Premise 1: There Are Good Reasons God Allows Evil

Challenge 1: Genuine Freedom Requires The Possibility of Genuine Evil

What Skeptics Say: Skeptics argue that if God is truly loving and all-powerful, He could have created humans who are free yet always choose good. They claim that genuine freedom does not require the ability to do real harm—God could simply “tilt” our desires so that we never seriously want evil. From this perspective, a God who allows people to choose cruelty, betrayal, and injustice in the name of “freedom” seems either careless or cruel. They ask, “Why not design a world where everyone freely does what is right and no one is even capable of terrible evil?”

What Christians Say: Christians believe that true human freedom includes the real possibility of choosing against God’s will. Freedom is not just the ability to follow our programmed desires; it is the ability to choose between meaningful alternatives. If God only allowed one possible outcome—always choosing good—then our “choices” would be no more genuine than the actions of a robot or a computer program. Love, trust, obedience, and worship only have value when they are freely given, not guaranteed in advance. So when God gave humans the capacity to love Him and each other, He necessarily gave them the capacity to reject Him and harm each other. The freedom to be morally good is inseparable from the freedom to be morally evil.

For Example: Imagine praising someone for never lying—when in reality they were physically incapable of speaking anything but the truth. Or celebrating a spouse’s “faithfulness” if they were literally unable to be unfaithful. That kind of “goodness” would be an illusion, because the opposite was never a real option. In the same way, a world where humans could not choose evil would be a world without courage, loyalty, sacrifice, or integrity—because those virtues only exist when a person could have chosen the opposite and didn’t. By allowing us the power to choose evil, God also gave us the power to choose genuine goodness, love, and faithfulness.

Challenge Question: If God removed the possibility of choosing evil, so that we could only ever do what is right, would we still be truly free—or would we simply be well-behaved machines acting out a script rather than persons capable of real love, loyalty, and truth?

Challenge 2: God Can Use Evil to Bring About Greater Good That Could Not Exist Otherwise

What Skeptics Say: Skeptics argue that no amount of good can justify the existence of evil, especially extreme suffering. They claim that appealing to “greater good” is a religious escape hatch—an attempt to make sense of events that appear cruel, unjust, or meaningless. Some skeptics insist that if God needed evil to accomplish good, then He is not all-powerful; a true God, they say, could achieve every good outcome without allowing any suffering at all.

What Christians Say: Christians believe that although God never creates evil, He can redeem it in ways that produce good that would otherwise be impossible. Scripture repeatedly shows God taking human evil, injustice, tragedy, and pain and transforming them into instruments of growth, salvation, or redemption. Courage is only possible in the presence of danger. Forgiveness only exists where wrong has been done. Compassion grows when we encounter real suffering. Perseverance forms through trials. Deep faith emerges in hardship, not comfort. God’s ability to transform evil into good does not diminish His power—it demonstrates His sovereignty, wisdom, and redemptive purpose.

For Example: Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery—an act of real evil—yet God used it to save entire nations from famine. The early church faced persecution, but it caused the Gospel to spread across the ancient world. And the clearest example is the cross: humanity’s greatest injustice became God’s greatest act of salvation. Evil did not win; God used it to accomplish the redemption of the world. Even today, countless people testify that their deepest suffering became the turning point for growth, compassion, spiritual awakening, or new purpose they never would have discovered otherwise.

Challenge Question: If God can bring courage out of danger, forgiveness out of wrongdoing, compassion out of grief, and salvation out of the cross itself, is it possible that He allows evil precisely because He can accomplish far greater good than would be possible in a world with no suffering at all?

Challenge 3: Without Evil We Would Not Know God’s Justice and Mercy

What Skeptics Say: Skeptics argue that if God needs evil to reveal His justice or mercy, then His nature is defective. They claim that a perfect God should not require evil to display His character. Others believe that justice and mercy are human concepts projected onto God, not attributes He reveals. From this perspective, the existence of evil either suggests that God is powerless to stop it or indifferent to the suffering it causes—undermining the idea that His justice or mercy is meaningful.

What Christians Say: Christians believe that God’s justice and mercy are not abstract ideas but real attributes of His nature that become visible within the context of human rebellion and brokenness. Without evil, there would be nothing to judge—and therefore no display of justice. Without sin, guilt, or spiritual need, there would be no mercy to offer. God does not depend on evil, but He uses the reality of human wrongdoing to reveal the depth of His holiness (through justice) and the depth of His love (through mercy). The presence of evil becomes the backdrop that highlights God’s righteous judgment and astonishing grace.

For Example: A judge’s integrity is not seen when everyone is innocent—it is revealed when guilt must be confronted. Likewise, compassion is most visible when someone is undeserving of it. Scripture shows this repeatedly: God’s justice is seen in His opposition to evil, and His mercy is seen in His willingness to forgive sinners who turn to Him. The cross is the ultimate example—God’s justice against sin and His mercy toward sinners meet perfectly in Jesus’s sacrifice. Without the reality of evil, humanity would never understand the costliness of grace or the seriousness of justice.

Challenge Question: If evil creates the very context in which God’s justice and mercy are displayed most clearly, could it be that God allows evil not because He is indifferent—but because through it we see the full beauty of His holiness, righteousness, and grace?

ThinkCube Truth Veracity Grid

1. Have I considered the facts carefully and with an open mind?
2. Is my conclusion the result of a careful examination of the facts, or is it a conclusion made in spite of the facts?
3. Is my conclusion the one that makes the most sense of the evidence?