:39)
- Quoted Psalm 22 from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
When you say to a grieving parent "God is with you" — you are not saying something vague. You are saying the God of the universe has been in a body that suffered. He knows suffering from the inside.
The God who is asked "How could you allow this?" is the Father who watched his own sinless Son suffer and die. He is not a stranger to loss.
Power Point 3 — The Cross Is the Answer. Not a Theory — an Event.
The mistake is looking for a philosophical argument where Scripture offers a Person.
Isaiah 53 — written 700 years before the crucifixion — describes the Suffering Servant bearing what rightfully belonged to us:
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." (Isa. 53:4–5)
The Hebrew for griefs (חֳלָיֵנוּ, ḥolayenu) literally means our sicknesses, our diseases. The Servant doesn't adjudicate suffering from a distance. He bears it — physically carries it onto himself. Matthew 8:17 applies this to Jesus's healing ministry directly.
Romans 5:8: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God didn't wait for us to deserve it. While the rebellion was in full force, he sent his Son.
The answer to "if God were good, he would do something" is: He did. The most costly thing imaginable. He gave himself.
Power Point 4 — The Resurrection Means Evil Doesn't Get the Last Word
The cross shows God took evil seriously enough to enter into it. The resurrection shows evil does not win.
"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?" (1 Cor. 15:54–55 — quoting Isa. 25:8, Hos. 13:14)
This is not wishful thinking. Paul is making a theological claim grounded in a historical event: the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the down payment and guarantee of the future resurrection of all who belong to him (1 Cor. 15:20–23).
The body that suffers now — with cancer, with neurological disease — will be raised imperishable, glorified (1 Cor. 15:42–44). And the creation itself will be renewed:
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away... 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" (Rev. 21:4–5)
"Making all things new" — not replacing the old creation with something different, but renewing and restoring what was broken. Evil will not have been merely tolerated. It will have been defeated.
Paul's statement in Romans 8:18 — "the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed" — was written by a man who had been beaten, stoned, and imprisoned. He is not theorizing. He is speaking from inside severe suffering, grounded in the resurrection.
Power Point 5 — The Hard Case: Children with Cancer
This is the objection that stops conversations. What do you say to parents whose five-year-old is dying of neuroblastoma?
What not to say: "Everything happens for a reason." "God has a plan." These are Job's friends' lines — explicitly rebuked by God.
What Scripture actually gives:
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The valley of death is where God goes with us, not around us — Psalm 23:4: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me."
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Jesus made suffering children his explicit concern — "Let the little children come to me, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19:14). His language about those who harm children is the most ferocious in the Gospels.
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God the Father is not a stranger to losing a child — He gave his own sinless Son to death. He watched. He did not intervene. The Father who is asked "How could you allow this?" has felt the weight of it himself.
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The resurrection means nothing is final — Revelation 21:4–5. The child who suffered is not forgotten in eternity. God is making all things new — not creating a replacement but restoring what was broken.
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Romans 8:26–27: the Spirit intercedes from inside the suffering — "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." God is not watching from outside. His own Spirit is groaning with the family in that hospital room.
Quick Reference
| Objection | Core Answer |
|---|---|
| "Evil disproves a good God" | The concept of objective evil requires a moral standard — which requires God |
| "God could stop it but won't — so he's either weak or cruel" | He entered it (Incarnation), bore it (cross), and will undo it (Resurrection/New Creation) |
| "That's just theodicy — words don't help" | The cross is not words — it is God's actual response in history |
| "How do you explain innocent children suffering?" | God entered human suffering; the resurrection guarantees it isn't the final word; Rev. 21:4–5 |
| "Job's suffering makes God look callous" | God rebukes the tidy theological answers (Job 42:7); Job didn't get an explanation — he got a theophany; and he didn't have the cross. We do. |
| "Why doesn't God just intervene?" | Sometimes he does. When he doesn't, the cross shows he does not dispense suffering from safety; he took the worst of it himself. |
For the full treatment — the logical problem of evil, the evidential problem, the borrowed moral framework argument, extended Job/Psalms theology, the Incarnation, Isaiah 53, Romans 8, the hard cases, and the eschatological answer — see The Problem of Evil — Full Analysis.