For more information, read God’s Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe (http://amzn.to/2kAroVD)
READ:
Is the Problem of Evil Really a Problem for Christianity?
In this brief excerpt from J. Warner Wallace’s talk on the Problem of Evil (excerpted from his book, God’s Crime Scene), J. Warner discusses one of seven reasons why an all-powerful, all-loving God might still allow an act of evil to occur. Evil is always measured and evaluated in the context of one’s life and experience, but what if our understanding and definition of life is inaccurate? How does the reality of eternal life change the “problem of evil”?
Watch the entire presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe2_-rdg84aljC_hiUo0M61gaMdaJoNth
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Some good thoughts here, but there is more. Just as life does not end at death, it also did not begin at birth. These two verses from the Bible, and a little logic demonstrate that:
1. Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
This shows that Jeremiah lived before he was born. That is true for all mankind, as evidenced in the following verse:
2. John 9:1-2 "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Implied in the question is the ability to sin before being born, which would not be possible without existing before being born. In the answer that Jesus gave, he did not say anything against the belief in the possibility of sinning before birth, nor of existing before birth. Instead he said that the man in question was not born blind because of sinning before he was born, and he was not born blind due to sins committed by his parents. Thus Jesus did not refute, but rather left standing the doctrine that the disciples believed that there is an existence before birth, and that it is possible to sin before birth.
I love Jim but let me tell you right now eternity is no consolation considering the atrocities that can be endured in this world
The video makes a great point against the existence of Hell.
After all, if all the evils mankind can do are insignificant in the grand scheme of things to the point God wouldn't pay attention to them, then punishing them no longer makes sense.
Even if you think of Hell as a separation from God, it just means that the punishment is the same for all crimes.
Punishing or rewarding finite actions with anything infinite is the exact opposite of justice.
This changes everything when viewed in the proper context of Christianity
"To those who hold to the "divine hiddenness" argument, a thought: what if God has made himself obvious, but the problem of evil, one of it's most "evil" aspects, is deception? I.e, it's not God making himself "hidden", it's Satan and those rebellious to the light, and God is allowing such evil, in order to show just how repugnant evil is.
Would God make himself obvious, in order for people to make a choice? It would seem he would desire that.
Would Satan do the same? It would seem that he is not fond of the light, rather seeks to keep things carnal, to murky the waters.
Would we want to see the light? It seems people also chase after their carnal desires, yet for Christians it is something they fight(do a little mafia) Is there a fake light soon-coming? It's already here("science", "human rights", "pride", "progressivism"), and once in full fruition, perhaps the "prince of darkness" will attempt to be king?
Anyho perhaps this sounds slightly insane, but there's my two thenth.