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S_V7
Guest
I’ve heard similar questions before and would like to read some responses to better mine
how to respond to: "God is all powerful, why doesn't He get rid of the devil?"
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PerryJ
Guest
For us to truly love God we have to choose God. God has to make the first move; however, we have to participate with God to enjoy the graces he gives us. The key is we have choice. If we have choice we can chose between good and evil. If we do evil sin is created and evil is brought into the world. For God to destroy all evil he would have to destroy choice.
Choice driven by pure intellect would always be good as our essence is from God who is all good. Our choice though is driven by intellect taught by the senses. This diminshes our intellects ability to chose good.
Choice driven by pure intellect would always be good as our essence is from God who is all good. Our choice though is driven by intellect taught by the senses. This diminshes our intellects ability to chose good.
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Nickkname
Guest
“Because man won’t let Him. To clarify: Satan lives in man’s heart. Where there is sin, you can be sure there is the devil. Now, since man loves sin, than obviously he loves Satan. Maybe he dosen’t realize it, but by choosing to sin he chooses Satan as his father, not God. So until man converts, until he lets God into his heart, Satan will still be on the prowl, reigning in the hearts of men. Also: Thinking you know better than God? That’s the sin of arrogence, and like I said, where sin is, there the devil reigns.”
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Tina_in_Ashburn
Guest
Because God respects His own creation of Free Will.“God is all powerful, why doesn’t He get rid of the devil?” I’ve heard similar questions before and would like to read some responses to better mine
God makes everything inherently good, it is our free will that allows us to be otherwise as we choose.
God didn’t make the devil. God created good angels. Lucifer turned from God of his own free will.
Evil exists not because of the Will of God, but because of the will of man.
No matter how much we offend God, He will never take away our free will to make bad choices. Once God creates, he doesn’t take away that existence. We may die, but that is different from extinguishing existence.
God does not force us to love Him back, He pleads with us to love Him back.
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PerryJ
Guest
I agree. Would it truly be love if we had no choice? I do not think so.
This is one of the many issues with double predstination.
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rick43235
Guest
Maybe he isn’t really “all powerful.”
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Mannyfit75
Guest
If he wanted too, he could but he respect the free will of all his creation, especially those with intellect like us humans and angels. He gave them the freedom to choice.
All this evil will come to an end on Judgment Day. He will separate the good and evil. The good he will reward them heaven, to the evil ones, they will be cast into hell for all eternity.
It will be a New World Order and Jesus reigning forever as Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.
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Tina_in_Ashburn
Guest
God is all-powerful. He is our creator and made us with Free Will.
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PerryJ
Guest
I would read Thomas Aquinas. His thoughts with regard to this area are very good.
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oneGODoneCHURCH
Guest
He will, You may have heard of a little thing called the end of times. once evil is removed once a for all.I’ve heard similar questions before and would like to read some responses to better mine
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ralphinal
Guest
Wonderful post
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benedictus2
Guest
To anyone pondering this question and that of reconciling the existence of evil in the world with the “concept” of a loving God, please read:
“Why Does God Permit Evil?” by Dom Brunno Webb.
This is the most comprehensive and satisfactory treatment of the topic I have ever read (even better than C.S. Lewis’s “The Problem of Pain” in my opinion).
Will try to do a condensed version in future post.
Reading this, our Catholic Faith and the economy of salvation made so much more sense to me.
It is only a small book and very readable.
“Why Does God Permit Evil?” by Dom Brunno Webb.
This is the most comprehensive and satisfactory treatment of the topic I have ever read (even better than C.S. Lewis’s “The Problem of Pain” in my opinion).
Will try to do a condensed version in future post.
Reading this, our Catholic Faith and the economy of salvation made so much more sense to me.
It is only a small book and very readable.
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Tina_in_Ashburn
Guest
gosh, shucks, thanks ralphinal.
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Dauphin
Guest
This is really the same question as “If God is good, why does he permit evil?”
The answer is simple. God permits evil to draw a greater good from it. That doesn’t mean that evil isn’t evil - it simply means that a greater good can be derived from it.
The confirmation of this is in the crucifix. On the cross, the incarnate God was murdered by his creatures; it was the greatest act of evil possible. However, from this evil, God was able to draw an even greater good - salvation, the atonement.
One of Christ’s purposes in sacrificing himself was to illustrate this reality in the clearest terms possible, and it’s unfortunate that so few Christians receive this revelation and remain confused about the nature of evil.
Despite this revelation, it’s still a mysterious thing. It’s impossible to understand exactly in what way a greater good can be drawn from evil, and to expect to understand this is to expect to know the mind of God. It’s sort of like a squirrel expected to understand quantum physics; there’s a limit to what we can know, and we must accept it and rely on that revelation which God has given us.
The answer is simple. God permits evil to draw a greater good from it. That doesn’t mean that evil isn’t evil - it simply means that a greater good can be derived from it.
The confirmation of this is in the crucifix. On the cross, the incarnate God was murdered by his creatures; it was the greatest act of evil possible. However, from this evil, God was able to draw an even greater good - salvation, the atonement.
One of Christ’s purposes in sacrificing himself was to illustrate this reality in the clearest terms possible, and it’s unfortunate that so few Christians receive this revelation and remain confused about the nature of evil.
