If He is powerful enough to stop wrongdoing, then He Himself must be an evil God since He’s not doing anything about it even though He has the capability. In all of His doings, God is just (Psalm 145:17). before Him in love’ (Ephesians 1), it means it was God’s purpose for man to possess the knowledge of good & evil, as having a nature that instinctively loves good and hates evil. The good news is that although this is not the best world, it is the best way to the best possible world. God and Evil If God is such a nice guy, why is there so much misery and suffering in the world? At the first human sin in the Garden of Eden, God allowed Adam and Eve to break His law, yet this did not make God evil or sinful as a result. This was realized in a wondrous way by God in the death and resurrection of Christ. God could force everyone to stop before they were able to carry out evil behavior. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. The majority of mankind have joined Satan in rejecting God as their Ruler. Drawing on her book ‘Why? Once you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you enter into the master plan that God has for you. We have a situation where a large population of our nation’s churches have declared that what Jesus said was evil in his sight, is now good. The world was not designed with evil in mind and the believer has a real basis for fighting social ills. This does not argue against Christianity, but instead proves the point that there is something very wrong with human nature as it now is. But couldn’t God have created a world without evil? The authorities that exist have been established by God (Romans 13:1). Atheists, skeptics and other critics of Christianity often argue against God on the basis of the reality of evil and suffering. Why God Permits Evil “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: ... His chief concern was to know why God permitted him to be afflicted with such bitter experiences, and throughout his book we find evidences of his search for this understanding. So if God eternally purposed ‘that we should be holy . Love can't simply be programmed into it, as behaviors are coded into software. Lewis wrote, “Meanwhile, where is God? Christian thinker Augustine defined evil not as a thing in and of itself, but as a parasite on good. But if God created evil, why can't He destroy it? Evil will eventually be destroyed. Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1977. customerservice@josh.org  |  866.252.5424  |  972.907.1000 x114  |  Donations: 972.907.1000 x126. Unfortunately, when some people choose the path of evil, others may suffer as a result. Plantinga, Alvin. What is God’s will in this matter? As a result, we live in a fallen world, east of Eden. … he sets up kings and deposes them (Daniel 2:21). It is within His sovereign plan to allow it to have its place. Christians have a justification for fighting evil, immorality and corruption. For this being to make that love its own, its action of loving has to come, in a very real sense, from itself. Martin, Walter. Why do good people sometimes suffer terribly while evil people live lives of ease? Dorothy Sayers put the problem of evil in the proper perspective: “For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. God is permitting man's present experience with evil to teach him the exceeding sinfulness of sin. His sons used to go and hold … their choice, they brought evil into the world. This choice made the possibility of evil become very real. Couldn’t there be less suffering? Skip to primary content. Why would a good God allow the Holocaust, genocide, racism, terrorism, etc? "For GOD so Love the world that He agve His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but shall have and everlasting life." God did not create evil. Among all of the Slavic deities, none was more feared than Crnobog. So which is it? Recommended pieces that explore difficult questions by our RZIM apologists. God and evil - the classic battle in the movies. Jesus said in John 15:13 "greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friend." God knows best and, as such, He knows that our world is the best way to the best possible world. A Good God? He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. The world was not designed with evil in mind and the believer has a real basis for fighting social ills. Why does God allow evil people to hurt others? Genesis 1:31. Yet God looked within Job’s heart and saw that he was perfect and upright, and that he feared God and shunned evil. God is neither evil nor did He create evil. Copyright 2009 Robert Velarde. God will right every wrong and put away evil once for all, in His time. Yes, there will be evil and suffering along the way. One resolution to the problem of evil is that God is not good. God is the author of good, but we make moral choices that result in evil. Second, God can permit evil without being evil. Despite the presence of evil, millions today do believe that God is both good and all-powerful. In conclusion, God … Why God Permits Evil. 1 The problem of evil, when stated like this, arises for believers if and only if they affirm that God is wholly good and all powerful at the same time. God Allows Evil to Exist but He Doesn't Allow it to Win. Sharon Dirckx of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics discusses the problem of suffering with Hannah Timson, head of Humanist Students UK. What if God created a world where people could not choose? Myth: It’s wrong to ask why God allowed the Holocaust. For instance, if you have a hole in your jacket, the hole is not something, but rather is something that is lacking. Sh. Isn't there a possible functioning world where natural evils are avoided and only moral evils are permitted? 2. They have abused their "free will" power. “Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?” (Jeremiah 15:18, RSV). Why doesn’t He do something about it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. This podcast talks about evil as a PRINCIPLE vs. … There will come a day when God “will wipe every tear from” our eyes and, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things” will pass away (Revelation 21:4). Monotheistic religions Christianity The Biblical God is NOT pro-life, he advocates child murder, infanticide, child abuse and abortion. God does not create evil since it is not a thing to be created. As we noted earlier, there’s a difference between moral and natural evil. Even though sin is real, it is not something that the believer accepts as the way things ought to be. Evil Bible .com. Why does God allow evil? Why Evil was Permitted—Right and Wrong as Principles—The Moral Sense—God Permitted Evil, and will Overrule it for Good—God not the Author of Sin—Adam’s Trial not a Farce—His Temptation Severe—He Sinned Wilfully—The Penalty of Sin not Unjust, nor Too Severe—The Wisdom, Love and Justice Displayed in Condemning All in Adam—God’s Law Universal. But is nothing better than something? The blame for the Holocaust lies squarely on the shoulders of sinful humanity. God is the author of good, but we make moral choices that result in evil. 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