Consider the 4 attributes of GOD, Omnipotent (all powerful) Omnipresent, (is every where at every time) Omniscient, (all knowing) and eternal which means was there from beginning and will be there forever.
With these great attributes of God, its hard to imagine how evil ever came to be, that is as we know it to be. Most people believe that evil (devil) is an arch RIVAL of good (God). Such a believe is illogical when you consider an all powerful God, all knowing and perfect God. Which means everything he does is PERFECT with not even a slight error. We (esp. Christian) believe that devil was God creature. Then again we say that this creature rebelled against his maker! Check this out,what was made with PERFECTION turned to be IMPERFECT and rebelled against his designer. (rebellion is no doubt an imperfection) Such a believe is not only illogical but means that God made an error in his creation-which is not possible! Even men never quarrel with their tools! We forget that nothing surprises God cause he knows the future. U cant impress God by being too righteous, he made u that way! According to an Omniscient God FREE WILL doesn't exist.
So how did this creature 'turned against' God? The ONLY logical explanation is that everything was God's plan. God designed both good and evil, he is above all, rules over everything. The devil is not a rival of GOD but a creature working according to how it was designd to work.
My argument is evident in the bible, we can see this when God sent an evil spirit 2 deceive Saul (1 Sam 16:23), also when demons asks permission God 2 test Jobs faith. Then their is this part in 2 Samuel chapter 24, where God 'incites' David to take census, but the repetition of the same event in 1 Chronicles 21:1 says, 'Satan caused David...' Which means that God can use Satan to fulfill his wishes.
This evidence clearly shows that presence of evil in the world is part of Gods design to balance things in nature...just the way he created light n darkness, pain n pleasure, flowers n thorns, birds n snakes, butterflies n scorpions,....
And if God absolutely had nothing to do with evil, then why call him God?
God reveals himself in the contradiction and the protest of Christ’s passion to be against all that is exalted and beautiful and good, all that the dehumanized man seeks for himself and therefore perverts. So God here is not known through his works in reality, but through his sufferings in the passiveness of faith, which allows God to work on it: killing in order to make alive, judging in order to set free. So his knowledge is achieved not by the guiding thread of analogies from earth to heaven, but on the contrary, through contradiction, sorrow and suffering. To know God means to endure God. To know God in the cross of Christ is a crucifying form of knowledge, because it shatters everything to which a man can build, both his works and his knowledge of reality, and precisely in so doing sets him free. Moltmann, Jürgen – The Crucified God [Fortress 1974 p. 212]
The one who knows God in the lowliness, weakness and dying of Christ does not know him in the dreamed-of exaltation and divinity of the man who seeks God, but in the humanity which he has abandoned, rejected and despised. And that brings to nothing his dreamed-of equality with God, which has dehumanized him, and restores to him his humanity, which the true God made his own. Moltmann, Jürgen – The Crucified God [Fortress 1974 p. 213]
Finally, a God who is only omnipotent is in himself an incomplete being, for he cannot experience helplessness and powerlessness. Omnipotence can indeed be longed for and worshipped by helpless men, but omnipotence is never loved; it is only feared. What sort of being, then , would be a God who was only ‘almighty’? He would be a being without experience, a being without destiny and a being loved by no one. Moltmann, Jürgen – The Crucified God [Fortress 1974 p. 223]
God reveals himself in the contradiction and the protest of Christ’s passion to be against all that is exalted and beautiful and good, all that the dehumanized man seeks for himself and therefore perverts. So God here is not known through his works in reality, but through his sufferings in the passiveness of faith, which allows God to work on it: killing in order to make alive, judging in order to set free. So his knowledge is achieved not by the guiding thread of analogies from earth to heaven, but on the contrary, through contradiction, sorrow and suffering. To know God means to endure God. To know God in the cross of Christ is a crucifying form of knowledge, because it shatters everything to which a man can build, both his works and his knowledge of reality, and precisely in so doing sets him free. Moltmann, Jürgen – The Crucified God [Fortress 1974 p. 212]
The one who knows God in the lowliness, weakness and dying of Christ does not know him in the dreamed-of exaltation and divinity of the man who seeks God, but in the humanity which he has abandoned, rejected and despised. And that brings to nothing his dreamed-of equality with God, which has dehumanized him, and restores to him his humanity, which the true God made his own. Moltmann, Jürgen – The Crucified God [Fortress 1974 p. 213]
Finally, a God who is only omnipotent is in himself an incomplete being, for he cannot experience helplessness and powerlessness. Omnipotence can indeed be longed for and worshipped by helpless men, but omnipotence is never loved; it is only feared. What sort of being, then , would be a God who was only ‘almighty’? He would be a being without experience, a being without destiny and a being loved by no one. Moltmann, Jürgen – The Crucified God [Fortress 1974 p. 223]
It may have escaped your notice but this site is for the purpose of personal discussion and debate between patrons which may include quotes of other people but may not consist exclusively of nothing but quotes of other people?! If you continue to hide behind quotes of other people without also contributing personal comment on the subject(s) at hand then I shall report you for violating the spirit if not the letter of the site?!
You have been warned.
Simonline.
