God and Evil
I came across this on What Shall We Say. Humble Amy's husband. :o)
"...the problem of evil in a universe created and governed by a good God."
First the declarative: Understanding this question is really a simple matter of taking God at His word. It is our lack of faith (or non-faith as the case may be) that causes us to question God's relationship to evil. What God says about it is pretty clear - what we do with what He said is where the waters get all muddied up.
Now the subjective: It is easy for me to say this right now because times are relatively peaceful in my life. It will not be as easy to keep this perspective when pain and evil enters in a more tangible way and it is at that time I will need my brothers and sisters to remind me of the clear word and the sure promises of God.
Back to the declarative: The Christian does not hope that the omnipotent God can turn all these bad things into good in the end. In other words, we don't say, "God did not have anything to do with this evil that happened, but He can use it for good." Our hope is in the fact that even the bad things that happen are fully under His control and therefore even the bad things, not just the end results, have a purpose. If we say that God is not in control of all things, including the bad, that God is just responding to the bad and making it good, we destroy any hope that they are purposeful and we diminish the glory of God. If there is anything in all of creation that happens outside of God's control we destroy any hope that we may have in the word of God because we cannot be sure that He can bring it about.
Read the whole post HERE.
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