Q and A With John MacArthur (2): Why Did God Allow Sin?

Question:

Why did God allow sin?

Answer:

There are questions like, “Why did God allow sin?” and the why questions are very difficult when they get into the nature of God! He did allow it and that suffices the issue because we just don’t know why. We can speculate why He allowed it--theologians have done that for years--that’s called the problem of theodicy or why God permitted evil.

And maybe the best solution to that question is to simply say He allowed it in order that He might destroy it. By that I mean this: if there is a right, there is a left; if there is an up, there is a down; if there’s an in, there’s an out; if there’s a good, there’s a bad. And so, if there was goodness, there was always potential evil and maybe God allowed evil to exist in order to ultimately destroy it so that it could no longer again exist. And that’s what heaven is all about.

But that’s a stab at it--that’s the way I kind of look at it--but there are some questions that are very difficult to answer because we just don’t know the mind of God and there is no specific revelation in the Scripture regarding such questions. Why did sin enter the world? And again we have the difficulty of that same question, and I mentioned it to you earlier: there is no answer to that question. We don’t know why; we just know that it did.

But the question that followed that is important: why did Adam sin? You ask most people, “Why did Adam sin?” and they say, “He was tempted by Satan and he sinned.” That isn’t true. Was Adam deceived? No. Paul said to Timothy, “Adam was not deceived; the woman was deceived.” Eve was deceived. That’s why women have (for one reason) taken the subservient role in God’s order: because they sinned, they were deceived.

Why did Adam sin? The best answer to that is that Adam sinned because he loved Eve and once she was what she was, he wanted to be what she was. In addition to that, there is no answer. But apparently--and most scholars say--to be what Eve was. I mean, at that point he didn’t have a lot of choice; she was the only woman around! If you wanted any kind of compatibility, that was how it was. It shows you the foolishness of man’s first decision.

Now don’t ask me what would have happened if he hadn’t done it. “What if” questions are tough too.

HT: Bible Bulletin Board

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