Question and Answer
Why did God allow evil in the world? Why didn’t He create a universe where everything was good?
After each day of creation, God declared that what He created is good. But God didn’t create good. It is God Himself who is Good and Righteous. And God is eternal, existing from before creation. God Himself is the standard.
It is also clear that God didn’t create evil; all of His creation is declared to be good (Gen. 1:9, 12). Evil happens when created beings go against what God has made known as His will. Critics have suggested that it is unfair for God to create an imperfect world and then judge humanity for making wrong choices. But the Lord created men and women in His image, with creativity and choice, not as robots or automatons. Evil happens when God’s created beings—whether angels led by Lucifer or Adam and Eve—rebel against God or disobey God’s clear instruction (Gen. 3:6).
Each believer must choose to make God the center of his or her life and renounce the pull of evil and sin by relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. We must accept Christ, the Son of God, to be the administrator of our life. In this way, our lives are a foretaste of God’s final defeat of sin and evil (Rev. 20:14).
BY Mike Kellogg
Mike Kellogg worked with Moody Radio for more than 40 years, beginning in 1972. For many years he was the reader on Continued Story and began hosting Music Thru the Night in 1982. He also read the Today in the Word devotional for Moody Radio for many years. In July 2014, Mike retired from full-time radio. He is a graduate of Cedarville University, and has served as adjunct faculty in English and Speech Communications at Moody Bible Institute. He is married to Nancy, and they have 6 children and 16 grandchildren.