Why does God allow evil to exist on Earth?

Yes, he did know.

World War Ii was something to be hit against human beings, to show how stupid they can be. The killing of those babies was horrible, and it was done by men. God, who is all powerful, sits back and watches how stupid we can be, and thinks, "I created them to do good, but they've turned away. Let's see how they'll react to the consequences they will face."

What goes around, comes around.

loudatheist101 said:

Well God should have saved those beyond innocent infants from that sufferning pain. And, if God plans things, and if He is all powerful, He should've known this would happen before it actually did.

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I for one am glad God created us with the ability to love and that required the ability to be unloving.

First be sure that the bible says that God creates evil, not men , not Satan :-

Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil ...

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

Thus the prophets of the one true God of scripture state that evil is created by God, not anyone else, just God ...

Thus we find even Satan has to ask God before pursuing tempting mankind [as in Job] and mankind is MOVED to do evil by evil spirit FROM God :-

Judges 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit ...

1 Samuel 16:23 And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul

Now God cannot BE evil because evil is locked in time and God is timeless, but God can create evil SEPARATE from Himself in our space-time reality ...

Thus God by knowing all things has to KNOW evil, and by knowing it He has created it in His 'imagination'... so we are God's imagining of what it would be like to experience evil , a sort of 'virtual reality' as far as God is concerned because the spirit cannot change since it is without time... thus even change ,which is the basis of what we call life, is unreal to God, simply an imagining ...

Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not ...

So when men escape time to be as one with God in the 'third heaven' by translation after perfection of love in trial of given faith , then there is no evil and no good, adifferent kind of life altogether in the spirit, all is one, no individuals, no conciousness, no selves , no choices ... timelessness of the spirit is very unfamiliar to us ...

God then simply has to know good and evil, and in knowing evil He creates this world and men to do evil, Satan to tempt men to do evil... He also creates the new earth where men are GOOD and loving to each other , that is yet another virtual reality which most men enter at the second resurrection having been freed from sin in death :-

2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.[lovingness in the kingdom COME , most men in perfect obedience to Jesus' command to love , just as most men are SINNERS in theis earth and so MUST die]

Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

You take it too literally.

For him to create evil doesn't mean he creates a human for its purpose to be an evil dictator or such. To look between the lines, God creates the choice to be evil.

Why would such a loving God create something so horrible?

Red530 said:

Yes, he did know.

World War Ii was something to be hit against human beings, to show how stupid they can be.

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It´s interesting how someone at a certain points in the discussion escapes to the use of passive tense. Who did it, who wanted to show something by doing it, to whom de he want to show it?

The killing of those babies was horrible, and it was done by men. God, who is all powerful, sits back and watches how stupid we can be, and thinks, "I created them to do good, but they've turned away. Let's see how they'll react to the consequences they will face."

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It´s always great to meet a person who knows what god thinks!
Except that your alleged omnisicient god and his alleged "let´s see what will happen" are not reconcilable.

What goes around, comes around.

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I fail to see what this commonplace is supposed to tell me in this context.

Yes, you have met me, in which I believe I know what God thinks. Hell, you know how God thinks as well. You believe he has faulty for letting so much evil. I think you're wrong, you think I'm wrong. So good, we're even.

I take back the whole WWII idea, really, after contemplating, I was in a horrible state when I typed it. You probably don't believe me.

WWII was done by human, logically, because of hate and prejudice. God did not CREATE it, but let it happen.

How can you control something from doing bad? You can't have a baby doing good all the time, since a baby has to steal. You tell the baby not to steal and you punish it.
Humans kill, and after they kill, something always comes back to them. That is life. This is why I typed, "What comes around, goes around."

obviously God allows evil to exist on the earth because he is evil.

No, he's not evil. He's justice.

Read my "baby parable" again. ~_^

God allowed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It's either because he wanted the prophecy to be fulfilled or to let his creation have the free will to. If someone kills me in a minute, it doesn't mean God wanted it to happen, but he wanted the murderer to have a free will instead of controlling him/her.

Dear loudatheist101, we live in an imperfect world, where evil and temptation exist unchecked. God made us in His image, Adam, and all of us who came after, ignored God`s loving advice, and listened to the Serpent`s lies, and when on Earth, instead of repenting, and listening to God`s Commandments, we moved farther and farther away from God, our Creator. In time Jesus came, He showed how God really is, and gave His life, to reconcike us to God. God wants us to say NO to all things evil, to all ungodly temptation and wrongdoing. If we follow God`s Law of Love, repent, exchange our selfish and unloving natures, for loving selflessly and caring with hearts and hands, for all around us, and accept Jesus as our Saviour, NO EVIL will be allowed to touch us. Jesus vanquished Satan and Death on Golgotha, God`s Law stands forever, and whatever we do or say, there will be consequences. Peace and Joy for His loving children, and sometimes very painful consequences for ignoring God`s advice, or even going against it. I say this humbly and lovingly, loudatheist, and send greetings. Emmy, sister in Christ.

