God is almighty

When we say that God is almighty we mean that as creator he has power over all things and he is the source of all power. (1)

This is not the same as saying that God can do anything.  God cannot, for example, make a square circle because that is a logical contradiction. (2) In the same way, God cannot give human beings free will and at the same time withhold free will from them. (3) Furthermore, God cannot do anything that goes against his nature as God. (4) So God cannot sin.

The laws of Nature

If you plant an acorn, it will grow into an oak tree; it cannot grow into any other sort of tree.  When water gets very cold it becomes ice; when ice is warmed it melts.  These regular and predictable processes are regarded by scientists as the laws of Nature.  From a Christian perspective, laws of Nature are “signals of God’s reliability and faithfulness, made known in his creation”. (5)

The belief that God preserves the regular order of the world does not, however, imply that the universe is mechanistic – that it works like a huge machine.  Advances in physics, for example, have abolished a merely mechanical view of the universe. (6) Furthermore, we know that human beings are not robots; we have free will.  In exercising our free will we can do things that upset the balance of nature and damage the Earth; for example, the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases contribute to global warming.

Suffering and evil in the world

The Book of Genesis tells us that everything that God made was “very good” and that is true (NRSV, 1:31).  And yet you and I know from our own experience and from watching the television news that many bad things happen in the world.  There was the attack on the New York World Trade Centre in 2001; the Indonesian tsunami in 2004; an earthquake caused terrible loss of life and damage in Haiti in January 2010; and then a huge earthquake hit Chile in February 2010.  The summer of 2010 saw terrible suffering in Pakistan as the result of floods.   A huge earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan in March 2011.

We hear of burglars robbing people and beating them up and we know that bullying can and does happen in schools and workplaces.  When bad things happen people often ask “Why didn’t God do something to stop it? Why did he allow it?”  Going back a step further people may wonder how it is that a world created by God as “very good” has so much evil in it.

In the examples above, we can distinguish between bad things that happen because of the evil actions of people (e.g. attack on the World Trade Centre, robberies, bullying); and bad things that happen as a result of Nature (e.g. tsunamis and earthquakes). 

Moral evil

Free-will

In the case of the evil actions of people (moral evil), we need to remember that God made human beings with free-will – indeed having free-will is one of the things that makes us different from animals.  God made us to love him and that meant that he made us as real persons with wills of our own.  If he wanted us just to obey him and no more, it would have been enough to make us all like mechanical toys.  But he made us to love him and that is something we have to do ourselves of our own free will.  You can force someone to obey you but you can’t force someone to love you. 

The downside of free-will is that human beings can choose to use their free-will to harm other people.  They can also, of course, choose to do an enormous amount of good in the world.

The Devil

During a Baptism, the priest makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of the person being baptised and says:

“Do not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified”.

And everyone present says:

“Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ
against sin, the world and the devil,
and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life”. (7)

We shall think more about Baptism later on, but for now we need to face up to what is meant by the Devil. 

In the Bible there are a number of references to the Devil or Satan.  In St Luke’s Gospel we read how, at the start of his public ministry, Jesus went into the desert and was tempted by the Devil who put thoughts into his mind.  Jesus resisted every temptation but it is plain that the Devil didn’t leave him alone, for at the end of these temptations Luke notes that the Devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (NRSV, Luke 4:1-13). 

The thought that there is an evil being at work in the world tempting people is not a cosy idea at all and there are plenty of people who reject the idea. 

You’ve probably heard of the Chronicles of Narnia – a series of stories written for children by C.S. Lewis.  The first of the stories was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Besides writing stories for children, C.S. Lewis was a scholar at Oxford University and a brilliant writer on issues related to the Christian Faith.   He was concerned with the difficult issue of accounting for the presence of suffering and evil in a world that was created by a good and loving God.

C.S. Lewis believed in the existence of the Devil but thought that many people don’t believe because their image of the Devil is of a figure with horns and hoofs, wearing red tights. (8)(9) The trouble is that in laughing at the idea of such a comic figure people will think they have dismissed or perhaps disproved the existence of the Devil.  Of course we are right to avoid these silly images of the Devil but we shouldn’t think that we thereby remove the reality to which these images point.  Having said that we certainly shouldn’t have an unhealthy interest in the Devil and see the direct activity of the Devil behind every problem and all suffering. (10)

Angels and fallen angels

Now you may be wondering where the Devil came from.  There are a number of clues in the Bible that underpin the traditional teaching of the Church on this subject.  First of all we need to remember that God created the visible, material world and within that he created us, who are both material and spiritual beings, that is, we have a body and a soul.  However, God also created purely spiritual beings – angels.  At every Eucharist we join with the angels and indeed with everyone in Heaven in worshipping God:

“Therefore with angels and archangels,
and with all the company of heaven,
we proclaim your great and glorious name,
for ever praising you…” (11)

The clues in the Bible suggest that some of these angels, although they were good when God created them, rebelled against God (2 Peter 2:4).  These angels are led by one who is usually called Satan or the Devil.  He is the ‘prince of this world’ because his rebellious activity extends to this world. (12)  So shortly before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus said, “…now the prince of this world is to be overthrown” (Jerusalem Bible, John 12:31).

