God permits evil because we need to know

[timothyu]

It was necessary to know evil because without it we would all be naive.

Yet that knowledge got us booted out of the Garden and into this world where good and evil always co-existed. We were never meant to be here.

 

[Yesha]

I was thinking about God and the question of why does God permit evil since no one would permit evil if they had the power to stop it. But I think that the answer isn't as simple as having the power to stop evil and then just stopping it. What if there is value in evil? What if we have to know evil because otherwise we would spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good we are experiencing. Maybe we just needed to know. It's like having an itch that must be scratched even at the risk of a scar. Maybe experiencing evil is worth knowing. What if we enter the next life grateful we know evil and no longer have to experience it again. Maybe that knowledge was necessary for us to be happy and whole. Wouldn't you want your children to know evil? And if so then maybe we shouldn't question God for allowing evil.

You're asking thoughtful questions. The Bible tells us that God's highest aim is his own glory.

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. - Isaiah 48:9-11 (ESV)

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. - Romans 11:36 (ESV)​

On the fall of man and of sin, the Westminster Confession states:

OUR first parents being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory. - WCF 6.1​

How so?

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? - Romans 9:22-24 (ESV)​

I think this is one of the hardest Biblical teachings for us to understand: that God uses sin, yet is not the author of sin, to glorify himself.

 

[Jaxxi]

I was thinking about God and the question of why does God permit evil since no one would permit evil if they had the power to stop it. But I think that the answer isn't as simple as having the power to stop evil and then just stopping it. What if there is value in evil? What if we have to know evil because otherwise we would spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good we are experiencing. Maybe we just needed to know. It's like having an itch that must be scratched even at the risk of a scar. Maybe experiencing evil is worth knowing. What if we enter the next life grateful we know evil and no longer have to experience it again. Maybe that knowledge was necessary for us to be happy and whole. Wouldn't you want your children to know evil? And if so then maybe we shouldn't question God for allowing evil.

God allows evil because we create it and have free will. We have sinned and are worthy of it, bringing so much of it onto ourselves. It would be different if we were all kind, God loving, innocent beautiful souls but we aren't. Many of the most beautiful ( outwardly by human standards) people are actually the most disgusting ugliest people( on the inside) who have clearly missed the point. People with fake beauty and plastic surgery are an insult to Gods creation and needing validation from lustful men is atrocious. Greedy evil people who are power hungry for the material things of the world is so ugly to God and its everywhere. We cannot change it. We already know how it ends. At this point we wait for things to go from bad to worse to unbearable to fulfill prophesy so Jesus can return.

 

[timothyu]

We cannot change it. We already know how it ends. At this point we wait for things to go from bad to worse to unbearable to fulfill prophesy so Jesus can return.

Exactly. And that is one transition God won't have to worry about.

 

[childeye 2]

For God to eliminate evil he would need to eliminate freewill, Does anyone want that?

A free will does eliminate evil. Think about it, we learn about evil to loathe it, not to get to choose it. Who would desire to be able to choose evil?

 

[timothyu]

Who would desire to be able to choose evil?

Anyone who seeks gain at the expense of another.

 

[ImAllLikeOkWaitWat]

Who would desire to be able to choose evil?

Someone who has never experienced it.

 

[mlepfitjw]

Darkness could not exist without light. Men loved darkness more than the light. God created evil; God created men who decided that darkness was better than light. Contrasting darkness and light. God created men, and men choose between walking in darkness, or walking the light.

Is this why evil is existing because of what God created?

 

[ImAllLikeOkWaitWat]

Is this why evil is existing because of what God created?

I think evil is a natural product of existence. I don't think it's something that has to be created for it to exist. If you allow people free choices to do what they want, then naturally some of these decisions will be evil. Evil does have a purpose of developing ones character, inner resolve and strength. Also it allows us to enter the next life where there is no evil without having to wonder what evil is because we experienced it first hand in this life. Imagine being born in a world where there is no evil. You would eventually want to know what it is and the only way to know what it is to experience it. So getting it out the way in this life beats any other solution I know of.

