Solutions to the
Problem of Evil
For centuries man has struggled with
the concept of God. One of the foremost
issues facing mankind in this regard is the discrepancy between the existence
of a God and the simultaneous existence of rampant suffering, hatred, and
violence throughout the world. This discrepancy is often titled “the problem of
evil”. Of all those who have attempted to answer this problem, the LDS Church has most significantly
addressed the issue and has found the most complete answer. Their answer, in
short, is this: “If the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee… [it] shall give thee
experience and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7).
One classic example of how the
problem of evil is often faced by the religious is found in Viktor Frankl’s
“Man’s Search for Meaning”. Frankl was
approached by his six year old daughter who asked, “Why do we speak of the good Lord?” To which Frankl responded,
“Some weeks ago, you were suffering from the measles, and then the good Lord sent you a full recovery.” Not
satisfied, the little girl pointed out, “Well, but please Daddy, do not forget:
in the first place, he had sent me the measles” (118-119). Those who are guided
by a faith in God often attribute to him only the positive things of the world.
This is the simplest way to reconcile the problem of evil on a personal level.
However, like Frankl’s daughter, some are not contented with this and seek a
deeper resolution to the problem.
To understand the LDS Church's solution to this problem, first we need to understand God himself. A scripture from the Book of Mormon explains clearly the Church’s belief
in God. It reads:
Believe in God…and that he created all things,
both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power,
both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things
which the Lord can comprehend.
- Mosiah 4: 9
Thus we see that God is both omniscient and omnipotent, and that his plan for our lives is often difficult for our mortal minds to understand.
The LDS
Church also has an understanding of God’s relationship with his children on
earth and his plan for them that differs significantly from the mainstream
beliefs of Christianity. The central
aspect of this relationship is that all human beings are literal spiritual
offspring of a Heavenly Father. As his
children, Heavenly Father wants us to be like him, a perfect being with the
ability to create and have children. The
type of life that Heavenly Father has is termed “eternal life” or “exaltation”
by the LDS Church. His plan for us, called the plan of salvation, is this: to
come to earth, receive a body, be tested and tried, die, and be
resurrected. All of this is for the
purpose of helping us to achieve exaltation and eternal life. Central to this plan is the atonement and
resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ, which allows us to be forgiven of our
mistakes and to live again after death (Preach My Gospel, 48).
This basic knowledge of the plan
of salvation is important for understanding the solution to the problem of evil
from the perspective of the LDS Church.
Knowing that each person is on earth in order to become like their
Heavenly Father, a perfect being, explains the need for personal growth during
this life. Many of the difficulties of
life, including those that some would say God has a responsibility to stop
because they can be painful, are actually stepping stones that, when faced with
faith in God, provide for personal progress towards perfection. From this perspective, Frankl would have
responded to his daughter by asking, “Perhaps the good Lord gave you the measles, but what did you learn from having the measles?” Life then can be viewed as a type of mortal
school with the intent to teach us all to become like God.
One
principle must be understood in order for this argument to stand. The LDS Church believes that growth and
learning cannot occur without opposition.
The Book of Mormon explains this principle:
For it must
needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.
If not so…righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness,
neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad …[neither] happiness nor
misery…wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of
[the earth’s] creation. - 2 Nephi 2: 11-12
The argument
here is that if we never knew any sorrow, nor saw any evil, we would not be
able to know happiness nor recognize good. We would therefore be like Adam and
Eve, not knowing good from evil, and be stuck in an endless state of
non-progression. From this perspective,
we can understand why the LDS Church views the fall of Adam and Eve as
essential to Heavenly Father’s plan.
Once they fell, they were exposed to opposition, and then could begin
their journey towards perfection. We, as their posterity, also are exposed to
opposition and are on this same mortal journey.
James
E. Faust, former Second Counselor of the LDS Church, said regarding this life’s
journey:
All must pass
through a refiner’s fire…there seems to be a full measure of anguish, sorrow,
and often heartbreak for everyone, including those who earnestly seek to do
right and be faithful. Yet this is part of the purging to become acquainted
with God (“Eternity Lies Before Us”, 63).
