Responding To Tony Pearce Concerning Habakkuk And The Issue Of Why God Permits Evil To Prevail At Times

 


Tony Pearce, the author of the item, Why Doesn’t God Stop All the Trouble in the World? incorrectly states that Habakkuk was questioning as to why God would allow a heathen nation to prevail over a godly nation, [1] but that is not what Habakkuk initially brings before God.  Habakkuk did not think his own respective nation was godly at all but starts out by crying out to God saying:
 
 
 
“O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save!  Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?  For spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
 
Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth (Hab. 1:2-4)
 
 
 
 
The opening passages to Habakkuk’s prophecy is talking about the evil of his own people.
 
The Lord then declares to Habakkuk that He is about to punish the evil of the land by bringing against them the Babylonians:
 
 
 
I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.  They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. 
 
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. 
 
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.  And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust and take it.  Then shall his mind change and he shall pass over, and offend, putting this his power unto his god. (Hab. 1:6-11)
 
 
 
Habakkuk could not understand why God would use evil to punish evil as it seemed to be in violation of God’s character but he still remained confident in the character and justice of God and that evil would not prevail forever.
 
I will, however, grant to Pearce that Habakkuk does later ask why the wicked are allowed to prevail over those who are less evil than they are (Hab. 1:13) but contextually, this did not specifically pertain to the Babylonians prevailing over, conquering, and taking captive the people of Israel, but in a general sense, why this would happen at all in any case as Habakkuk probably witnessed evil members of his own people prevailing over those less wicked than they and even over those he might have seen as being righteous.
 
But Pearce gets it wrong again when in claiming that Habakkuk gives the answer as to why evil sometimes prevails over the good [2] when Habakkuk declares of God “you have appointed them for judgment . . . You have marked them for correction” (Hab. 1:12) because in this context, Habakkuk is not claiming that God appoints the good for correction or judgment, but only the wicked for correction and judgment but does that mean that God does not subject those who are generally good and godly to chastisement and even judgment? No, not at all, because we know that king David, who was called a man after God’s own heart, after committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband Uriah killed in order to cover up the deed, would later be chastised of God by wicked members of his own house.
 
There are also a number of examples of godly kings who were also subject to chastisement when they fell into disobedience.  Another notable example of a good man facing chastisement at the hands of the wicked was Samson when he allowed his hair to be cut by Delilah which resulted in him losing his God-given strength and being captured by the Philistines who gouged out his eyes.
 
But then again, there are righteous and godly people who fall by the hand of the wicked and who are subject to severe loss and suffering that we think only evil people should be subject to even though it does not seem that they’ve done anything wrong.
 
Even the Psalmist asked the question as to why the wicked seemingly prevailed against the righteous and yet still knew that the wicked would not prevail forever (Ps. 73) and in fact, if one carefully reads and even studies the Psalms, they will discover that the Psalmist is often confronted with the issue of the wicked prevailing over the good at times.
 
Job, a man of righteousness who lived an impeccable life did not know why God allowed him to be subjugated to such catastrophic loss and misery for a period of time but we are not promised a life free of hardship, pain, grief, misery, and sorrow, or evil, but what God does promise us is that He will work out all things, including the evil, for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28) but just because God may turn an evil act into a greater good, that does not mean that evil will not be held accountable or that those who commit acts of evil will remain unpunished because a day is coming when all evil will be held accountable and receive its final sentence and be no more because in the new and better world to come, evil will have no place because a world with evil was not what God initially intended to begin with. 
 
When God created the world, He created it to be a place in which only goodness dwelt because He had created all things to be good and in the world He had initially created there was nothing but goodness in it until the day that evil crept into the world in the form of a serpent and who deceived the first man Adam and the first woman Eve, who was Adam’s wife, into committing a fateful and astronomically consequential act that would plunge the world that God had made from the state of goodness that He created it in into the fallen and corruptible state that it presently is in now and the evil that crept into the world in the form of a serpent was a certain angelic being named Lucifer who had once served as a covering cherub at the throne of God before he became so lifted up in pride that he thought he could make himself equal to God which led him and all who sided with him to be cast from their respective positions in Heaven (Is. 14:11-21, Ezek. 28:12-19) and it was in that day that Lucifer had become known as Satan or the Devil and after being cast from his high position in Heaven, sought to accomplish on the earth what he could not accomplish in Heaven and by way of false assurances and deceit (Gen. 3:4-5) led the first man Adam and his wife Eve to do the one thing that they were warned of God not to do and that was the eating of a fruit from a certain tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, having been warned that in the day that they ate thereof, they would surely die. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3)
 
Adam and Eve were given the same choice that every single person who has ever lived and is living today is given a choice between:
 
 
 
Life or death
Good or evil
Light or darkness
Truth or falsehood
Wisdom or foolishness
Holiness or sinfulness
Purity or corruption
Righteousness or unrighteousness
Order or chaos
Liberty or oppression
Angels or demons
God or Satan
Heaven or Hell
Salvation or damnation.
 