 

[Marc Perry]

I was thinking about God and the question of why does God permit evil since no one would permit evil if they had the power to stop it. But I think that the answer isn't as simple as having the power to stop evil and then just stopping it. What if there is value in evil? What if we have to know evil because otherwise we would spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good we are experiencing. Maybe we just needed to know. It's like having an itch that must be scratched even at the risk of a scar. Maybe experiencing evil is worth knowing. What if we enter the next life grateful we know evil and no longer have to experience it again. Maybe that knowledge was necessary for us to be happy and whole. Wouldn't you want your children to know evil? And if so then maybe we shouldn't question God for allowing evil.

This plays right into the no predestination, predestination, or double predestination topic. Basically, the first says that God has chosen himself not to know in order to preserve free will. The second says that God knows who will be good, but not bad. The third says God knows everything, therefore he knows who will go to hell. Yet he creates them anyway. If you want to defend the third one, then yeah, knowledge seems to be the best argument.

 

[mlepfitjw]

I think evil is a natural product of existence. I don't think it's something that has to be created for it to exist. If you allow people free choices to do what they want, then naturally some of these decisions will be evil. Evil does have a purpose of developing ones character, inner resolve and strength. Also it allows us to enter the next life where there is no evil without having to wonder what evil is because we experienced it first hand in this life. Imagine being born in a world where there is no evil. You would eventually want to know what it is and the only way to know what it is to experience it. So getting it out the way in this life beats any other solution I know of.

@ImAllLikeOkWaitWat Thank you for your thoughts, you are very good with critical thinking. Evil does have a way of working itself around for Good in a sense in an individuals life, when they finally observe their doings.

Some unfortunately end up finding this out with a lifetime prison sentence living in the prison system of america, and other countries.

 

[chad kincham]

I was thinking about God and the question of why does God permit evil since no one would permit evil if they had the power to stop it. But I think that the answer isn't as simple as having the power to stop evil and then just stopping it. What if there is value in evil? What if we have to know evil because otherwise we would spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good we are experiencing. Maybe we just needed to know. It's like having an itch that must be scratched even at the risk of a scar. Maybe experiencing evil is worth knowing. What if we enter the next life grateful we know evil and no longer have to experience it again. Maybe that knowledge was necessary for us to be happy and whole. Wouldn't you want your children to know evil? And if so then maybe we shouldn't question God for allowing evil.

There’s evil in the world until Jesus returns, because God legally gave Adam the title deed to the earth when He gave him complete dominion over the earth, and Adam transferred dominion to Satan when he fell.

That’s why satan is called the god of this world, and why it was a temptation for Jesus when he offered Him all the kingdom’s of this world because “they’ve been delivered unto me”.

Adam is who delivered the world to the devil.

The last Adam takes it back when He returns.

Life in this world can be hell on earth, because the devil is legally free to roam around as a roaring lion, seeking to devour, and to be the thief that can steal, kill, and destroy, for now.

Only Christians legally leave satans kingdom of darkness, and are translated into the kingdom of Christ.

Shalom

 

[chad kincham]

Adam and Eve had only knowledge of Good before they chose evil; the devil had to introduce the concept of evil to them as something to be desired, because they knew nothing of sickness, poverty, slavery, destruction, death, etc. - they knew only Good...

Except the tree was the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and evil.

It appears that they knew neither what good or bad was.

Shalom.

 

[chad kincham]

There’s evil in the world until Jesus returns, because God legally gave Adam the title deed to the world when He gave him complete dominion over the earth, and Adam transferred dominion to Satan when he fell.

That’s why satan is called the god of this world, and why it was a temptation for Jesus when he offered Him all the kingdom’s of this world because “they’ve been delivered unto me”.

Adam is who delivered the world to the devil.

The last Adam takes it back when He returns.

Life in this world can be hell on earth, because the devil is legally free to roam around as a roaring lion, seeking to devour, and to be the thief that can steal, kill, and destroy, for now.

Only Christians legally leave satans kingdom of darkness, and are translated into the kingdom of Christ.

Shalom.