Despite this revelation, it’s still a mysterious thing. It’s impossible to understand exactly in what way a greater good can be drawn from evil, and to expect to understand this is to expect to know the mind of God. It’s sort of like a squirrel expected to understand quantum physics; there’s a limit to what we can know, and we must accept it and rely on that revelation which God has given us.
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Tina_in_Ashburn
Guest
“God permits evil to draw a greater good from it.”
This is a facet of the all-powerful goodness of God that He can derive good from evil.
This is a facet of the all-powerful goodness of God that He can derive good from evil.
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benedictus2
Guest
Why Does God Permit Evil ( in a nutshell)
All of God’s creation is good.
The angels are all good and given free will. But Lucifer of his own free will defies God, wanting to be God (pride emerges).
God creates man full of sanctifying grace. But like Lucifer they wanted to be God (they in effect wanted to be the arbiter of what constitutes good and evil). And so by their free will, disobeys God.
If we see Adam as being the first cell of creation, by virtue of his pride/disobedience, this loss of sanctifying grace caused the cell to be “deformed”.
Therefore any cell that is generated from this cell is similarly “deformed”. From this loss of sanctifying grace issued all suffering.
But, thank goodness, this is not the end of the story.
God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.
Because it is man in his nature that disobeyed, God allowed man to redeem himself by becoming Man. So God became man, that man’s NO may be drowned by Man’s loud and triumphant YES. God in Christ then uses that very suffering to conquer suffering.
Now for the magnificent part:
In the order of creation, man is below the angels, the angels being pure spirit.
By Christ redemption, we become God’s children by adoption, and so become gods. By virtue of Christ then, we become higher than the angels.
The analogy of the vase.
A beautiful vase was created but unfortunately was broken to pieces. To mend it the Craftsman used the finest of gold to piece it back together and decorated it with precious stones such that the finished product was even more beautiful than the original before it was broken.
Man therefore after redemption, was better than man before the fall.
And this is why we sing at Easter: “O Happy Fault , O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer”
In our lives, we see glimpses if this. But because of our fallen state, and Satan’s fallen state, there will always be suffering until we come home to God.
I think this is why Christ repeatedly says: be not afraid.
Suffering does not have the last word.
As He told Julian of Norwich: All will be well. All manner of things shall be well.
But why not now you ask?
Because God’s wisdom is far above ours. To question this is to be yet another Adam, presuming to know better than God, wanting life on OUR terms. Which is how it all started to go wrong in the first place.
All of God’s creation is good.
The angels are all good and given free will. But Lucifer of his own free will defies God, wanting to be God (pride emerges).
God creates man full of sanctifying grace. But like Lucifer they wanted to be God (they in effect wanted to be the arbiter of what constitutes good and evil). And so by their free will, disobeys God.
If we see Adam as being the first cell of creation, by virtue of his pride/disobedience, this loss of sanctifying grace caused the cell to be “deformed”.
Therefore any cell that is generated from this cell is similarly “deformed”. From this loss of sanctifying grace issued all suffering.
But, thank goodness, this is not the end of the story.
God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.
Because it is man in his nature that disobeyed, God allowed man to redeem himself by becoming Man. So God became man, that man’s NO may be drowned by Man’s loud and triumphant YES. God in Christ then uses that very suffering to conquer suffering.
Now for the magnificent part:
In the order of creation, man is below the angels, the angels being pure spirit.
By Christ redemption, we become God’s children by adoption, and so become gods. By virtue of Christ then, we become higher than the angels.
The analogy of the vase.
A beautiful vase was created but unfortunately was broken to pieces. To mend it the Craftsman used the finest of gold to piece it back together and decorated it with precious stones such that the finished product was even more beautiful than the original before it was broken.
Man therefore after redemption, was better than man before the fall.
And this is why we sing at Easter: “O Happy Fault , O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer”
In our lives, we see glimpses if this. But because of our fallen state, and Satan’s fallen state, there will always be suffering until we come home to God.
I think this is why Christ repeatedly says: be not afraid.
Suffering does not have the last word.
As He told Julian of Norwich: All will be well. All manner of things shall be well.
But why not now you ask?
Because God’s wisdom is far above ours. To question this is to be yet another Adam, presuming to know better than God, wanting life on OUR terms. Which is how it all started to go wrong in the first place.
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Sabbath_Keeper
Guest
Wonderful posts, may I add my two cents worth for you all to ponder.
God did not destroy Satan (having made some unfounded accusations against God, in defense of his claim that he could do a better job and that the Angels weren’t really free. This of course resulted in 1/3 of the Angels siding with Satan and they all be cast out of Heaven.) because to do so may have placed credence on Satan’s accusation. God allowed Satan to do the evils that he has done over the millinia just to show the Angels how erroneous Satan’s accusations were. In the end there will be so much evidence against Satan and his followers that there will be no doubt to God’s righteousness, his love or his justice. Sorry if this looks a little rushed… I didn’t have much time to elaborate.
God did not destroy Satan (having made some unfounded accusations against God, in defense of his claim that he could do a better job and that the Angels weren’t really free. This of course resulted in 1/3 of the Angels siding with Satan and they all be cast out of Heaven.) because to do so may have placed credence on Satan’s accusation. God allowed Satan to do the evils that he has done over the millinia just to show the Angels how erroneous Satan’s accusations were. In the end there will be so much evidence against Satan and his followers that there will be no doubt to God’s righteousness, his love or his justice. Sorry if this looks a little rushed… I didn’t have much time to elaborate.
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