Book Review: If God, Why Evil?

If God, Why Evil? (2011) is a short treatise on evil by Norman Geisler, one of the leading apologetics authors active today.  Geisler has a way of writing in a straightforward way.  He omits the fluff.  He states the problem and he answers it. 

In the introduction to the book, Geisler suggests that one of the most frequent challenges offered to Christians deals with the question of "if there is a God, why is their evil?" In this book, Geisler attempts to address this problem clearly, concisely, comprehensively, correctly, and in a comforting way (p. 10).  He accomplishes this by addressing several common questions in simple terms, which he then restates in the form of syllogisms.  Then he answers the syllogisms. 

For example, in chapter 5 on "the purpose of evil", he states the problem as: "there seems to be no apparent purpose to some evil." The syllogism is then stated:

1) An all-good God must have a good purpose for everything
2) But there is no good purpose for some suffering
3) Hence there cannot be an all-good God.

In other words: if A, then B. A, therefore B.

He challenges the second premise of this syllogism by stating the following "it should not be expected that we know the purpose for everything" (Deuteronomy 29:29) and "an infinitely good Mind knows a good purpose for everything." There are things that seem, for a time, to be purposeless, yet in the longer term, their purposes become apparent.

The book is indeed short and concise and, in that regard, is much different than Randy Alcorn's encyclopedic treatment of the same issue in If God is Good.  It utilizes philosophical propositions, but is not a difficult read.  It is certainly worth spending an afternoon or two interacting with this book.