__________________ THE MESSIAH IS ONEPERSON SIMULTANEOUSLY EXISTING IN TWO (DISTINCT BUT NOT SEPARATE) WAYS AS TWO (MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE) NATURES - DIVINE [YHWH] AND HUMAN [JESUS OF NAZARETH]. THE MESSIAH EXISTS FIRST AND FOREMOST AS THE DIVINE CREATOR AND ONLY IN A SECONDARY SENSE AS THE HUMAN CREATURE.
first of all....Evil is a relationship...so it can't be created.
__________________ "So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen."- 2 Timothy 2:10
first of all....Evil is a relationship...so it can't be created.
Evil, good, sin, righteousness: All of these are states of the heart. They are not "things" that are created, born, inherited, etc.
__________________ “Atonement is, properly, an arrangement by which the literal infliction of the penalty due to sin may be avoided; it is something which may be substituted in the place of punishment. It is that which will answer the same end secured by the literal infliction of the penalty of the law… The atonement is the governmental provision for the forgiveness of sins, providing man meets the conditions of repentance and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Unless I'm missing something here, when God is speaking to Cyrus in Isaiah 45, the text flat out says He created good and evil, light and darkness, triumph and tragedy (depends on your translation) and "there is none other than Me" and "I alone do all these things." Seems pretty cut and dried that God did CREATE evil and sin for some reason. I don't know why, but it would appear He saw a need for it. Perhaps so we could choose for ourselves which course to choose? That would be a Calvinism debate I suppose...
Unless I'm missing something here, when God is speaking to Cyrus in Isaiah 45, the text flat out says He created good and evil, light and darkness, triumph and tragedy (depends on your translation) and "there is none other than Me" and "I alone do all these things." Seems pretty cut and dried that God did CREATE evil and sin for some reason. I don't know why, but it would appear He saw a need for it. Perhaps so we could choose for ourselves which course to choose? That would be a Calvinism debate I suppose...
Take care and God bless!
Scripture clearly tells us when God created everything, it was "very good" Scripture is replete with the fact that he is not the author of evil. "God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." God is light, in Him there is NO darkness. "God is not the author of confusion"
yes, that's a verse a lot of people seem to trip over. But the new american tarnslation gives us a better sense of that verse. "I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity" In other words, he creates the judgement for those that are wicked. That we can't deny, it's all over the Bible.
Evil is not from God, it's from the fallen creature. As someone mentioned, Sin is not some "Thing." It is simply a lack of moral perfection. From the perfect standard of God.
After all this though, I just want to say, God did ordain evil. Yes, he allowed it, and it was part of his eternal decree. In other words, it did not catch him by surprise. Everything God ordains is in the end, for his Glory. And every evil in the world will ultimately in the end, work together for God's Glorious purpose.
hope that helps ^^
__________________ .
“Saving Faith lives in a broken heart. Always grows in a heart humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience"
I program a robot to murder. I am the killer, not the robot.
I am a prison guard. I let a rapist go free, who goes and rapes and kills many women and children. Am I innocent of this? Especially if I knew this was going to happen?
Outline of Biblical Usage
adj 1) bad, evil a) bad, disagreeable, malignant b) bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery) c) evil, displeasing d) bad (of its kind - land, water, etc) e) bad (of value) f) worse than, worst (comparison) g) sad, unhappy h) evil (hurtful) i) bad, unkind (vicious in disposition) j) bad, evil, wicked (ethically) 1) in general, of persons, of thoughts 2) deeds, actions
n m 2) evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity a) evil, distress, adversity b) evil, injury, wrong c) evil (ethical)
n f 3) evil, misery, distress, injury a) evil, misery, distress b) evil, injury, wrong c) evil (ethical)
Many people say this is just natural disasters. They are changing the Bible into what they want it to be, and even if what they said was true... then God still is directly responsible for all the evil which is not the result of man.
__________________
.
..:
If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh.
The past is dead. It was all just a dream...
- Magus
To help protect the sanctity of marriage, please keep all affairs heterosexual.
Engineers, the infantry of every industrial revolution, do not spontaneously generate. They are trained out of the bad habits developed by the craftsmen that preceded them.
I program a robot to murder. I am the killer, not the robot.
I am a prison guard. I let a rapist go free, who goes and rapes and kills many women and children. Am I innocent of this? Especially if I knew this was going to happen?
Outline of Biblical Usage
adj 1) bad, evil a) bad, disagreeable, malignant b) bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery) c) evil, displeasing d) bad (of its kind - land, water, etc) e) bad (of value) f) worse than, worst (comparison) g) sad, unhappy h) evil (hurtful) i) bad, unkind (vicious in disposition) j) bad, evil, wicked (ethically) 1) in general, of persons, of thoughts 2) deeds, actions
n m 2) evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity a) evil, distress, adversity b) evil, injury, wrong c) evil (ethical)
n f 3) evil, misery, distress, injury a) evil, misery, distress b) evil, injury, wrong c) evil (ethical)
Many people say this is just natural disasters. They are changing the Bible into what they want it to be, and even if what they said was true... then God still is directly responsible for all the evil which is not the result of man.
__________________
.
..:
If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh.
The past is dead. It was all just a dream...
- Magus
To help protect the sanctity of marriage, please keep all affairs heterosexual.
Engineers, the infantry of every industrial revolution, do not spontaneously generate. They are trained out of the bad habits developed by the craftsmen that preceded them.