Evidence · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
Paul’s letter to the Romans on creation groaning
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Paul writes that creation itself was “subjected to futility” and now groans as it waits to be set free. The brokenness in the biblical picture is not limited to human hearts. It reaches into the natural order, which is why believers do not expect the present world to run smoothly.
Sources
Romans 8:20-22, NASB
Objections & responses
- Blaming earthquakes and cancer on human sin is scientifically absurd, since plate tectonics predate humans, and morally grotesque, since it tells a child with leukemia that Adam did it.
Care is needed here, because natural evil was caused by the fall is one Christian view, not the only one, and it is the view most exposed to this objection. Romans 8 says creation was subjected to futility by God in hope, which many read as meaning the natural order was made provisional and awaiting completion, not that tectonic plates were rearranged in 4000 BC. What Scripture does not do is present natural suffering as God’s final intention or as individually deserved: Jesus explicitly denies that in Luke 13 and John 9. Not God’s final intention and caused by Adam are different claims, and only the first is made here.