2. Is This World
Big Enough For
&
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34

3. “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”
“If you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask?”
# 1
“Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”

4. “Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how comes evil in the world? – Epicurus (Athenian philosopher, 341 BCE-270 BCE)

5. Is This World
Big Enough For
&
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34

6. An Evil World, An Unknown God
&
Is This World
Big Enough For
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34

7. Epicurus witnessed evil and concluded there is no God Paul witnessed evil (Acts 17:16) and concluded people do not know God

8. An Evil World, An Unknown God
God is Omnipotent not impotent (Acts 17:24, 26, 28, 30-31)
God is Benevolent not wicked (Acts 17:25, 28)
God is Near not absent (Acts 17:27-29)
God is Righteous. He will judge evil (Acts 17:30-31)
Evil is not destroyed…Yet

9. Biblical Observations About God And Evil
&
Is This World
Big Enough For
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34

10. Biblical Observations
Good can exist without evil – God is good. Yet evil cannot exist without good.
We have all sinned (Rom. 3:23)
God created people with Free Will – in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27)
The potential to Love
The potential to Sin
God has demonstrated limited judgments (Gen. 3; 6-9; dealing with nations, etc.)

11. God Suffers, Too
&
Is This World
Big Enough For
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34

12. The God of the Bible Suffers…
Without losing Omnipotence
Matt 26:53, “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?”
John 10:18, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.“
Showing the greatest Benevolence
John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
Rom 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

13. The God of the Bible Suffers…
Near us
Heb 2:17-18, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
To satisfy Righteousness & conquer evil
Rom 5:6-10, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

14. When God determines that time is over, Christians shall be with God where there is No Suffering
&
Is This World
Big Enough For
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34

15. Is This World
Big Enough For
&
GOD
Evil
ACTS 17:16-34