Why Does God Allow Evil?
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: Why Would A Good God Allow Moral Evil?
If an all-powerful and all-loving God really exists, why is there so much evil in the world? Why doesn’t God stop the evil we see and experience? Detective Jimmy Wallace (J. Warner’s son) tackles these questions as part of his Incarnate Investigation Video Series.
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You hear that question from atheists and agnostics a lot – why doesn't God stop evil, if He even exists? But then, when you show them evidence from the Bible that God did exactly that – destroyed the people who practiced evil – they say "what an intolerant, hateful, bigot! I would never worship a God like that!"
They don't really want a God at all. They want to be their own God.
God wants us to love Him.
He does not want us to blindly love Him (like robots) so he gave us Free Will.
The downside to Free Will is all of us will use it, at some point, to do evil (sin).
Evil is a choice made by humans, however… a point that seems to be lost on many. Humans blaming God for their own evil deeds is similar to a child blaming its parents because the child set the couch on fire.
Well… If God did not allow evil, I likely would not be here.
Evil is essential like + and –
The Bible addresses this: Rom 5 "Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;" I'm not saying I rejoice in the middle of major problems, but I can rely on the promise that they will result in perseverance & character on the other side of them.
God will allow whatever we allow. We've removed all reference to Him in the public square, so if you are surprised or disappointed, what you REALLY want is for God to control people, but probably not you.
God gave us a free will to live life as he meant us to live or to rebel. Sin is in the world because people by nature are choosing to rebel against the Holiness that is God. God sent his son to bridge the chasm our sin has caused between Him and us …but only if we repent of our sin and ask Jesus to come into our lives will we be spared from an eternal heII.
But your answer is also good 🙂
If God were to stop all evil he would have to take all mankind out of existence, I mean evil is what people do, they sin, that is why Jesus was on the cross, God loves his creation so much that he has allowed us to live so that we can have fellowship with him and his glory and honor come to light to see how good God really is. That we give him the honor he deserves, that is my understanding.
What is good and what is evil? What determines their meanings? What is the one without the other?
So that we have the opportunity to learn to love others the way Christ loves us. It's easy to love those that are good to us and hard to love those that make us suffer. By allowing evil, God is given us a chance to love evil doers and to pray for those that persecute us (He also gave people free-will so He's not taking that away). The time that God allows evil is a blink of an eye compared to the eternity He has prepared for us. In the end "‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:" If evil was never to exist, God would not have known it. If God knew good and evil, He always knew it. But He knew it as foreknowledge before it became a reality in His universe.
“Evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name ‘evil.’” – Augustine
The diminution of the property of goodness is what’s called evil. Good has substantial being; evil does not. It is like a moral hole, a nothingness that results when goodness is removed. Just as a shadow is no more than a “hole” in light, evil is a hole in goodness.
I think everyone comes to the point in their life where they ask these questions, both Christians and non-Christians alike. Isn’t it possible that God could have created man immutable in his goodness, yet still have the opportunity to freely choose in other areas? Won’t man have immutable goodness in heaven? And will he not also have freedom to choose among certain options? Why not here on earth? Couldn’t God construct man’s nature such that evil simply was not an option? God could have created such a world. Freedom in the larger sense (the ability to make choices) does not require freedom in the narrow sense (the ability to make moral choices).
Many of us miss the big picture: God would not have accomplished a second purpose. He not only wanted free creatures; He also wanted plenitude, that is, the greatest good possible. Plenitude—the highest good, the best of all possible worlds—requires more than just general freedom; it requires moral freedom, and that necessarily entails the possibility of evil.
Since all that God made is good, even those things which appear evil only appear that way because of a limited context or perspective. When viewed as a whole, that which appears to be evil ultimately contributes to the greater good.
For example, certain virtues couldn’t exist without evil: courage, mercy, forgiveness, patience, the giving of comfort, heroism, perseverance, faithfulness, self-control, long-suffering, submission and obedience, to name a few. These are not virtues in the abstract, but elements of character that can only be had by moral souls. Just as evil is a result of acts of will, so is virtue. Acts of moral choice accomplish both.
A world that had never been touched by evil would be a good place, but it wouldn’t be the best place possible. The best of all worlds would be a place where evil facilitated the development of virtues that are only able to exist where evil flourishes for a time. This would produce a world populated by souls that were refined by overcoming evil with good. The evil is momentary. The good that results is eternal.
What good comes out of a drive-by killing, someone might ask, or the death of a teenager through overdose, or a daughter’s rape, or child abuse? The answer is that a commensurate good doesn’t always come out of those individual situations, though God is certainly capable of redeeming any tragedy. Rather, the greater good results from having a world in which there is moral freedom, and moral freedom makes moral tragedies like these possible.
This observation reveals an interesting twist in this problem. If morality freely chosen can only happen in a world where evil is possible, then heaven will be a place where there will be no moral growth, where moral choices will not be possible because all the inhabitants of heaven will be immutably good. There is a type of soulish growth only available to inhabitants of a fallen world.
Two Scriptural observations lend credibility to this view. First, in recounting the great heroes of faith, the writer of Hebrews mentions that some were rescued by faith, but others endured by faith “…in order that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35). Second, Paul tells Timothy that “…godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8).
Both of these verses indicate that conditions in this life affect conditions in the next. Bearing up under evil in this life improves our resurrection in the next. Godliness in this life brings profit in the next. These benefits are not available after this life or there would be little urgency to grow now; all eternity would be left in which to catch up. It would appear that a deeper, more profound good results when virtue is won by free, moral souls struggling with evil, rather than simply granted to them as an element of their constitution.
The problem of evil is a two-edged sword. For us to know that there is evil means that there is an objective moral law. And thus a moral lawgiver.
But if we understand that there are three kinds of good: experiential, moral, and spiritual — then God can be good-willed (Benevolent) in that he wishes us to be Holy (spiritually good) and still allow experiential evil.
A carnal man is good to obtain reward and to avoid punishment;
A moral man behaves morally because he is expected to behave morally;
A holy man behaves morally because it is his nature to be good, and to be just and to be merciful and humble before God.
God does not merely want you to be happy; or even to be moral. He wants you to be holy.
God choose to have us exist knowing we would fail and revel because it was either that or not have us at all. Fortunately, his plan to redeem us was already laid out and HE paid the price
Check out the peer reviewed book The Unseen Realm by Dr Michael Heiser! Best book EVER on the ancient worldview of the biblical epic
Evil exists because God gave us choice and because we aren’t him we choose sin. We were given “communicable attributes” of God like love, creativity, sight, etc but the most important one is free will. We cannot truly love without free will BUT we are not him so we fail. He knew this. It was either make us robots or make us beings with free will and KNOW we would fail.
Great video
GOD does not put a gun in your hand to shoot someone, or puts the needle in your arm , or rapes someone,
What GOD did do was give us freedom of choice its up to us to choose , GOD created life for the same reason I had children , to share my love with , to share my experiences with, I knew before I had children that they would do wrong but that did not stop me from having them , I am there for them when they falter when they do wrong , you do punish them when they do wrong but if they listen and learn from their mistake you forgive them dont you , you love them no matter what they do ,
I know where I came from and I know why I'm here and I know where I am going, GOD BLESS,
1 Peter 5:6-10
English Standard Version
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
This life is a refinery in the Christian worldview
I needed this. Thank you 🙏
Let's get to the hard questions that I have been struggling with. Why did God allow 62 million abortions? He could have stacked the court since he puts up leaders and takes them down. Does that mean it was his will for those to die? Are we suppossed to fight to fix what God is allowing or even sanctioning? Where does natural law cease and God's providence in this world begin?