Yes, he watches us and laughs at us. Wouldn't you think so with all the stupid decisions we've made?

God can destory evil, but if he does then how do we learn what is not to do?

Red530 said:

You take it too literally.

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How else can you take it when God says that He creates evil ?

Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil ...

Judges 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit...

1 Samuel 19:9 And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul,...

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

The mistake is to think that God is evil just because He has to have obtained knowledge of evil by 'creating' it ... God has to be all-knowing, so He has to have known evil and in knowing it He created it for us and us to experience what He cannot do directly [the spirit is timeless, it simply cannot know evil in itself , evil implies suffering and the spirit simply cannot suffer... it has no means to do so ]

For him to create evil doesn't mean he creates a human for its purpose to be an evil dictator or such.

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But yes it does, God created Satan himself [as Lucifer]and all his cohorts who make this world an evil place by being unloving , and the final antichristos will be the worst dictator that the world has ever known, but will be accepted as Christ returned by almost all men:-

Ezekiel 28:13 Thou [Lucifer, light-giver turned serpent]hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

To look between the lines, God creates the choice to be evil.

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As Paul pointed out, we imagine that we have the choice and we WANT to do good, but we do not always do good ... so it is an illusory choice because we are not free to do what we would to do :-

Romans 7:19 For the good that I would I do not:
but the evil which I would not,
that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good,
evil is present with me.

Again Paul states it explicitly , we are not free because God makes us either for honour or dishonour , His choice, not ours :-

Romans 9:21 Hath not the potter [God] power over the clay [man] , of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Why would such a loving God create something so horrible?

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Do not go into denial, observe first that He does, then seek the answer as to why :-

God simply has to KNOW, and creation is His way of knowing... God could not not know about evil, thus He created it... and we are God looking at evil, but we are projected into time and space, god is beyond time and space, its creator...

Thus our ultimate reality is timeless sirit like God, one with god, and our life as humans is merely a transient 'virtual' reality , like a dream, or an illusion , an imagining by God as-it-were ...

I have not read through 11+ pages of posts, but I would like to answer this question. Someone may have already said this.

God created man with the ability to sin the same as He created angels. I think it was harder for angels to sin because they were in God's Holy presence all of the time. Yet they did. Saying that God created evil simply means that God created the capacity for us all to be evil. He did not will for us to be that way.

Now, as far as why God continues to allow evil in the world:

God could put a stop to all evil and suffering in an instant. In order to do this, He would have to set right the chaos that we have created here. To set things right, God must judge and cleanse the world. He delays His judgement so that more people will voluntarily turn to Him and seek forgiveness prior to judgement. Suffering and Evil will end on judgement day, but so will the opportunity for salvation. It is a great mercy that God continues to delay judgement upon the world.

Lisa

Satan created himself with his free will. God was the creator of the will, and Satan chose *hint-hint for all of ya'll * to take the wrong way, therefore for God to damn him.

Lisa0315 said:

Now, as far as why God continues to allow evil in the world:

God could put a stop to all evil and suffering in an instant. In order to do this, He would have to set right the chaos that we have created here. To set things right, God must judge and cleanse the world. He delays His judgement so that more people will voluntarily turn to Him and seek forgiveness prior to judgement. Suffering and Evil will end on judgement day, but so will the opportunity for salvation. It is a great mercy that God continues to delay judgement upon the world.

Lisa

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Exactly. He grants us all respite in hope that some or most of us will repent.

If God were to punish men according to what they deserve, He would not leave on the surface of the earth one single living creature: but He gives them respite for a stated term: when their term expires, truly, (they will know that ) God has in His sight all His Servants. (Fatir, 45)

loudatheist101 said:

Umm, he can make it an instinct? No one teaches you how to breathe in air right? God can do the same with learning right from wrong.

If he does not destroy evil and the will to sin, why does he damn so many of his children. It's like a policeman watching people murder each other and the policeman doesn't do one thing to stop it. All he does is say "Well, they aren't suppost to be doing this so, I'll let it happen and burn them all forever when they're done".

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They ask you to hasten the punishment. If it were not for a stipulated term, the punishment would have come to them already. It will come upon them suddenly, when they are not expecting it. They ask you to hasten the punishment, but Hell already encircles the unbelievers. On the Day that the punishment envelops them from above and from underneath their feet, He will say: "Taste what you were doing!" (Surat al-'Ankabut, 53-55)

Why would it worry you that children are dieing unjustly, do you not know that Paradise is awaiting them?

loudatheist101 said:

Yeah right, if you simply deny the existance of this god who doesn't even bother to leave one strand of evidence of himself, you burn in hell forever. For one lifetime, you burn forever. This is if the Christain god exists, Allah, ok, so you spend a certain amount of time in hell. Or do you go to hell forever if you deny Allah? I'm not exactly sure.

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Forever. Yes, God gave you one chance, take it or leave it.