Grace and Truth: The Problem of Evil and Suffering

Many skeptics disregard Christianity based on the existence of evil and suffering in the world. Consider the argument offered by Epicurus: He suggests that, if God is willing to defeat evil but not able, then he is not omnipotent.  Further, if God is able to defeat evil, but is not willing, then he is not good.  This leads to real the question, if God is both willing and able to defeat evil why doesn’t He stop evil? The problem is, this argument makes the questionable assumption that there are no morally valid reasons why God would allow evil and suffering to exist.