Apparently the author has left “free will” out his little theorum.
Evil exists because God has given us free will, and because, though weakness or wickedness, we choose evil.
Isaiah 45:7 must make the head of that “theological liberal” explode, in that case. God actually creating evil?
Also funny how Satan never figures in this liberal “theology”.
When I surrendered my life to Christ, my free will became His will. Since he now dwells within me, it is He that controls my life.
The question could be asked about Joseph.
His brothers hated Joseph because he was Jacob’s favorite son and Joseph had a dream that all of them would come and bow down to him.
His brothers hated him so much they wanted to slay him, but God prevented that from happening so they sold him into slavery.
Joseph was lied about when his master’s wife tried to seduce him and him trying to be pure and righteious before God he got the shaft anyway and got grown into prison.
In the end, what the devil meant for evil, God turned it around for good.
IsSo yes, sometimes God allows bad things to happen to fulfill his will.
God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not his thoughts.
However ? For the most part and his love towards to saints, his elect ones ...... He does prevent evil from happening to them.
For we do not always see with our minds and natural eyes the bad or evil things THAT COULD have happened to us or even aware of them.
Now for the wicked that are saved up for the evil and terrible judgement day ? God leaves them to their own devices for they are not his elect.
That not to say that God does not substain the normal things for life like the air they breath, the rain that waters the food for them to eat, for God reins over the just and the unjust alike.
The real question here should be ?
Why do we not thank God for preventing the evil THAT COULD have happened that we will never see or be aware of.
Yes there is much evil in this world and believe it or not ? There could be or could have been much more in this world if he had not have kept “ the restrainer “ the holy spirit that holds back the full force of evil to have full reign in this world.
It’s for the sake of God’s elect in his mercy that he does kept “ the restrainer “ the holy spirit in this world to keep pure evil in this world to have full reign.
The bible does tell us though that in the end times that God will remove “ the restrainer “ the holy spirit that keeps pure evil from having full reign in this world, from this world.
One thing I often see in witnessing to unbelievers (particularly atheist ones) is a rejection of the existance of a loving God because of all of the evil in the world the He seems to permit.
How does one rebut that? Do we just say, “Because Adam fell”? Do that and the unbeliever will typically start throwing evolution at you and the discussion goes nowhere.
I usually try to approach it from the other direction and start with Jesus. That works better, but then I get asked why a loving God would still permit all this terrible evil everywhere. How would you answer that?
Not once He created Man.
There’s only one truly “free will,” and that’s God’s. All other wills are subject to His. Including Satan’s.
I know there are those who claim they chose Him, but Scripture declares otherwise:
Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
So being born again isn’t a product of our will, but God’s will. Those are absolute negations.
Repentance itself is a gift from God:
2Ti 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
Faith itself is a gift from God:
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Those are also absolute negations.
So neither salvation, repentance or faith are the products of human will.
AMEN.
Such simplistic and unlearned thinking is why Job had to make an offering to save his stupid “friends” from God’s wrath. Yet his friends had much more respect for God than this “all good, all powerful” junk.
The problem with these questions is that we humans have no ability to discern what God has and is preventing. It’s my opinion that God is constantly intervening in the affairs of human beings to work His will and on occasion we do see glimpses of that.
As far as evil itself is concerned, what is evil exactly? I define it as the works human beings do that are contrary to God’s will and as such cause damage to self and others. I think God “allows” these things to happen for a couple of reasons. The first is because we do have free will. The second is because without an awareness that evil exists, we could never understand what goodness is. And we could never understand how much we are in need to communion with God and forgiveness from Him.
He could have made the decision not to create anything. That would have taken care of it.