Does God's plan require evil?

May 2, 2022
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Hi,
GODS Plan of Salvation does not require evil, but God turns evil around for good, like the story of Joseph who`s brothers sold into slavery to the Egyptians, Genesis chapters 33-50 from slavery to Ruler of Egypt
and the Lord suffered evil at the hands of his crucifixion, but His crucifixion brought salvation to all who believe.
Thanks and God Bless.
 
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angelsaroundme

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Without bitter, we can't comprehend sweet, without night, day has little meaning. The fullness of living requires depths as well as heights. If we picture all existence (the whole cosmos from beginning to end) without contrast it would be one dimensional, formless, in a way, a non-existence, an endless sleep where one does not dream.
 
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Sparagmos

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Without bitter, we can't comprehend sweet, without night, day has little meaning. The fullness of living requires depths as well as heights. If we picture all existence (the whole cosmos from beginning to end) without contrast it would be one dimensional, formless, in a way, a non-existence, an endless sleep where one does not dream.
Then how will we experience the fullness of living in heaven, with no contrast?
 
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I believe when we get to Heaven after the Lord as washed us of our sin, we will not know of the knowledge of Good and Evil ever again, we will be filled with the fathers peace, joy, love and living a rich and fruitful eternal life forever, praising and doing all things unto the Lords will, because it will be in our hearts to do so. Who would want the knowledge of good and evil ever again once your in paradise?
think of it this way, if you lived in a different century where there was no supermarkets, unless one popped out of thin air, you would never know they ever existed. God Bless
 
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timothyu

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It's like starting out as kids being cared for (in the Garden), then we lose our innocence realizing the realities of the world and struggle for years amid the hypocrisies, then hopefully providing we have saved enough proper currency cashable only in the Kingdom, we can retire, once again cared for as in youth.
 
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Sparagmos

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Time in heaven is contrasted by our time living here.
Then we could have simply experienced suffering for the first part of our lives if we only need contrast as a reference point. Instead some suffer horribly their whole lives, and some suffer far more than others. It doesn’t make sense.
 
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angelsaroundme

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Then we could have simply experienced suffering for the first part of our lives if we only need contrast as a reference point. Instead some suffer horribly their whole lives, and some suffer far more than others. It doesn’t make sense.
In past times the majority of Christians believed in purgatory. That was part of how they viewed the balance of the scales.

Another possibility is that people experience heaven differently. Those who have suffered greatly could enjoy it more, like how food tastes better to those who are starving.

Someone who had many trials here could have an incredible peace and joy in heaven beyond words, while a person who was reasonably happy wouldn't have as much of a gap between their earthly life and heaven.

This is just me throwing ideas out there. I don't have all the answers.
 
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Lukaris

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I do not believe God had evil in His plan of creation since it says repeatedly in Genesis 1 that He considered His creation as good. Perhaps, & I only say “perhaps” because I better not speak for God, in some aspects there is an experiment in creation & which must be allowed to act itself out.

Surely, the plan of salvation is to overcome evil ( a major part of our Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-14). Everything is from God & all of our hope of redemption is of God ( see Colossians 1 ).
 
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Sparagmos

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In past times the majority of Christians believed in purgatory. That was part of how they viewed the balance of the scales.

Another possibility is that people experience heaven differently. Those who have suffered greatly could enjoy it more, like how food tastes better to those who are starving.

Someone who had many trials here could have an incredible peace and joy in heaven beyond words, while a person who was reasonably happy wouldn't have as much of a gap between their earthly life and heaven.

This is just me throwing ideas out there. I don't have all the answers.
God could just make the food taste great for everyone without having to suffer tremendously to enjoy it though. If one person can enjoy heaven without having to experience the death of their children or a lifetime of of struggle, starvation, and war then what is the need for that level of suffering?
 
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timothyu

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then what is the need for that level of suffering?
Precisely God's point. It is us who create it through our abuse of the knowledge. A knowledge previously known ... 'And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:"
 
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aiki

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Does God's plan require evil?

Require it? No. Unavoidably entail it? Yes.

God didn't embark on His creation of the universe and you and I determined that evil should be a vital part of what He made, providing a dualistic "darkness makes the light shine brighter" sort of effect. God is perfect, without the dualistic light/dark quality many Christians think is necessary to existence. "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all," the apostle John wrote (1 John 1:5). His perfection does not require the presence of evil, of darkness, within Himself; He is not perfect because He possesses a properly-balanced measure of light and darkness in His nature, but because darkness is entirely absent from Him. What, then, of this dualistic idea that Light and Dark are necessary balancing forces within His Creation, that Good must be balanced with Evil?

When God first created our World, there was no moral evil in it, none of the corruption of wickedness fouling the World with disease, violence, spiritual separation from Himself and our much-abbreviated life-spans. Why, if Light requires Darkness, did God not infuse His Creation with it from the start?

What is evident from the nature of our World is that in such a world populated by free moral agents, able to love God and so, necessarily, also able to hate Him, it is not possible that everyone will freely choose to love Him. If such a world were possible, it stands to reason that God would, being the good God that He is, have instantiated such a world. Instead, He made our sin-cursed world, a world in which, out of all possible worlds, the maximum number of people freely choose to love Him.

So, God did not institute moral evil into our world as a necessary ingredient that He wanted to be present in it. Instead, God made a world of free moral agents in which evil could not be avoided.
 
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