“Refiner’s
fire” and “purging” are symbolic words used often in the LDS Church to describe
the cleansing and perfecting process that all faithful followers of Christ pass
through in this life. Members of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints often look to their pioneer forbearers as
an example of keeping faith even through extremely difficult trials. Francis Webster, a survivor of the Martin
Handcart Company, the company that faced the most disastrous and
life-threatening circumstances, said, “Was I sorry that I chose to come by hand
cart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to
become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was
privileged to come in the Martin Hand Cart Company" (Palmer, “Pioneers of
Southern Utah”). Even through the most horrible of circumstances, this man saw
that his trials were refining him, bringing him closer to God, and teaching him
important lessons. It is this concept
that the Lord is referring to in Doctrine and Covenants section 122, verse 7:
If thou shouldst
be cast into the pit, or into the hands of
murderers…if thou be cast into the deep; if the
billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if
the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and
above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open
the mouth wide after thee, know thou…that all
these things shall give thee experience, and shall be
for thy good (emphasis
added).
The
next question that must be answered upon understanding this principle is: how
can trials and suffering be for our good? Sometimes, it is difficult to see any
benefit from our trials, especially when early death or some other seemingly
irremediable misfortune is involved. Brigham Young, the second president of the
LDS Church, explained:
All intelligent
beings who are crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives
must pass through every ordeal appointed for intelligent beings to pass
through, to gain their glory and exaltation…Every trial and experience you have
passed through is necessary for your salvation (345).
Simply put, individual
perfection cannot be obtained without every suffering and trial each person
experiences individually. Thus, God has
tailored our mortal experience on this earth specifically for what we
individually need in order to be perfected. Because we are all different, our
needed experiences range widely. That is
one reason this earth is so diverse. Also, this is where faith comes in. We must trust Heavenly Father, especially
when going through a difficult experience, and remain obedient. Upon doing so, we are promised that whatever
we experience will, in the eternal picture, be for our good. As a result, God
is in no way immoral for letting us suffer temporarily. When all is weighed out on an eternal scale,
there will be balance and justice for each of us on God’s part.
That brings up two essential
ingredients needed on our part in order to tip the balanced scales in our
favor. The first is obedience. Doctrine and Covenants 130: 20-21 reads,
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this
world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing
from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” The
blessings of understanding, growth, and peace come by continued obedience to
the Lord’s commandments throughout the duration of our trial. When we complain or “murmur,” and
subsequently stop being obedient, we lose access to these blessings. Often, when we refuse to react with faith and
obedience during our trials, we lose the opportunity to learn and grow from
them, and they are no longer for our good.
This injustice, however, falls on us, not on God.
The second necessary ingredient is
mercy. Mercy, whether it be forgiveness
for a wrong doing or peace during a painful time in our lives, is only possible
through the atonement of Christ. Alma 7: 11-12 explains how the atonement
can right every wrong:
And
he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every
kind...he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of
death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that
his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know
according to the flesh how to succor his people
according to their infirmities.
Through the
atonement, we have access to mercy.
Whether or not we use it, however, is up to us. All things will be for our good if we 1)
repent of our sins and 2) turn to the Lord in our trials to receive comfort,
understanding, and the strength to become better.
So far, we’ve only explained one
aspect of the problem of evil. We’ve
seen that trials can be good for us and are therefore not immoral for God to
allow. However, there is still the
question of sin. Why does God allow the
existence of evil and wrong-doing in this world? Couldn’t he stop it? For most Christians, this question is hard to
answer. Some have come to the conclusion
that God is not powerful enough to stop Satan, the father of evil, from
wreaking havoc among God’s children. The
LDS scriptures offer a more reasonable explanation. 2 Nephi 2:27 explains that all of Heavenly
Father’s children are free to make their own decisions:
Wherefore, men
are free according to the flesh…And they are free to choose liberty and eternal
life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death,
according to the captivity and power of the devil.
This freedom to
choose is called agency. As the LDS
Church believes, this means that God, acting under divine laws, does not
interfere with our decisions nor does he force us to be obedient. As a result, we are allowed to do evil as
well as good, though we are responsible for the consequences of our choices. Every human being commits sin to some
degree. Again, the atonement is applied
to make up for this, and pays the consequences of our sins for us. This occurs through repentance. When we repent, the eternal consequences of
our sins are paid for, and we are clean again.
The atonement doesn’t completely erase the act, as if we had never
committed the sin, however, thus allowing us to learn from our mistakes and
continue towards perfection.
Agency
also explains why God doesn’t stop, for example, someone from murdering an
innocent person, nor does he stop other terrible things from happening to
righteous people. He cannot interfere
with our decisions, even if they put someone else in harm. He can and does try to influence us to do good
rather than evil, but ultimately we have the choice of whether or not we listen
to him. Unfortunately, this means that the righteous and innocent sometimes get
hurt by the wicked. However, the
atonement is there to help compensate for the damage and to turn the situation
into a growing experience for everyone involved.
