The Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil

James 1:13-14

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."

Therefore, God is not the author of evil.

If God hardened Pharaoh, myself or Peter to cause us to be unbelieving, then God would still be perfectly good, because He is the Source of all knowledge of any goodness (even the superlative thoughts of a humble child), so that we don’t know how to imagine anything more good than He is. That's the bigger issue with all this.

If a single person, after being called by Christ, calls back to Him, that means that evil human beings can be saved by calling on Christ, which takes away any thought that God made Lucifer become Satan due to the way God made him or that God makes humans not go to Him due to our sinful state. Christ's lack of call on some is based on His Father's foreknowing. The reason Father does this is not evil as is supposed by those who connect His choice to some filthy thing they think.

Suffering is the natural outcome of our evil.  Suffering's application in moral development is a secondary usage. The primary good that comes from suffering is not our moral development, but the good that proves that God is glorious, which is proven by the good that He is mercifully giving us (wherever goodness is found), because the nature of evil is to consume all reality; so, wherever good is found, it is added to that place by God in this evil World.  The fact that life exists here is evidence that God is standing against the evil.  God does not apply evil to us in order to make us better, He takes us in our state of being affected by evil and turns it to goodness when He decides to, but, if He does not, we are merely experiencing our default state.

God loves us even though we are THIS sinful.  His love is great.  He is glorified by His reaction to our evil.  The nature of evil is explained to us by its natural outcomes of pain.

Satan's freedom of action to make offensive wars is his way of doing whatever he wants in order to be like God.  God is allowing all manner of evil, even by ensuring there is time and other structural supports for the evil in this Universe, and He is doing it to prove to Satan that the power and wisdom of God is beyond whatever that former angel could produce with all latitude of possible motion within the boundaries of that Universe that he knew (with all the Universe's supports of time and structure).

That's why there's evil in the world even though God is good.

Christians, don't do what Satan did.  Have your freedom away from sin and not in arbitrary motions that hurt.

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