The angels, like us, were created with free-wills.  But the Devil and the other fallen angels were too proud to love and worship God because that meant putting God first, and they were determined to put themselves first.  The end result was that there was “no longer any place for them in heaven” (Jerusalem Bible, Revelation 12:8).  When the Devil left Heaven, he came to this world to make it his kingdom.  His plan was to get the world under his control and rule it as the Lord of Evil.

The Devil and human beings

The Devil is an evil spiritual being who wants to persuade human beings to rebel against God or at least to forget all about God.  Jesus called the Devil the “father of lies” (NRSV, John 8:44), and his biggest lie of all is that there is no Devil so that people are not on their guard against him.  So it is that the human race has loved to do wrong.  Instead of loving God, people lie and steal and harm one another.  We all know how others have made us unhappy and how we have done exactly the same to them.

The Devil and human beings between them account for a great deal of suffering and pain in the world but, though God allows it to go on, he can bring good out of it.  Sometimes, as a result of suffering, people turn to God when they have forgotten all about him.  When we die there will only be one thing that can make us happy, and that is to love God and to be loved by him.  If we do not learn to love him now, it may be too late when we die – we may find we are unable to love him best of all.  Yet, only one thing can make us happy in the end, and that is to love him best.  That is why he created us.

Do you remember the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus told? (Luke 15:11-32).  In that story the son left his home and went off with a lot of money to a far country.  There he wasted all his money on bad companions who could never make him happy.  It was only when he was in desperate difficulties that he decided to go back home.  If it had not been for the problems he faced he might never have returned to the happiness of his own home.  So although suffering and pain were not part of God’s good creation, when we do suffer it can bring us back to him, the source of all true happiness. 

Yet whatever the Devil or human beings may do now, God is stronger than them all and that is why, if you really want to love God, no one can pluck you out of his hand either in this world or the next.  In the end evil will have no power to hurt.  The Devil and evil people who don’t turn back to God will have no place in Heaven – indeed they wouldn’t want to be there.

Natural disasters

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, cause great suffering and from a Christian perspective they are more difficult to explain than acts of moral evil – robberies, thuggery and so on.  We see the terrible pictures on our television screens of people being pulled from collapsed buildings and we see the grief of people who have lost loved ones and all their possessions.

It helps a little to remember that the earth is not a static planet – it is energetic and in a state of continual change.  These changes, sometimes violent, have shaped the earth and made it able to support life as we know it. 

For example, heat rising from inside the Earth causes volcanoes and stresses the Earth’s crust until the energy is suddenly released, causing earthquakes and tsunamis.  Volcanoes have been described as “at once beautiful, dangerous, life-giving, and mysterious”.  They played a role in the early development of the Earth and volcanic activity has produced fertile soils that have supported the development of many civilisations.  Volcanoes have also had a role in the composition of the oceans and the atmosphere. (13)

Tremors and earthquakes disrupt the Earth’s crust many times every day but usually the disruption is too small for human beings to feel.  Occasionally, as we all know, they can cause huge disruption with great loss of life and destruction of buildings. (14) It’s estimated that although about 700 earthquakes each year are strong enough to cause death and damage, most of these potentially destructive earthquakes are centred in unpopulated areas far from civilisation. (15)

We shouldn’t think of natural events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis as being evil in themselves.  They are just some of the ways in which the Earth works.  However, as we know, these natural occurrences can result in great suffering.

Illness and disease

Some illness and disease is the result of people’s lifestyle.  For example, people who smoke tobacco can develop heart and lung disease.  If they smoke in the presence of other people, these smokers can harm others by forcing them to breathe second-hand smoke (passive smoking).  Women who smoke in pregnancy harm their unborn baby.

Many people in the world are at risk of diseases which could be prevented.  For example, half the world’s population is at risk of malaria; in 2008 around 243 million people contracted malaria and 863,000 people died as a result. (16) Yet malaria can be controlled if mosquito nets and the correct medicine are available.

There are many other examples of how illness and disease can be prevented or controlled by human beings.  However, sometimes illness occurs and no cause is apparent.  If the person is regarded as “good” others may ask “How can God let this happen to such a good person?”  The question suggests that God should divide people into bad and good groups and treat the good people better than the bad, or maybe even punish the bad by sending illness to them.  This is not so.  All of us are a mixture of good and bad and we all need God’s forgiveness.  And we should never forget that God loves all his creation and that includes people who are hostile or indifferent to him.

