The problem of evil

Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel relates in one of his essays an experience he had when he was a prisoner in Auschwitz. A Jewish prisoner was being executed while the rest of the camp were forced to watch. As the prisoner hung on the gallows - kicking and struggling in the throes of death, refusing to die - an onlooker was heard to mutter under his breath with increasing desperation, "Where is God? Where is He?"

From out of nowhere, Wiesel says, a voice within him spoke to his own heart, saying, "Right there on the gallows, where else?"

Theologian Jurgen Moltmann, commenting on Wiesel's story, astutely observed that any other answer would have been blasphemous. Ravi Zacharias asked the question, "Is there a more concrete illustration than the death of Christ to substantiate God's presence, right in the midst of pain? He bore the brunt of the pain inflicted by the wickedness of His persecutors - and showed us the heart of God. He displayed in His own suffering what the work of God is all about in changing our hearts from evil to holiness."