God creates evil...

Avid

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I see your, explanation is clarifying. I see that the word evil could have meant something different back then. But we should be careful because most people see the word as wickedness today.
We need to depend on God's word to explain His character, purpose and methods.

Amos 3
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

Maybe you can offer scripture to prove your points.
 
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Avid

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But the word had been redefined to mean something else today. The world is full of lost people who view evil as wickedness. Languages evolve and so we need to be more concerned with maintaining the meaning than the words.
Maybe that is the whole problem.

The Bible says if we believe in Christ, we may be saved. It does not seem to matter to people that the word, "believe" is considered now to mean we stop arguing against something, because we run out of excuses to refuse it. That is not the same as trusting ones very soul and existence to a person they never saw. That does not mean to put our whole future into the hands of one that we have heard about. Is giving mental assent to a concept the same as trusting your life to it?

A fellow says he can push a wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls on a cable, and you say, "OK, I can believe that." If you really believe it, you must be in the wheelbarrow while he does it!

What does the word, believe, mean to you?
 
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Avid

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From a sermon more than 50 years ago...

How God Gets A Sinner To Know He Is LOST
by Rolfe Barnard

http://www.achristianspirit.com/SinnerLost.html

I remember this teacher (it was pitiful how "dumb" he was when I was going to school under him, but he improved a lot after I got out.) He really did, and I have been sitting at his feet for twenty odd years since I got out of school. The things that he would try to pound into my dumb head then, twenty years later, I'd find out what he was talking about. And the memory of many of his statements, stays with me; one of which I want to use to introduce the message tonight.

He used to say, "Young gentlemen, you can't find out the meaning of a word in the Bible by consulting a dictionary." He said, "Words mean what they mean in the Bible, not what the dictionary says they mean." He used to repeat that over and over again, "Words mean what they mean in the Bible, not what the dictionary says they mean." That word that we have before us tonight means what it means in the Bible. It doesn't mean what we think it does or what the dictionary says it does. What does it mean to be LOST? What does it mean to be LOST?

We should apply this concept to everything we try to learn from scripture.
 
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Avid

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... God did not create evil...
This is what the LORD says in His precious word:

Isaiah 45
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Amos 3
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

We should be more careful to understand His word and say these things as He does, rather than bending to the ever-changing world.
 
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John Robie

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God allowed evil because with out evil there is no free will, so God allowed it but evil remains to go against God, God did not create evil, He never forced anyone to god against Him. He allowed evil, so there could be free will
I guess there means there will be no free will in heaven.
 
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Steeno7

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God, our LORD, creates evil, as well as everything else. What do you think of that?

Isaiah 45
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

I have opinions, and will allow others to post before I put in my 2¢ worth!

Natural disasters are not moral evil. And, in context, that is what it is speaking about.
 
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Steeno7

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No. The one you are trying to explain away.

Rah” doesn't have to be translated as “evil”, and in this instance it definitely shouldn’t be. That’s why different Bibles translate this verse differently. It is translated as "calamity" by the NASB and NKJV; "disaster" by the NIV; and "woe" by the RSV.

Contextually the verse is speaking of natural phenomena and human distress, not moral evil.
 
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John Robie

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Rah” doesn't have to be translated as “evil”, and in this instance it definitely shouldn’t be. That’s why different Bibles translate this verse differently. It is translated as "calamity" by the NASB and NKJV; "disaster" by the NIV; and "woe" by the RSV.

Contextually the verse is speaking of natural phenomena and human distress, not moral evil.
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
2 "I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.
8 "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. - Isaiah 45:1-8

Nothing about natural disaster.
 
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Steeno7

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1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
2 "I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.
8 "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. - Isaiah 45:1-8

Nothing about natural disaster.

Bolded above, natural phenomena. Underlined above, human wellness and natural disasters, distress.
 
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John Robie

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Bolded above, natural phenomena. Underlined above, human wellness and natural disasters, distress.
The rising of the sun and darkness are not natural disasters. Nor is leveling exalted places, though He could choose to use a disaster to do so.
 
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