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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The Bible describes God as holy (Isaiah 6:3), righteous (Psalm 7:11), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and sovereign (Daniel 4:17-25). These attributes tell us the following about God: (1) God is capable o...
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Singapore Moses
✿ God's purpose in allowing EVIL to continue: 1. To develop character and faith in the believer (Jas. 1:12; 1Pet. 1:7-13; 5:8-9 2Pet. 1:4-9 Jude 1:20-24) 2. To keep the believer humble (2Cor. 12:7) 3. To provide a conflict for saints that they may be rewarded through overcoming (1Jn. 2:13; 4:1-6 Rev. 2:7,11,17,26-28; 3:5,12,21) 4. To demonstrate the power of God over the power of Satan (Mk. 16:17-20 2Cor. 4:7-11 Eph. 2:7; 3:10) 5. To use him in afflicting people to bring them to repentance (1Cor. 5:1-6 2Cor. 2:5-11 Job 33:14-30) 6. To purge man of all possibility of falling in the eternal future (Rev. 21)
Joe Murphy
They used to make a doll that when you pulled the string in it's back it would say, "I love you mommy." The doll didn't really 'love' anything. It was just programmed to say that. When God made mankind, he didn't want to simply pre-program them to love Him, He wanted them to love Him of their own free will. But free will (genuine volition) only occurs when a person has the ability to not only love someone but also to reject them. So God created man with a genuine free will. This was very important to him. He didn't want to create a race of robots that had no choice but to love Him. He wanted to create a race of beings that had the ability to choose or to choose otherwise. By doing this He allowed the potential for evil. He saw fit, in His great wisdom, to regard mankind's free will more important than the evil it had the potential to create. He did this because He knew that without genuine free will there would be no such thing as genuine love. Forced love is not love at all. Forced love is, by definition, rape; and God is not a cosmic rapist. That is why God allows evil. That is the basic philosophical reasoning of it. There is much more that could be said but I hope and pray that helps to begin with.
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
Why did God allow the destruction of my livelihood? Why did God allow the death of my children? Why did God allow disease to strike me and that I suffer greatly? We wanted to ask God these questions, yet we do not hear a voice respond. One man, though, asked God these questions and was lucky enough to get God to respond. His name was Job. Job's friends push him at an extent, "You must have done something evil that God punished you." But Job knew he was blameless, and he pleaded God for an explanation. God responds to Job and his friends, opening his speech with the famous words, "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me." God begins to describe in great detail the designs of the universe. Job was mind-blown. After God's reply, Job is overwhelmed and says, "I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth." I submit to you this: Job asked God why He allows evil, God responded. Even so, we still couldn't comprehend the answer. Our mind simply cannot comprehend God.
Marilyn Smith
God doesn't allow evil he gives us a choice to choose between good and evil. That's the choice he gave Adam in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-16). God doesn't allow evil so the question I would ask is why did he give us a choice? The answer is because he is a God of love and he is more concerned about a relationship with us not controlling us. We as believers make wrong choices and allow evil in our lives.
Billy P Eldred
Let me start this answer by saying that I always enjoy Mr. Houdman's answers. He answers these questions the way they shall be answered. BIBLICALLY, or at least the way he sees the answer Biblically. Others do as well. Why then do I even add an answer? Because I hope that a personal insight that I believe might help some reader to understand the question and relate in a personal way. That being said, here is my opinion. What do you give someone who has everything? For whatever you give, for it to have value, it needs to be personal. Right? If God wanted something, could He not speak the words and have it? When He created us, He could have created us to do everything perfectly. But let me ask you this: Which would you rather have, a robot that said he loved you and told you how great you are, or a child that truly loved you? And which would you rather have, a mate who chose you because you were the only one available, or one who chose you because they picked you versus the alternatives? GOD could have created us anyway he wanted. I believe He chose this way because He created us to Love Him and He wanted us to have a choice. Good verses evil. True love verses forced love. He did this knowing that to do so would necessitate Jesus having to die on the cross to save us. What a loving God!
