Why did God allow Genghis Khan?

mindlight said:

True and following the travel accounts of Marco Polo the Venetian and Genoan traders made a lot of money from the trade routes that opened up. Unfortunately they also spread black death when it came down the silk road in Asia. Such accounts and trade became a major inspiration for the age of discovery and allowed Christianity to go global and not just in the weak and diluted Nestorian forms that had already permeated across Asia.

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mindlight said:

In the context of the Asia of the time who was the righteous man, comparable to Job, who was being tested? There are some long term strategic benefits to the Mongol expansion. There is also a considerable amount of judgment on Muslims and pagans especially. But if this was about testing the church how come most of them in Asia remained heretic Nestorians after this testing and were then wiped out by Tamerlane in the next century.

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mindlight said:

after the Mongol empire broke up there was a catastrophic persecution of Christians by Muslims

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Ignatius the Kiwi said:

If I were to give a divine reason for God's allowing it to happen, perhaps the Mongols were allowed to flourish (for a brief time) to counteract the forces of Islam and give Christians somewhat a relief from the attacks of Muslims. Yet the Mongols did have an effect on Christian Kingdoms, notably eastern ones like Kievan Rus, Georgia, Hungary and Poland. I personally am not sure why God allowed those countries to be invaded.

The Mongol remnant state of the Golden Horde dominated the Russian princes and gave them an enemy to eventually unite against and defeat. That Russian State would eventually conquer the Gold Horde and displace it. Kievan Rus' collapse allowed the Lithuanians to capture much of territory and when it was united to Poland in a union it became a powerful Kingdom in Europe.

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James A said:

I think it is very important to know the difference between physical evil and moral evil. God uses physical evil (e.g. flood at Noah's time) Himself. Suffering from physical evil does not make us unworthy to inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact, many believers experience God closely during the time of suffering.

It is the moral evil (sin) which God cannot be part of in any degree by definition - sin is defined as the privation of good while God is all good.

It is also important to note that physical evil is a "thing" while sin is a state - state of corrupted good.

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The Liturgist said:

I am not entirely sure I could call the Flood or other natural “disasters” physical evil; rather they seem to me to be an integral aspect of God’s creation, which is perfect and beautiful. There are natural things which can through dangers they pose cause loss of life or injury, but this is not evil, but rather a function of the created world.

Evil is rather, from what I have read of the Fathers, a rejection of God. Evil is not created, nor is it uncreated; it is rather destructive and uncreatable. The devil in rejecting God, Adam and Eve in succumbing to temptation, and we in all of our myriad perversions engage in destructive and self-destructive acts, and these are evil, whereas God is infinitely good and loving.

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mindlight said:

Assuming God is Sovereign and Almighty the greatest conqueror in history was not just an accident.

So why did God allow Genghis Khan?

Some reasons I have been considering:

1) To establish freedom of religion in much of Eurasia
2) cause of his meritocratic approach to governance
3) To open up silk road from East so that Christendom could become aware of larger world than European Christendom, but also so that judgments like Black Death could pass down it
4) as a rebuke to Chinese racial supremacy attitudes in Song Dynasty
5) As a direct judgment on eurasian pagan tribes that were massacred by Mongols and to clear way for later Christian Russian expansion
6) As a threat reduction to Christendom by massacres of Muslims and force reductions in Muslim world following failure of crusades and diminishment of Byzantine empire

Any ideas?

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mindlight said:

Assuming God is Sovereign and Almighty the greatest conqueror in history was not just an accident.

So why did God allow Genghis Khan?

Some reasons I have been considering:

1) To establish freedom of religion in much of Eurasia
2) cause of his meritocratic approach to governance
3) To open up silk road from East so that Christendom could become aware of larger world than European Christendom, but also so that judgments like Black Death could pass down it
4) as a rebuke to Chinese racial supremacy attitudes in Song Dynasty
5) As a direct judgment on eurasian pagan tribes that were massacred by Mongols and to clear way for later Christian Russian expansion
6) As a threat reduction to Christendom by massacres of Muslims and force reductions in Muslim world following failure of crusades and diminishment of Byzantine empire

Any ideas?

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mindlight said:

That leaves you open to the view that God Himself actively perpetrated various acts of evil by the Mongols. Allowed works better with scripture.

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