"If God destroyed all evil at 12:00, where would you be at 12:01?" This thought provoking question responds to the so-called "problem" of evil, where skeptics contend that if God is all knowing, all loving, and all powerful, evil could not exist, and since it does, God cannot exist.
The answer/s to this apparent dilemma is older than the question itself. Man has not spent a single moment since our fall from Eden outside the love of God. For that reason, God has a motive not to destroy us as soon as we sin.
When atheists complain about evil, it's important to note that they're using a different definition of evil than God would use. The true definition of evil is anything that's against God's will, but an atheist would define evil as anything that's against his own desires. Every atheist has something in his mind that he considers good, but God would consider evil. Sexual immorality is the most common, especially in today's world. Ultimately, God and man have very different ideas about how reality should work. What that means is that atheists, and indeed all human beings, are evil. Even I, as a Christian, have evil thoughts, some of which lead to evil deeds. None quite as bad as Nazi Germany, thankfully, but enough to fall short of the glory of God. So, why doesn't God destroy evil? The answer is that in order to be a permanent solution, God would have to destroy all evil.
The most noteworthy judgement in all of history is the Noahic flood. God literally destroyed the entire world in a flood, leaving alive only Noah, those on the ark with Noah, and of course everything that was able to survive the flood (like whales). Yet, here we are. Evil bounced back. Mankind didn't learn our lesson. Therefore, a permanent fix involves a perfect fix. Not just destroying the worst of the worst, but destroying even the little tiny fragments of evil living in the hearts of the righteous. That means every promiscuous inclination. That means every violent tendency. That means every spark of gluttony. That means every last blasphemous thought. All of that, according to Habakkuk 1:13, is too evil for God to even look at. So where does that leave our atheist friends at 12:01? With no cross to save them, it leaves them where God does not want to send them, and where they do not want to go: Hell.
In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter tells us that God isn't slow, as we consider it, but is patient, because He doesn't want even one person to be lost. If He destroys all evil today, that's a huge number of people who can't be redeemed tomorrow. The atheist, therefore, needs to shift his perspective. Rather than asking why God won't destroy evil right now, which would involve destroying him, he should repent and be saved so he need not be destroyed.