The Sovereignty Answer
Perhaps the most popular answer in America to the question, “How can a loving God allow Evil exist?” is what has been called “The Sovereignty Answer.” The Sovereignty Answer is the most popular in the sense that most Christians in America hold to a systematic theology that determines this answer to be the case. The majority of Christians in America are Calvinistic, holding to the teachings inspired by the great European reformer John Calvin. The answer to the question of Evil, according to The Sovereignty Answer, is this: “God has decreed that Evil exist.” Many Christians are comfortable with this answer, understanding God to be the One who makes Evil happen. After all, God is Sovereign, and He can do as He pleases. Many other Christians, and especially non-Christians, balk at this idea; if this idea is true, then God has taken center-stage in the great atrocities of human history, including the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and the Columbine shootings. This view is defended via various proof-texts from the Old and New Testaments; in the New Testament, Romans 9.20-24 is embraced. “What right does man have to argue against his Maker?” According to the Sovereignty view, God is the orchestrator of Evil, the One who decrees evil exists, the one who makes calamity, and Man must totally submit to God and His sovereignty, embracing a stoic acceptance of all types of evil as the direct and causal will of God.
I personally do not agree with this view, and lean towards the next answer—“The Free Will Answer”—as well as an eclectic mix of several other answers. It’s complicated, I know, but this question demands a complicated answer: a simple answer simply will not and cannot suffice.
Perhaps the most popular answer in America to the question, “How can a loving God allow Evil exist?” is what has been called “The Sovereignty Answer.” The Sovereignty Answer is the most popular in the sense that most Christians in America hold to a systematic theology that determines this answer to be the case. The majority of Christians in America are Calvinistic, holding to the teachings inspired by the great European reformer John Calvin. The answer to the question of Evil, according to The Sovereignty Answer, is this: “God has decreed that Evil exist.” Many Christians are comfortable with this answer, understanding God to be the One who makes Evil happen. After all, God is Sovereign, and He can do as He pleases. Many other Christians, and especially non-Christians, balk at this idea; if this idea is true, then God has taken center-stage in the great atrocities of human history, including the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and the Columbine shootings. This view is defended via various proof-texts from the Old and New Testaments; in the New Testament, Romans 9.20-24 is embraced. “What right does man have to argue against his Maker?” According to the Sovereignty view, God is the orchestrator of Evil, the One who decrees evil exists, the one who makes calamity, and Man must totally submit to God and His sovereignty, embracing a stoic acceptance of all types of evil as the direct and causal will of God.
I personally do not agree with this view, and lean towards the next answer—“The Free Will Answer”—as well as an eclectic mix of several other answers. It’s complicated, I know, but this question demands a complicated answer: a simple answer simply will not and cannot suffice.
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