Jesus' Crucifixion and the Problem of Evil

Good Friday celebrates Jesus' crucifixion and death. The reason this is called "good" is because of what it accomplished: the salvation of the world. This illustrates an important point about the Christian response to the problem of evil. God didn't merely bring a good thing out of an evil event; he brought the greatest good out of the worst event. The greater the evil, the greater the good that God can bring out of it. The crucifixion is the only event where we're able to see what God did through it to a significant extent, because Jesus' resurrection is the "first fruits" of God's ultimate plan. So for all the other evils in life, we're essentially in the same position as Jesus' disciples were on Holy Saturday, without any certainty of what good God will accomplish through them. But the Christian knows that God can bring good out of even the most horrific evils, because one of the most horrific evils that ever occurred has brought about our reconciliation with God.


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