Introduction

The issue over the existence of evil is a perpetual concern for the Christian church. Christians are routinely challenged by secularists, philosophers, and anti-theists with the “problem of evil,” which asks if God is truly omnibenevolent and omnipotent, how can evil exist in his world? J. L. Mackie alleges, “There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false.”[1] Such persons attempt to charge that it is irrational to believe God exists in light of the presence of evil. Christians are required to respond to this allegation by presenting an apologetic argument that not only accounts for the presence of evil in the world but also provides a defense of God’s purposes in allowing it to afflict his people. This paper will demonstrate that God intentionally decrees the existence of evil for the express purpose of glorifying his name through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. This will be done by examining the claim put forth by Mackie that theists are contradictory and irrational in their beliefs against two of the most common theodicies: the Free Will Defense and the Greater-Good/Greater-Glory Theodicies.

God’s Goodness and Omnipotence Challenged

While there are various efforts to attempt to disprove the existence of God, one of the most common efforts by anti-theists is to appeal to the existence of evil in the world. As John Frame explains, the charge of the problem of evil can be explained by the following formulation:

Premise 1: If God were all-powerful, he would be able to prevent evil.

Premise 2: If God were all-good, he would desire to prevent evil.

Conclusion: So if God were both all-powerful and all-good, there would be no evil.

Premise 3: But there is evil.

Conclusion: Therefore, there is no all-powerful, all-good God.[2]

This formula appeals to Christian teaching about the character and nature of God to disprove his very existence. Mackie further argues this point in his paper, Evil and Omnipotence, when he writes, “the several parts of the essential theological doctrine are inconsistent with one another, so that the theologian can maintain his position as a whole only by a much more extreme rejection of reason.”[3] Therefore, at its heart, the problem of evil is presented as an attempt to reframe Christian truth in such a way that the anti-theist constructs a trap from which Christians cannot seemingly escape.

It is worth addressing that for anti-theists to argue that the existence of evil disproves God’s existence, they must first concede that there is an objective standard of good and evil. Travis James Campbell states, “Before one can be in a position to call any action or state of affairs truly or objectively evil, one must have an objective standard for adjudicating what is good and what is evil. In other words, the claim that evil exists is meaningless in a world wherein objective moral values do not exist.”[4] For there to be categories of good and evil to examine, one must acknowledge that there is an objective standard and an objective standard giver. Therefore, those who seek to eradicate God from existence by pointing to evil’s presence already concede the debate. This, however, does not absolve the Christian of a responsibility to answer the question of why God permits evil to exist. It is then necessary to examine the anti-theist’s argument.

Mackie attempts to frame this argument by stating “that good is opposed to evil, in such a way that a good thing always eliminates evil as far as it can, and that there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do.”[5] Mackie seeks to position his definitions of good and omnipotent in such a way that Christians cannot seemingly defend the existence of evil against them. According to his premise, God can only be good if he eliminates evil, meaning that God cannot be good if he allows or has a purpose for evil to exist. It is essential to Mackie’s argument that there cannot be a viable Christian response that God is good if he not only allows for but has a specific purpose for the existence of evil. However, this contradicts Scripture’s teachings, which state that God purposes evil for good, as seen in Genesis 50:20a, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”[6] Therefore, it is necessary to present a theodicy which addresses both God’s goodness and his purposes for evil.

The second definition that Mackie makes determinative of his argument is that of omnipotence. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines omnipotence as “The condition of being all-powerful; an attribute of God.”[7] Mackie adds to this definition by stating that there are no limits to what an omnipotent being can do. This would appear to include challenging that omnipotence can only do that which is logically impossible. While addressing the theist argument that good cannot exist without evil, Mackie addresses the matter of logical impossibilities. He describes that theists, “have held that logic itself is created and or laid down by God, that logic is the way in which God arbitrarily chooses to think…And this account of logic is clearly inconsistent with the view that God is bound by logical necessities—unless it is possible for an omnipotent being to bind himself.”[8] He wrongly understands the argument in this matter, for the Christian position holds that logic is not merely how God chooses to think, but it is based on his nature and existence, and that his rationality is reflected in his creation.[9] Therefore, a Christian theodicy should incorporate a truly biblical understanding of God’s omnipotence.

These definitions significantly influence Mackie’s efforts to refute various Christian solutions to the problem of evil. For example, he argues that if God permits as a necessary means to good, then he could not be omnipotent, for “he must be subject to some causal laws.”[10] Concerning the free will argument, Mackie questions why God could not make men who only choose God, and that his failure to do so demonstrates a paradox of an omnipotent being who makes things he cannot control.[11] In examining both of these theodicies, it will be demonstrated that, while the anti-theist does wrongly inject unbiblical meaning into these terms, only one Christian response rightly addresses these objections and demonstrates that God is the supremely good and omnipotent Being deserving of all glory in the face of evil.

Read Part II here.

[1] J. L. Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence,” Mind, New Series, 64, no. 254 (April 1955): 200.

[2] John M. Frame, Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief, ed. Joseph E. Torres (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2015), 155–56.

[3] Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence,” 200.

[4] Travis James Campbell and Kenneth Richard Samples, The Wonderful Decree: Reconciling Sovereign Election and Universal Benevolence (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2020), 38.

[5] Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence,” 201.

[6] All Scripture citations in this work are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016) unless otherwise noted.

[7] Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979-1988).

[8] Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence,” 203.

[9] Frame, Apologetics, 70.

[10] Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence,” 205.

[11] Mackie, 209–10.

This article was also published at X.com.