February 2025

That God is all-powerful does not mean that He can do the logically impossible. Accordingly, God cannot causally determine that someone freely love Him. If freely doing something means to do something without being determined to do it, then by definition it is impossible to make someone freely do something. In short, as we have seen, and must re-emphasize—God cannot force anyone to love Him, for the moment it’s forced, it is no longer love.

Read Matthew 22:37 and Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. What do these verses teach about the reality of free will?

Throughout Scripture, God’s amazing power is made manifest. The Bible includes countless narratives of His exercising His power and working miracles. And yet, despite this, many things happen that God does not want to happen.

Read Revelation 11:17, Jeremiah 32:17–20, Luke 1:37, and Matthew 19:26. Consider also Hebrews 1:3. What do these passages teach about God’s power?

“God is sovereign,” the youth pastor taught his middle school group. “That means He controls everything that happens.” One puzzled middle schooler replied, “So God was in control when my dog died? Why would God kill my dog?”

Read for This Week’s Study

Luke 13:34; Jer. 32:17–20; Heb. 1:3; Deut. 6:4, 5; Eph. 1:9–11; John 16:33.

Memory Text:

Read Ellen G. White, “Why Was Sin Permitted?” pp. 33–43, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

God has granted creatures free will because it is necessary for love; misuse of this free will is the cause of evil. Again, many questions remain. God allows evil (for a time), while passionately despising it, because to exclude its possibility would exclude love, and to destroy it prematurely would damage the trust necessary for love.

However much we don’t understand of God’s ways and thoughts, Scripture does reveal some things that help to address the problem of evil. One avenue for addressing the logical problem of evil is known as the freewill defense.

God proclaims in Isaiah 55:8, 9, “ ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’ ” (NKJV).

God’s thoughts are far higher than ours. We cannot even imagine the complexities of God’s plan for history. Given this, why should we expect to be in a position to know just what God’s reasons are for what He does or does not do in various situations?

The end of history will come with the triumph of love over evil. But, in the meantime, many troubling questions remain. How can we think and talk about the problem of evil in a way that might be helpful?

Read Job 38:1–12. How does God’s answer to Job shed light on the problem of evil? How much do we know and not know about what might be going on behind the scenes?

The problem of evil is voiced not only in contemporary contexts but also in Scripture itself.

Read Job 30:26, Jeremiah 12:1, Jeremiah 13:22, Malachi 2:17, and Psalm 10:1. How do these texts bring the problem of evil to the forefront of human experience?