God’s gift of agency to his children
makes sense when viewed from an eternal perspective. We are on earth to become like God, and we
need to make decisions for ourselves that lead us down that path. If we couldn’t choose to become like God,
then how could we ever become like him?
That kind of growth and progress cannot be forced, but must be
chosen. This is evident by the fact that
Satan proposed a plan that involved forcing righteousness upon God’s children
so that all would be saved, and God rejected that plan, refusing to take away
man’s agency (Moses 4:1-4). There is a
necessary element in the process of being tempted, tried, overcoming and choosing to follow God that helps us to
become perfected. President Faust clarified
this when he said:
Our agency, given us through the plan of
our Father, is the great alternative to Satan’s plan of force. With this
sublime gift, we can grow, improve, progress, and seek perfection. Without agency,
none of us could grow and develop by learning from our mistakes and errors and
those of others (“The Forces That Will Save Us”).
Thus, the cost
of agency (sometimes the innocent get hurt) is less than the gain from agency
(God’s children can grow and become perfect like he is). Again, the atheist’s argument that the
existence of suffering means that God must be immoral is thwarted. There is a purpose to suffering and sin, and
the good resulting outweighs the bad.
Therefore, God is moral for allowing us to suffer. Often, we thank God for our trials and praise
him for our sufferings.
Sometimes
the belief that God is in control and everything is designed to happen for a
purpose can cause a feeling of complacency and can cause people to refrain from
helping others, The LDS Church, however,
does not encourage inaction. Rather, it
encourages that men be “anxiously engaged in a good cause” (D&C 58:
27). Inaction can be seen as a sin. 2 Nephi 2: 26 teaches that men are free to
choose, and therefore must “act for themselves, and not…be acted upon”. We are not here floating aimlessly on earth,
and we are not meant to sit idly by and wait for God to do everything for
us. We are to make decisions for
ourselves, act, and do the most good that we can in our sphere of influence. The LDS Church constantly encourages its
members to be involved in service. There
are church welfare programs and other programs designed to right some of the
wrongs that are plaguing our world today.
It is clear to me that the horrible situation of children starving in
Africa can be a blessing to God’s children because it invites those who have
more to step up and serve them, and thereby grow in the process. It would be inappropriate in the light of the
teachings of the LDS Church to claim that they are supposed to starve and that
we should not interfere. This is just
one example of a “good cause” that we could choose to be anxiously engaged in.
So, is this world really as good as
it gets? Is suffering, pain, and sin
really necessary as part of our existence on this earth? Personally, I believe the answer is yes, not
because this is the best that God can do, but rather because Heavenly Father
has created an environment for us to grow and become perfected. This world contains everything that God needs
to fulfill his purposes, and as such it contains everything we need to achieve
exaltation. Everything that goes wrong
on earth is made right in the eternities, mostly as a result of the atonement
of Christ. The most perfect part of this
world is that all people will have a chance to hear the gospel, accept it, and
receive all the blessings connected to it, if not in this life than in the next
life. Though I admit this world isn't always rosy to live in, I have yet to find a flaw in it that cannot be
explained with an eternal perspective. I
believe with all my heart that indeed, all things will work together for our
good. I hope that all of God’s children
come to understand that and partake of the blessings that God has to offer
them.
Works Cited
Beesley, Kenneth H. “What is the Purpose
of Suffering.” New Era. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, April
1975. Web. 16 March 2012. < http://www.lds.
org/new-era/1975/04/what-is-the-purpose-of-suffering?lang=eng&query=reasons+
suffering>.
The Book of
Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants. Salt Lake City,
UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1981. Print.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints, “Preach My Gospel.” USA: Intellectual Reserve, 2004. Print.
Faust, James E. “Eternity Lies Before
Us,” Ensign, May 1997: 63. Print.
Faust, James E. “The Forces That Will
Save Us,” Liahona. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jan 2007. Web. 3 April 2012. < http://www.lds.org/liahona/2007/01/
the-forces-that-will-save-us?lang=eng>.
Frankl, Viktor L. Man’s Search for Meaning, Boston, Massachussettes: Beacon Press.
Widtsoe, John A. Discourses of Brigham Young. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book
Company, 1954. Print.
I hope you guys enjoyed this! Writing it strengthened my testimony so much! The gospel of Christ really is perfect and I love being a part of it!
Kamie
