The Holocaust and the Existence of God

One of the most difficult questions to answer is: “If there is a God why did he allow six million Jews to be exterminated during the Holocaust in WWII?” As a former atheist this question was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome on my journey to faith in God. I even had a personal stake in this since all of my dad’s family, being Jewish, died in Hitler’s extermination camps. Fortunately, my dad spent one year in a Nazi work camp and was spared death or I wouldn’t be here to write this devotion.

I guess a more fundamental question must be posed and that is if there is a God why does he allow any evil to exist? Why do children die of starvation, why are there natural disasters such as earthquakes, why are there plane crashes, and why is there even death at all?

Many people believe that if God exists he is all-powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and all good (omnibenevolent). Well, if God is all-powerful he certainly could prevent evil from happening but he obviously doesn’t since so much evil exists in the world – and on the surface that didn’t sit well with me. And if God is all knowing then clearly he knows in advance that evil and suffering are going to happen and yet he allows it – and this again doesn’t sit well with me. Finally, if God is all good then how could a good God allow six million Jews to die in the Holocaust – and this was my biggest stumbling block to believing there is a God.

Let’s assume for the moment that God does not exist. Well evil and suffering still exist and without a God to either blame or try to figure out why he allows evil we are left with the horrible conclusion that life is horribly unfair for all of us in one way or another. After all what is the purpose of living if it is to only die shortly after we come into existence! What hope can we offer a grieving mother who has just lost her two-year-old son to cancer if there is no God? And if there is no God and an afterlife what hope do any of us have in the last analysis.    

On my personal search for meaning, I began to realize that without God I had to conclude that the existence of evil and suffering would always prevent me from finding a real purpose for existing. But yet I couldn’t understand why God, if he were all-powerful, all knowing and all good would allow evil and suffering to exist – and thus I had a horrible dilemma.

Fast forward to today, and I have now been a Christian for almost 43 years, and think I can offer some insights as to why God allows evil and suffering. I believe the key concept revolves around the word relationship. Let me explain. Before we even had a universe God existed. Since God is complete and perfect he clearly wasn’t lonely but I believe he wanted to share his awesome love and goodness with others and that’s why he created humans – he wanted relationship. So, the logical question is how could God have a relationship with us that would be two-sided where he loves us and we can love him? The only way is to make us moral agents that can exercise free will. For without free will there can be no real relationship. Loving someone is always a choice and that is exactly what God gave us – the choice to either love him or to go our own way.

And here is the dilemma God was faced with. It is not logically possible to have free will and no possibility of moral evil. And here is the keep point – God is not the creator of evil. He created the possibility of evil – people actualized that potentiality. And it is important to note that God’s permission is not the same as God’s approval.

The Bible tells us that man chose to disobey God and rebel against him. As a result, sin entered the world and with sin all kinds of evil and suffering. And because of sin the real question is not so much “Why did God allow the Holocaust?” but “Why did we?” But where does this leave us? Because of sin we have separated our relationship with God. But God loves us so much that he provided a way back into relationship with him. And God did it in a most amazing way – and that way was through God having to suffer! God allowed current suffering for a future good. God showed us how the very worst thing in history, the death of God himself on the cross, resulted in the very best thing in history – our restoration into relationship with God and eternal life with God after physical death. At Christ’s crucifixion his disciples couldn’t see how anything good could come about – but it did!

I now realize just how much God loves me and while the Holocaust was a great evil it hasn’t caused me to lose my faith in God but in mankind. And while nothing can justify the Holocaust, we do see at least one good thing which came from World War II: Israel now exists as a nation.

Today I know that there is a God because he gave me life and a relationship with him. And even when mankind went astray through sin and harmed this relationship, God worked another miracle and restored us back into that wonderful relationship. Yes, evil and suffering are here with us, but I am so grateful that God is able to help me make sense of it all. And even when I can’t make sense of a particular act of evil and suffering, I have learned to trust God that he has a reason for allowing it and a way of bringing something good from it. For me the Holocaust now helps draw me closer to God not farther away from him!