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As suggested I am starting a new thread about this because it was taking another thread off topic. I'll just quote myself here as to what I think about the whole situation.
I imagine that ***** is one who believes that God didn't create sin. I've noticed a lot of fundamentalists believe God can't be responsible for or is not capable of being all in all and isn't the Creator of everything. Even though the following scripture CLEARLY shows that He created it ALL:
Isaiah 45:6-8
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.
8 “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.
They also believe that God doesn't always get what he wants or desires, which is also not true:
2 Samuel 14:14
Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what Goddesires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.
See that? God "devises" ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from HIM!!!! Hallelujah!!
1 Timothy 2:3-5
3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
God desires it and He WILL have ALL men to be saved! So Rafius, I think I'm pretty accurate when I say that ***** will probably deny that God created evil but if we are to believe what the Bible says then a Christian cannot deny what these scriptures are saying. They can, but it's futile.
I suppose your next question would be WHY? Why did God create evil? That's a good question and I think I'll quote another poster from another thread on this one because it's a great post:
Ilene,
Good of you to open this HOT TOPIC that so many have very burning opinions about.
To my mind, both heaven and hell are within, and also without (in this world) in within our minds. Obviously,mortality itself ensures that anyone (all of us) who participate in the experience of living must experience a world of duality/opposites -- good/evil, up/down, left/right, to be/or not to be, haves and have-nots, sickness/health, etc.... In other words, to experience BEING, there must be this duality in order for the divine to manifest itself into time and space. But the notions many people have about God are rather uninformed, so much so that it doesn't take much more than reading a few books by even humorous men like Martin Zender (for example) to demonstrate how ridiculous some of our God-ideas truly are.
To see so many people suffering mentally and emotionally because of the terror-istic tactics and blindness of the religious dogma held within the strongholds of various sects is a source of profound sadness to those who have been given a vision of the vastness of hope and the breadth of God's love. Be that, as it may, the glory of BEING comes at a price - the price of experiencing terror within the heart and mind. And I think that is the way it is supposed to be (or at least, has to be).
Presently I'm in a hard place, but not as hard a place as some I've been in.
We must all find our place in the Son.
Heartsong
There's no way to really answer that question because He's God and He can do whatever He pleases. But we do know that this life is temporary and He has something much much much better awaiting us ALL after death. Some will deny that He doesn't have a plan for ALL of us, just some of us, but the scriptures speak for themselves.
If God is all loving, we can believe that God is all giving.
An unfolding perpetual giving.
In order to give, there must be something which can receive which will allow
recognition or distinguish the giving.
A person cannot give or...love someone who does not receive or need the love as a valued gesture or marked significance.
The problem is mans overall lack or non perfection which receives this giving is variable in order to distinguish the maker or creator of his being. Through choice. Allowing for appreciation in God
The "lack" to perfection being necessarily variable is taken to the limit by man in a swirling descend and in its furthermost depths becomes that of
evil or sin.
The words themselves..evil...sin, are used so much that we forget the full dimension of what were considering. They are basically in place representing an absence of ability through a disorder in attitude to being "available " for the giving. We need the giving .
If God is all loving or all giving, it wouldn't seem realistic to jump out of character at any point. Any thought of God in anything but all giving would be a mis-place in designation God figure. Like a rolling wheel. Try to consider a wheel not rolling. It becomes a stationary wheel....NOT a rolling wheel. (Not an all giving God)
The rolling wheel can only go forward. Yet it must roll. The ground it rolls on if bumpy ( a sinful person) will impede the rolling or giving....relative to recieving by the person... It continues to roll, roll, roll. Give , Give, Give.
Considering that God made evil is to ask the rolling wheel to change directions. The evil is simply a bump in the road due to mans abject dis-ordered behaviour which individually creates self caused lack of received momentum in the rolling wheel. (No recieved Gods giving equals evil , sinfullness..we cut God off when we reject creation as possible by rejecting good will to our fellow man ) The wheel continues. God would be God. Man is man.
Moderator cut: Orphaned reference I believe evil is absence of good and absence of God, just like darkness is absence of light and cold is absence of heat. When people shut out God from their lives, evil fills the void.
Balance. Yin-Yang. In the world we know, everything must have an opposite. The Seven Deadly Sins need the Seven Lively Virtues to have any meaning. Concepts of "sin" and "virtue" are reliant upon one another. Our universe is made up of matching pairs of opposites, which is why we can comprehend it scientifically.
God created all humans with free will, and free will means that you are free to obey God or disobey Him. What is sin? Sin is described in the Bible as transgression of the law of God and rebellion against him. Even the angels have free will and Lucifer chose to rebel against God. this is called sin. So I would say that when God created this world giving free will to us, he knew some would use their free will to disobey Him. God will NOT force his will on any of us though. in some cases, reading the Bible we can see God uses his sovereign will to intervene but he just won't force everyone to accept the gift of salvation. You see, God wants all humans to come to the conclusion that they really need Jesus Christ, He wants them to make this choice by themselves without anyone forcing them to do so. God shows us two paths. one to eternal life and one to destruction. We have free will, so we must decide! we are responsible for the consequences of our bad choices, so if someone goes into perdition it is because he chose to do so. by not accepting the gift of eternal life, by denying Jesus, he made his bad choice himself, knowing there could be much at stake... He is to blame. The reason why I cannot support universal reconciliation is to me universalism simply means that "obey or disobey, love or hate, believe or don't believe, you WILL ULTIMATELY BE SAVED ANYWAY, PERIOD!" so you don't have to accept God's free gift, He will make a choice instead of you, no matter what. God is just and in scriptures, so many passages explain that there are two paths. one to eternal life and one to destruction. the choice is in our hands.
Balance. Yin-Yang. In the world we know, everything must have an opposite. The Seven Deadly Sins need the Seven Lively Virtues to have any meaning. Concepts of "sin" and "virtue" are reliant upon one another. Our universe is made up of matching pairs of opposites, which is why we can comprehend it scientifically.
That's what I believe also, we must have evil to balance the good or we would not learn the lessons that God requires us to learn in this life.
I (and I'm sure countless other millions) would contradict that not to mention it also NOT working the other way around.
I agree, - it does not work the other way round.
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