 
 
And it came in the form of two trees and two voices.  The tree of life which would have enabled them to live forever (Gen. 3:22) and the voice of God which would have led them into all truth and into all of the wisdom and knowledge that they might have been given or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the voice of the serpent with deceitful assurances and promises of greater things than what Adam and Eve already had been given and tragically, Adam and Eve chose to listen to the voice of the serpent thinking that they would receive wisdom, knowledge, and greatness that they did not already have if they would only eat of the fruit forbidden to them but instead of receiving the wisdom and knowledge that they were hoping for, they only received the knowledge of the shame that came upon their nakedness (Gen. 3:7) when they had eaten the forbidden fruit and instead of attaining to a superior state, they were reduced to a state inferior to the one in which they were created and the sentence of death came upon them, just as they had been warned, (Gen. 3:19) and to which they eventually succumbed, but the consequences of that act of disobedience did not stop with Adam and Eve, but extended to all of mankind because the sin that entered into Adam and Eve when they had eaten of that fruit forbidden to them was then passed down to all of mankind because it is from Adam and Eve that all of mankind descend and since we are all descendants of mankind, we have inherited from them an inwardly corrupt condition in our nature which the Bible calls sin (Rom. 5:12) and it is this inherently corrupt condition that causes us to sin every day and not only in our actions or in what we say but even in our minds and hearts because sin is not merely an act done or even ill-spoken words, but it is a condition that influences even our thoughts, motives, and attitudes which is why we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) which is sinlessness, why it is written that we are not defiled by that which is from without, but by that which is from within (Mt. 15:11, 18-20), and it is by sin that death entered into the world through the transgression of Adam and Eve and the reason why we all die, for as it is also written, the wage of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and it is also the reason why all of creation groans and travails in pain to this day (Rom. 8:19-22) for it is because of sin that not only death has entered into the world but it is also the reason why the entire creation is subject to every kind, degree, and severity of evil, pain, suffering, hardship, grief, sorrow, and turmoil because sin taints, corrupts, perverts, and defiles everything that it touches and there is not one thing on this earth that sin has not touched but not only did the disobedience of Adam and Eve bring sin, death, and suffering into the world, but it also gave Satan who tempted them into the transgression justification in claiming lordship over the nation, kingdoms, empires, and people of the earth (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 4:6-7) which is why he is called the prince of this world (Jn. 12:31, 16:11) and through sin and death does he reign and through sin and death does he steal, kill, and destroy. (Jn. 10:10)
 
Tony Pearce seems to overlook in his article that the prevalence of the increasing evil in the world is a universal consequence of one act of disobedience committed by one man and one woman and it is a consequence of their actions that did not affect just them but all of creation and all of mankind to this day.
 
He also errantly and pessimistically states “we have to live in a world in which evil often triumphs over the good; and we have to learn how to live with it” [2] but nowhere in the Bible does it ever say we just live with it.  We have a moral duty to expose, confront, and do whatever it takes to minimize evil as much as we can.  Granted that we will never be able to rid a fallen world of evil entirely when humanity is inherently evil itself but there is a lot that can be done to minimize the presence of evil and if it seems as though evil is prevailing more often than it should, it is because those who claim to be on the side of what is good are not doing enough to stop it because we are either too apathetic, complacent or cowardly to do so and it is through the complacency, apathy, and cowardice of those who have the power to contain evil but refuse to do so that evil prevails best.
 
If every good person was willing to do all that it takes to defeat evil, we would see a lot less of it and we would see the presence of sin and wickedness in the world diminished and if there is a reason why the day of judgment against evil is delayed, it is because God is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) because God takes no pleasure in punishment and destruction.  He has no desire to see any soul cast in eternal damnation, not even the wicked, but would rather that all people would turn from their evil ways and pursue after righteousness because the Lord God is a God of love and mercy and it is in His love and in His mercy that He sent Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son (Jn. 3:16) to come into the world to take away the sins of the world and it was by His death and the shedding of His sinless blood upon the cross that redemption was purchased and it was because He Himself was without sin (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15) that He was able to take upon Himself the demanded penalty for all in on our behalf and after having purchased in His death our redemption, He was raised again for our justification (Rom. 4:25) that in Him by our faith in Him, we would be presented justified in the sight of God the Father if we will call upon the name of our Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of sins. (Rom. 10:13)
 
