In order for us to understand this, we need to first take a history lesson. The following verses tell us how God created us and that he wanted us to take care of the earth.
GE 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
The first two people where called Adam and Eve. God gave Adam instructions about what to do and what not to do:
GE 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
So what do you think happened? Well Adam and Eve are no different then people today, just read the following.
GE 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
So they did just like many of us would do, they did what they where not suppose to do. And just like with everything there where consequences for doing wrong:
GE 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So now you say: "Why did God have to punish them that harshly?". If you look at the verses above you will notice several things. You will notice that God still wanted to take care of them, or he wouldn't have made them clothes before he kicked them out. God was trying to protect them from knowing evil. Now that they new good and evil he could not let them eat from the tree of life in that condition. Why? Because we have freedom of choice and as you will see in the following verse people by nature tend to do evil. Can you imagine the end result?
GE 8:21b .............every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.
This above scripture is from a statement God made after the great flood. So what is God after? God loves us and wants us to spend eternity with him in heaven. Since we are basically evil, how does he figure this will ever happen? We have already proven we won't do what is right. We will find out a little later. I am sure you may be saying: "But I am a good person, I don't do anything evil." Lets find out what evil is. This is what the dictionary says:
Moral evil, or sin, is any lack of conformity to the moral law of God.
Now lets see, have you ever done anything wrong, treated anyone wrong or done anything that would be considered sin (evil)? If you are truly honest with yourself, you will have to answer yes.
Here is what the Bible says:
RO 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Where is all this going? We still haven't established why God allows evil to go on in the world. All we have done is established that we are all evil. Well, lets establish why God allows evil. God wants us to spent eternity with him in heaven, he wants us to do this of our own free will. He does not want to force us into this. Being a perfect God that cannot tolerate evil, he made a way for us to be able to spent eternity with him even so we are evil.
How did he do this? He did this by sending his son Jesus to pay the price for our sins (our doing evil). What we have to do is receive him as our Lord and Savior. Does this make us perfect? No, but Jesus paid the price for our sin (evil). We are promised to be saved by receiving Jesus as our Savior. We all have to make this decision. So if God where to wipe out evil, the door would be closed to anyone that may still choose to receive Jesus. That is one reason.
Here is what the Bible says:
HAB 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?HAB 2:2 Then the LORD replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
This next passage sheds a little more light on why God is still waiting. God is waiting on a number of people to come in to the kingdom. These people could be missionaries or anyone else being killed for their believe. That is another reason.
REV 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
So here is our conclusion:
Above are two reasons why God is allowing evil to go on in this world. He is only going to allow this for a specific time. After that time he will not tolerate it any longer. At this point he will judge the world. The good news is, that you do not have to be part of this final judgment, all you have to do is receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you will spent eternity in heaven with God.