 

[Aussie Pete]

I was thinking about God and the question of why does God permit evil since no one would permit evil if they had the power to stop it. But I think that the answer isn't as simple as having the power to stop evil and then just stopping it. What if there is value in evil? What if we have to know evil because otherwise we would spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good we are experiencing. Maybe we just needed to know. It's like having an itch that must be scratched even at the risk of a scar. Maybe experiencing evil is worth knowing. What if we enter the next life grateful we know evil and no longer have to experience it again. Maybe that knowledge was necessary for us to be happy and whole. Wouldn't you want your children to know evil? And if so then maybe we shouldn't question God for allowing evil.

God gave Adam and Eve complete authority over the earth and all life. That included Satan, who had been cast down to the the earth. Adam effectively handed that same authority over to Satan when Adam complied with Satan's temptation. Adam knew what he was doing. So Adam and Eve became sinners and their neutral nature was infected, so to speak, with Satan's nature. And that is how evil came to be on the earth.

God's own righteousness requires Him to let Adam's choice stand. So evil abounds. In order to rid the world of evil, God would have to destroy all life. God's love inhibits Him from that course of action. Yes, It will be beneficial to the saved to have knowledge about evil. And it allows God to manifest a part of His nature (love, mercy and grace) that otherwise would have remained unseen. Satan's plot has backfired massively. God 1 Billion, Satan nil.

 

[SANTOSO]

I was thinking about God and the question of why does God permit evil since no one would permit evil if they had the power to stop it. But I think that the answer isn't as simple as having the power to stop evil and then just stopping it. What if there is value in evil? What if we have to know evil because otherwise we would spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good we are experiencing. Maybe we just needed to know. It's like having an itch that must be scratched even at the risk of a scar. Maybe experiencing evil is worth knowing. What if we enter the next life grateful we know evil and no longer have to experience it again. Maybe that knowledge was necessary for us to be happy and whole. Wouldn't you want your children to know evil? And if so then maybe we shouldn't question God for allowing evil.

You are asking why God permits evil ?
This is what we have heard:
The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. -Proverbs 16:4

If you value evil, then you would not mind about the troubles that the Lord made for you.

You are saying that no one permit evil if they had the power to stop it.

How do you come so sure that no one would be tempted when one has the power to stop?

This is what we have heard:
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. -James 1:13
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. -James 1:14
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. -James 1:15

If you spend eternity in a happy paradise wondering about the other possibilities beyond the good you are experiencing,
I am not so sure that you are with the Lord but the possibilities that you like to comfort yourself with lies of self delusions are very high; may be many are interested to entertain with that.

But this is what we have heard:
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. -Colossians 2:8

If you think experiencing evil is worth knowing, you would mind God as your enemies.

This is what we have heard:
If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; -Psalms 7:12
He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts. -Psalms 7:13

If you think the knowledge of evil is necessary for you to be happy and whole, this is what we have heard ：

Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. -Psalms 7:14
He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls INTO THE HOLE that he has made. -Psalms 7:15
His mischief returns upon his own head, and ON HIS OWN SKULL his VIOLENCE DESCENDS. -Psalms 7:16

Are you really really considering your children to rebel against the Lord, and falls into the hole and violence descend on their head is something that makes them happy and whole?

You should really consider who speak to the wicked, that is, the evil spirit of transgressions!

As we have heard:
Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. -Psalms 36:1

What we have been told to turn away from evil, this is what have heard:

By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil. -Proverbs 16:6

 

[disciple Clint]

So that means the problem is not freewill.

I would say that the problem is freewill and pride. Man is prideful and he uses his freewill to satisfy his pride instead of doing the will of God.

 

[childeye 2]

Anyone who seeks gain at the expense of another.

Yes of course. But that only furthers my point that a free will is one that is free from sin.

 

[disciple Clint]

A free will does eliminate evil. Think about it, we learn about evil to loathe it, not to get to choose it. Who would desire to be able to choose evil?

I do not think I communicated clearly. I am saying that as long as man has freewill, he can, and some will choose evil.

 

[childeye 2]

Someone who has never experienced it.

Good point. However my post was a response in the context of already having experienced it.