How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
April 16th, 2008 by Brett Wagner I recently picked up a copy of Tim Keller’s book, “The Reason for God.” Within this book he tackles the most common reasons for doubting the God of the Bible and then outlines the reasons for trusting the God of the Bible. Chapter 2 deals with the issue of evil and suffering within this world. The issue of evil and suffering must be dealt with if we live in this world with our eyes open. For many people, the objection has gone like this, “God cannot be both good and all powerful. If he he is all powerful, he cannot be good because of all the suffering in this world. If he is good, he cannot be all powerful because of all the suffering in this world.” Hmm…sounds pretty logical right? Here is where Keller’s chapter on suffering is helpful. He writes, “Many other philosophers have identified a major flaw in this reasoning. Tucked away within the assertion that the world is filled with pointless evil is a hidden premise, namely, that if evil appears to be p