Jennifer Rothnie
Supporter
God does not allow evil. The definition of allow is to 'give permission for or legally permit'; 'to grant something to a person as a right'; 'to permit via neglect or oversight'; to 'deliberately set apart time or opportunity for', 'to approve or sanction'. Allow implies granting or conceding a right to do something, or at least the complete absence of intent to hinder something. It is clear from scripture that God does not legally permit evil (Psa 34:15-16, Prov 8:13, Amos 5:15, Psa 45:7), he does not treat evil as a right or necessity (James 1:13, Psa 97:10), he does not permit evil via oversight or neglect (Job 34:21, Psa 33:12-15, John 7:7), he does not deliberately make opportunity for evil to occur (James 1:13-15), and He does not approve or sanction evil (Jer 7:30-31, I Pet 3:10-12). In fact, God -forbids- evil, hates it, does not permit it, punishes it, and asks us all to turn from it; the exact opposite of allowance. (I Pet 3:9, Rom 12:9-17, Prov 8:13, Jer 25:5, Isa 1:16, Rom 6:15-17, Psa 26:5, Prov 24:19-20, etc). By one man, Adam, sin entered the world. With sin came death for all men. (Rom 5:12). Even the physical world was subject to bondage (Rom 8:18-24) Yet before Adam had even been created, God had set in motion His eternal plan to bring eternal life and righteousness through Christ and liberate creation. (Rom 5:12-19, Rev 13:8, Rom 8:18-30, Heb 1:1-4, Heb 9:23-28). The eternal plan revolves around redemption in Christ, not around God stopping men from doing evil or punishing evil immediately. This does not mean God allows evil in these instances; far from it; but that in grace He has postponed judgement. This is due to God's character traits of forbearance, long-suffering, and mercy. God, in patient endurance, may delay judgment for the sake of man that man might have time to repent. (Rom 4:3-5, II Pet 3:9-15). We see an example of this patience in I Pet 3:20, where God patiently waited an extra 120 years (Gen 6:3) to being judgement upon a wicked world (Gen 6:5-8). Only Noah and his family entered the ark and were spared (Gen 6:8-22, Gen 7:1-23). The ark is a picture of how Christ covers our sins as an atoning sacrifice, sparing us from the wrath of God, and how we are raised with Christ by His Resurrection (I Pet 2:30-22, Rom 8:10-11, Luke 12:49-50). When people use the phrase 'God allows evil', they are probably wondering why God does not immediately punish evil, or prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. After all, it stands to reason that an omniscient and omnipotent God would certainly have the power to stop evil, and a benevolent God would not wish evil to happen. It is true that God has the power to stop evil, and that He does not wish evil to happen. That is why He sent Christ - to put an end to sin and death (Rom 6:5-22, Dan 9:24, Heb 9:11-27, Luke 12:49-50). If God prevented evil from ever happening, there would be no need for Christ to have come to redeem us, and no eternal life with Christ. We could speculate that perhaps we all would be living in an Earthly paradise in Eden, eating of the tree of life and physically living forever, and perhaps even able to talk with God as Adam did. From an earthly perspective, that seems pleasant. Yet, there would be no indwelling Holy Spirit, no personal relationship with Christ, no familial relationship as children of God, and God would not dwell with us. Our comprehension of blessings and joy would be far less, for we would have no comprehension of suffering or evil. As we would be prevented from ever making a choice outside of God's will, our personalities would be stilted and there would be no growth nor conforming to the image of Christ. How much greater we can love when we have been forgiven (Luke 7:47), and how much greater our joy when a hope is fulfilled (Tit 2:11-14, Rom 15:4-13)! Despite evil in the world, we know that "our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Rom 8:18
Wilfrid Friedrich Nietzsche
According to me, Isaiah was clear about what he claimed in (Is 45:7) (God "creating" "evil" & "darkness". He specified the word "CREATED". Can't be any more clearer than that! Can't by-pass his word's written black on white! Can we? Paul confirms this verse of Isaiah by saying to the congregation of Rome : "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience." (Rm 13:1-5) This is why Jesus says : “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s..." (Mk 12:17) Even if those Elites-rulers of the world are ABUSIVE in their authority-power (given to them by God Himself) in this "Jungle of God", where "All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt." (Ec 8:9). If God is "omniscient" (allknowing) & knew in advance that Adam-Eve & Lucifer would've disobeyed; why would God still create man with animals where only the "strong" (predator) survives or take's the "power" in this "jungle" (creation of God)?
David Sutton
We as a people are evil because we are free moral agents. We have the ability to do as we please as individuals. We can be evil and God will judge accordingly. Or we can be Christians and be judged accordingly. It's our choice. God has given us a choice. If you know God you will love God. We can't blame God for the evil of this age.
Helena Jones
Why doesn't God take direct and personal action against wicked individuals? In response to the above question, which was merged with this question: I believe God sometimes does take direct action personally against wicked individuals today, we have to see the process of punishment or God's wrath from the beginning stages to end. Such as King Pharaoh when he refused to let the Israelite's go. God directly punished him and his people through various persecutions, before their final destruction of the Red Sea. We have other biblical stories that reveals how many battles do belong to the Lord, that man does not fight, but God fight for us. In sharing a personal story, I have a family member who in his early stages of committing crimes was warned by God. God is a just God there is always fair warning. After being warned and given a glimpse of what would happen to him if he didn't discontinue his destructive path, God turned his hand against this family member of mine. Where his own crimes led to his destruction, still God had warned him that if he didn't stop then even his own mother, who loved him more than her own life, would turn against him. He laughed at God, disbelieving, knowing how much his mother loved him, and he renounced God and turned to the Prince of Darkness, continuing on with his criminal acts. God is not a liar. Now this family member's mother, who him more than her own life, has turned against him and is working with the rulers and authorities of this world to bring about justice. God directly caused this.
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