LIE: God is not good

Lie: God is not good.

Truth: God is better than we can possibly imagine.

The cross of Christ is God’s final answer to the problem of evil because the problem of evil is in the cross itself. — E J Carrell

The enemy of our soul aims this deadly arrow straight into the heart. If our shield of faith is not ready, this lie is lethal enough to single-handedly incapacitate us. So we must be deadly serious here. The question is why — why would we entertain such a lie as ‘God is not good?’¹

Often this lie comes disguised as a question: ‘Why would God allow that to happen (that being a tragedy of some kind)?’ or ‘I can’t understand why such an innocent child should suffer…’ or ‘where was God when that happened?’ Most of us have quietly pondered these and other similar questions and doubts, but only rarely will we squarely face them. But it’s time to do that now.

Stated simply, the basic rationale behind the lie ‘God is not good,’ is: How could an all-powerful and loving God allow so much suffering, death and destruction in the world? Even if it’s not his fault, that is, even if it’s not directly caused by him, shouldn’t he try to eliminate it or at least try to control or minimize it? But maybe he is.

But just in case you may be unaware of the magnitude of suffering present in the world, it’s important we not gloss over it. This is especially true here in middle-class America where suffering is harder to see. Oh, it’s here too, but we’ve learned to hide it well.

Admittedly, no one wants to dwell upon the immense suffering of the world, but if we don’t, we really haven’t properly addressed this question. It’s important that we go beyond the intellect and try to feel the pain of the world. But of course, it’s very difficult to do that. How do we do that? One way is we could quote statistics, such as this one:[1]

But statistics cannot reach the heart. Though they’re sobering and give us a sense of scope, they remain calloused numbers on a page.

We could also visit third world countries like Haiti or Nicaragua or Malawi, and get a first-hand look at the people and the character of life there. Doing so would definitely help us get a better grasp of the suffering in the world, though it would also be limited in scope and depth. For many middle-class Americans who’ve gone to a third-world country to see it as it is (and not just to visit the tourist sites), the culture shock can be disturbing and overwhelming. Seeing the poverty, the suffering, the injustice is often too much and we return to America with a new perspective on life, at least temporarily. But after a few weeks, the memories too easily turn into a dream-like feeling against the backdrop of the relentless first-world culture.

While a temporary stay in a third-world country can help us feel the suffering of the world, it’s those who choose to go and live among the people, adopting their lifestyle and culture, who will see and feel the pain in depth. We can’t all do this, but this should tell us something about the lie, that God is not good.

Do you see where I’m going here?

This is exactly what our God has done. This is what the Incarnation is all about. God, the one accused of not being good, refused to be satisfied with ‘statistics’ — his own complete and accurate knowledge of the human condition. Nor did he settle for a visit or a virtual meeting. No, he was born into the human family and lived among us. And he did this at a time and place when his people lived in extreme hardship and servitude. It’s not just academic for him; he feels our pain.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. — Hebrews 4:15

So yes, we have a God who can empathize, but the questions remain, why doesn’t he do something about it? Why can’t he stop it? The best answer I have is that he did do something which will stop it. I’m talking about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God who came in human flesh who gave his life as the Lamb of God for the evil of men, which is the cause of most human suffering.

You may say that, since natural disasters, so-called ‘acts of God’ — earthquakes, floods, tornados, tsunamis, droughts, wildfires, etc — carry no human culpability,[2] that they therefore must be caused by God himself, or that he must at least take responsibility for them. After all, who else could? This is a valid point that, to answer fully, would take us beyond the scope of this small article. But I will only say that, although it may sound callous to say so, any large-scale suffering and death happens primarily when those disasters occur in larger population centers. And until relatively recent times, most of the world lived in small towns and villages. I could make a case that God intended life to be lived, and is much better lived, in small communities.[3] I don’t believe God ever intended us to pack human beings into such densely-populated concrete jungles, and away from the life-giving plants and animals that he so generously gave us.

Of course, any suffering or death is awful and our hearts go out in compassion to those who have lost loved ones, homes, or animals. We should help the survivors in any way we can.

But God is good because he personally addressed, at the cost of his own life, the primary cause of suffering: the character of man himself. We are our own worst enemy;[4] we as human beings single-handedly create the wars, death, destruction and most of the suffering of men. If the core of man could be changed, renovated, we would save so many lives. Well, this is exactly what Christ has done: he became a man, not only to feel our pain, but to recreate him in himself, he being the ‘firstfruits’ of the new creation.[5] This is the divine ‘nuclear option:’ end Adam’s race in the judgment of the cross and create a new humanity in resurrection.

God does not do things halfway; he addressed the issue of sin and death at its core, and he did it at great cost to himself personally. This is the measure of God’s profound goodness.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. — Ephesians 1:7–12

---

[1] See https://www.tfah.org/report-details/pain-in-the-nation-2024/ captured on December 7, 2024.

[2] So-called anthropogenic climate change is said to be causing major climate disasters, so if that were true, these natural disasters do have a human culpability factor. But I personally do not believe this — a big lie that I have yet to tackle. A more likely mode in which humans are causing natural disasters is in weather modification techniques. For information on the climate change hoax, see for example, James Corbett’s work: https://corbettreport.com/flashback-woowoo/.

[3] A good work on this point is Jacques Ellul’s book, The Meaning of the City.

[4] See my article LIE: Man’s biggest problem is sin.

[5] See I Corinthians 15:22–23.

---

1. See also: LIE: God is mean, LIE: God doesn’t care, and LIE: Suffering is bad. ↩︎