Trying to make sense of suffering

What can we as Christians make of all this?  Well, we should recognise that for all our human intelligence we cannot understand God and the way he works.  He is far beyond our understanding.  Yet we know that he loves his creation and we trust that “all shall be well”. (17) (The saintly Julian of Norwich had a series of visions in the 14th century in which she perceived Jesus saying these now well-known words).  And this is not airy-fairy wishing for a happy ending.  There are plenty of passages in the Bible that give us grounds for hope.  St Paul, for example, writes: “I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared with the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us” (Jerusalem Bible, Romans 8:18).

However, this doesn’t mean that we can sit back and not worry about suffering unless it’s likely to affect us.  When God created the world he chose human beings to be its stewards, to look after the Earth on his behalf.  That is a huge responsibility but God gave human beings intelligence of a very high order and it’s up to us to use that gift to help prevent or minimise suffering. 

This involves efforts to predict when events such as serious earthquakes are likely to occur so that people can be evacuated beforehand.  Currently earthquakes can’t be predicted because not enough is known about earthquake mechanism. (18)  At a global level human beings can work to ensure a fair sharing of the Earth’s resources so that the environment is made as safe as possible for people who live in areas where there is a high risk of a natural disaster (for example, houses built to enhance the chance of survival).  We all need to pray for this kind of global caring and, we should try to support relief efforts when a disaster does occur.

With regard to illness, human beings have the knowledge to prevent or treat a great deal of sickness.  And even if cure isn’t possible, every effort must be made to keep people as comfortable as possible.

The other thing we should never forget is that God, in the Person of Jesus, experienced the full force of evil and of physical and mental suffering in his earthly life.  He knew what it was to be hungry, thirsty and exhausted.  He knew what it felt like to be let down by friends and to be misunderstood.  He was mocked and spat upon, tortured and nailed to the cross, where he suffered an unimaginably horrible death.  So when things are tough, we can never say to God “You don’t know what it’s like”. 

We should remember, too, that God is not remote and far removed from the suffering of the world.  He is our loving Father and is with us and with all who suffer.

SUMMARY

1. God is almighty because as creator he has power over all things and is the source of all power.

2. But angels and human beings have free-will because one must be free to love God; one cannot be forced.

3. The Devil and human beings have chosen instead to do wrong, which causes much suffering, yet suffering can bring us to want God and then to love him.

4. God is infinitely stronger than the Devil.

5. Natural events such as earthquakes are part of the way the way Earth works.  They may result in suffering but God has given human beings intelligence to prevent or minimise the suffering.

6. God is with us in our sadness and suffering.

References

1. Vardy, P. and Arliss, J. (2003) The thinker’s guide to God, Ropley: O Books.
2. Vardy, P. and Arliss, J. (2003) op cit.
3. Lewis, C.S. (1957) The problem of pain, London: Collins Fontana.
4. Vardy, P. and Arliss, J. (2003) op cit.
5. Polkinghorne, J. (1989) Science and Providence. God’s interaction in the world, London: SPCK.
6. Polkinghorne, J. (1989) op cit.
7. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2006) Common Worship.  Holy Baptism.  Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/initiation/baptism.html  (Accessed 20 August 2010) (Internet).
8. Lewis, C.S. (1942) The Screwtape Letters, London: Geoffrey Bles, the Centenary Press.
9. Lewis, C.S. (1942) Broadcast talks: what Christians believe, London: Geoffrey Bles, the Centenary Press.
10. Wright, N.T. (2006) Evil and the justice of God, London: SPCK.
11. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship. Eucharistic Prayer A.  Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/prayera.html  (Accessed 20 August 2010) (Internet).
12. Bray, G. (2007) ‘God’ in McGrath, A. (editor) The new Lion handbook of Christian belief, Oxford: Lion Hudson.
13. Allaby, M. et al (2008) The encyclopedia of Earth. A complete visual guide, Sydney: Weldon Owen.
14. Allaby, M. et al (2008) op cit.
15. U.S. Geological Survey (2009) 100% chance of an earthquake.  Available from: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/100_chance.php  (Accessed 09 August 2010).
16. World Health Organization (2010) World malaria report 2009.  Available from: http://www.who.int/malaria/world_malaria_report_2009/en/index.html (Accessed 09 August 2010).
17. Julian of Norwich (A.D. 1373) Revelations of Divine Love, ninth edition edited by Warrack, G. (1927) London: Methuen.
18. U.S. Geological Survey (2009) op cit.