And it is the redemption of our souls that we receive in us an inward transformation (2 Cor. 5:17) that causes us to no longer desire to follow after selfish and worldly pursuits but after those things that pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven,
to no longer take pleasure in those things that are evil and displeasing in the sight of the Lord, but in that which is good, right, and pleasing in His sight,
to no longer desire to walk in the lies of this present world, but only in the truth that comes from Christ Almighty who is the source of all truth, (Jn. 14:6)
no longer placing our hopes in the things of this present world, but looking forward to that new and better world to come, (Rev. 21-22)
to no longer rely on worldly resources, men, or even our own power, abilities, skills, and wisdom for our needs and provision but upon God who is able to meet all of our needs, recognizing that the resources of this world and even the people He brings into our lives are but instruments and vessels through which God meets our needs and that the skills, power, knowledge, and wisdom by which we might acquire our provision are provided and instilled in us by God, (Mt. 6:25-33)
to no longer fear what men can do to us, but rather fearing the God before whom we will have to one day give an account for how we lived our lives, (Mt. 10:28)
to no longer look to corruptible institutions within our society for direction and order in our lives but to God who, by His written Word has given us laws and precepts to be applied to our lives and which serve to produce and maintain an ordered life, and who, by His Holy Spirit which comes to dwell within us upon repentance, establishes in our lives a course and direction in our lives to pursue for His glory,
to no longer seek our own glory but the glory of God,
to no longer rally behind corruptible men, but instead behind the incorruptible God in Heaven bearing in mind that those men and women God raises up for our edification are but instruments and servants of His for that respective purpose to which He has called them,
to no longer seek to align ourselves with the things of darkness but only with the things of the light,
to no longer trust in the wisdom of the world but only on the wisdom and knowledge that comes from above, (Jas. 1:5) nor depend on corruptible earthly authorities to swiftly administer justice, but only in the power of God to deliver us from evil.
 
And if all were willing to turn from their wicked, perverse, selfish, and sinful ways and call upon the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins in sincere repentance, we would all be amazed to see how much evil and darkness in this world would be diminished and as said before, each person has a choice between the following:
 
 
 
Life or death
Good or evil
Light or darkness
Truth or falsehood
Wisdom or foolishness
Holiness or sinfulness
Purity or corruption
Righteousness or unrighteousness
Order or chaos
Liberty or oppression
Angels or demons
God or Satan
Heaven or Hell
Salvation or damnation.
 
 
 
And if we want to see more goodness in the world and less evil, that requires each and every one of us to be a force for good and not evil and becoming a force for good does not begin with just a change in our behavior and even in what we say, but it begins with an inward change and an inward cleansing of the soul which is made possible only in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior and if you are one who would rather be on the side of good instead of evil and if you have not done so already, would you this day call upon the name of our Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of sins.  Will you submit yourself to His authority and commit yourself to His service? It is only a sincere prayer of repentance away:
 
 
 
"Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen."
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1.  Tony Pearce, “Why Doesn’t God Stop All the Trouble in the World?”
Lighthouse Trails Research, September 7, 2026
https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/why-doesnt-god-stop-all-the-trouble-in-the-world-2/
 
2.  Ibid.
 
3.  Ibid.
 
 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
 
1.  Habakkuk 1:2-4
 
2.  Habakkuk 1:6-11
 
3.  Habakkuk 1:13
 
4.  Habakkuk 1:12
 
5.  Psalm 73
 
6.  Job
 
8.  Isaiah 14:11-21, Ezekiel 28:12-19
 
9.  Genesis 3:4-5
 
10.  Genesis 2:16-17, 3:3
 
11.  Genesis 3:22
 
12.  Genesis 3:7
 
13.  Genesis 3:19
 
14.  Romans 5:12
 
15.  Matthew 15:11, 18-20
 
16.  Romans 3:23
 
17.  Romans 6:23
 
18.  Romans 8:19-22
 
12.  Matthew 4:8-9, Luke 4:6-7
 
13.  John 12:31, 16:11
 
14.  John 10:10
 
15.  2 Peter 3:9
 
16.  John 3:16
 
17.  Romans 10:13
 
18.  2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15
 
19.  Romans 4:25
 
20.  Romans 10:13
 
21.  2 Corinthians 5:17
 
22.  Revelation 21-22
 
23.  Matthew 6:25-33
 
24.  Matthew 10:28
 
25.  James 1:5

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