Dismantling the Bomb

Many non-Christians are resistant to Christianity and God because they can't wrap their heads around the idea that a Good God could allow bad things to happen. In other words, they often ask, "How can your God be all-powerful and good at the same time if he allows evil to exist?" This is a sincere but mistaken worldview that has many non-Christians standing on the sidelines, living a confused, non-directional life.

When approached about God and spiritual things, they often drop the "Problem of Evil" philosophical bomb on their unsuspecting Christian friends. Well, this "bomb" needn't shake us or confuse us. Here is an easy way to dismantle that spiritual blockage for your unbelieving friend. Before starting, pray for your friend - either in preparation for this conversation or silently right before it happens...

1) Should we have the choice? When your friends challenge you with the problem of evil, you must first set the stage. Assuming they will answer in the negative, ask them a hot-topic question like, "do you think the government should impose laws forbidding homosexual behavior?" or "do you think abortion should be outlawed?" We want to ask a question to which they will answer, "No. Because I think people should be able to choose for themselves."

2) Choice is good. Confirm with them that you are on the same page. Ask, "so you agree that being able to make moral choices for oneself is a good thing?""Yes, of course!" they will respond.

3) Drive the point. Ask your friend to clarify. Reaffirm your common ground by asking, "Would you agree that it is inherently a good thing to be free to make moral choices? That being morally free is good and having the choice to select either good or evil is part of being morally free?" They will agree that it is good to be able to make moral choices without the dictate of some other authority.

4) The paradox. Challenge your friend's worldview by asking, "if you could do anything you wanted, would it be possible to eliminate evil but still allow people the moral freedom to make their own choices between good and evil?" The answer there, of course, is 'no'. Based on your agreement of the third point, you could not have moral freedom AND no evil because people will have the choice to choose evil. Evil isn't good, but the ABILITY TO CHOOSE good or evil is good because moral freedom is good.

Summarize this logical worldview so your friend can better understand the nature of God.- God is a good God and gives us something good; moral freedom - the ability to choose good or evil.- God doesn't like evil but if he eliminated all evil, that would deprive us from the ability to choose good or evil.- Regardless of how powerful God is, the removal of evil doesn't prove his power or goodness. In fact, the removal of evil only deprives us of a good thing; the ability to choose.

Most importantly, relay the fact that God, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, has not only given us the choice between good and evil, but has given us a way from which we can escape the judgment of our evil choices and presents an alternative to our penchant to choose the evil thing; Jesus Christ.

So with just a few simple talking points, you are able to dismantle your friend's "bomb" and hopefully remove the blockage that caused him to resit God.