Teaching The Tragedies of History Like Scripture Does – Part One

When Sin, Sorrow and Death Entered History

“If God is good, why does He allow evil and suffering?”

Evil and suffering are realities that students of history will cringe over, time and time again. Our hearts truly should go out in compassion to secular historians; they see no hope and no redemption in the endless tale of human woe and depravity. Humanistic education simply can’t take that much meaninglessness. Is it any wonder that history is a subject both teacher and student loathe?

Yet even Christians can get this question wrong if we do not start with a biblical teaching of history. Thankfully, Scripture offers not only the answer, but also a model for how to cope with difficult parts of history when teaching it to our children.

God Is Good

There is no “if” about it; if the Creation account isn’t enough to convince us of God’s goodness, His intention for mankind should. God created man in His own image. In fact, the biblical account says, “our” image, referring to the Trinity. Just as the three persons of the Trinity fellowship in perfect love and harmony, God intended His relationship with man to also be one of perfect love and harmony. Because the Bible promises that God does not change, we can know that that has been, and always will be, His greatest intention for mankind.

So what happened? The answer is stated for us in Genesis 3.

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5).

Why is there evil in the world? Because Adam and Eve sinned. They stopped believing in the good will and truthfulness of God, embracing, instead, knowledge gained unlawfully. Once they broke God’s law, the walls went up and the darkness of their sin broke fellowship with the Light of the World.

Kenzi Knapp is a follower of Christ, homeschool graduate and student of history. A fourth generation Missourian she enjoys writing about daily life enrolled in Gods great course of faith and His story throughout the ages at her blog, Honey Rock Hills.