Is God allowing Satan to do evil the same as God committing the evil Himself?

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It can be argued that God can bring good out of the evil Satan does, but that’s really not addressing the question in that God could bring the same good from evil had God committed the evil in the first place.

In addition, could God have created the same good without any evil whatsoever? I personally believe that after the downfall of Adam and Eve, evil became a necessity to bring our world to the point that will enable the Second Coming of Christ, but this still does not address my primary question.

If Christ detests evil so much, why is He postponing His second coming? I look for comments here!

Isaiah 45:7 - “I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.” (Douay-Rheims)
(Compared to what will be revealed to us in the Hereafter, we must admit that we all live in darkness and are quite ignorant. Let us be deeply humbled by this obvious fact.)
 
It almost is, if I know a criminal will do something horrible to a person, my moral duty is to try to stop him as much as I can, not excuse that person by saying it’s his free will, I don’t think the person’s free will is more important than the victim’s suffering and I’m just a human, not an all loving, all powerful god.
 
Robert_Sock said:
It can be argued that God can bring good out of the evil Satan does, but that’s really not addressing the question in that God could bring the same good from evil had God committed the evil in the first place.
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Yes, God is responsible for evil knowing the fact that He can prevent it.
Robert_Sock said:
In addition, could God have created the same good without any evil whatsoever?
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Yes, He could.
Robert_Sock said:
I personally believe that after the downfall of Adam and Eve, evil became a necessity to bring our world to the point that will enable the Second Coming of Christ, but this still does not address my primary question.

If Christ detests evil so much, why is He postponing His second coming? I look for comments here!
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Why Christ left us in first place? He had power to bring peace and justice on earth.
Robert_Sock said:
Isaiah 45:7 - “I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.” (Douay-Rheims)
(Compared to what will be revealed to us in the Hereafter, we must admit that we all live in darkness and are quite ignorant. Let us be deeply humbled by this obvious fact.)
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Yes, how a good God could do evil?
 
Consider a man who is able to speak with his now deceased father using a radio that is sending his signal back thirty years into the past (anybody get the reference?). He is aware of how his father died, so the man warns him not to go with his gut when he’s in a fire. The man tells him to go the opposite direction (because he heard from family friends that he would have been okay had he gone this way). The man’s father listens, and he survives. He’s okay.

As a result, someone else survives the fire as well- a murderer. He kills the man’s mother, and will go on to kill several other women. The father and son work together to stop the killer, but that’s irrelevant to the topic at hand.

This man now has two sets of knowledge, since he changed the events: what “really” happened (his mother died instead of his father), and what “could have” happened- his father dying and his mother surviving.

Now consider that another man offers the man we’ve been talking about two choices. He can go back to the time before he found this radio and stop the alternate timeline from occurring, or he can live with the consequences of his actions.

This puts the man in a very tough spot. Does he choose to stick with what he caused, thus allowing his father to survive the fire? or does he decide to go with the timeline that spared his mother and several other women?

Now for the even bigger question: let’s assume that this man chooses to save his mother. He chooses not to use the radio, allowing his father to die in the fire. Is his allowance of this the same as the man killing his father himself?
 
To ‘allow’ and to ‘commit’ to are two different concepts, I think. Remember that Satan was expelled from Heaven and God’s presence as he sought to become God-like or a God. Satan, in his way, made man aware of the difference between good and evil. Even in The Garden of Eden, Satin was present and active. He was and is, the corruption of the soul. Yes, free will is present, also. But then, what do I know. Peace.
 
For questions such as these, for my own mindset, I always thought the Book of Job sufficiently answered those questions. YMMV.

Blessings,
Stephie
 
I often wonder why we try to make faith and the love of God so complicated, pick it apart, diagram it, digest it and spit out the parts we don’t want or understand. For me, with my simple mind, it is as simple as my intellect…I believe. Peace.
 
I have the same questions, but then think about Christ and his sacrifice. He could have done everthing another way and prevented the stupendous, ultimate evil that happened, but he didn’t. My conclusion is that there is something we don’t and can’t understand now but he went to these lengths to show us good does triumph over evil and that he really does love us.
 
Crusaderbear said:
FREE WILL

Changes everything. WE choose evil.
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Are you saying that Satan does not do evil, but we choose it all on our own? No, we know that Satan causes all the evil that exists in the world. My question given God allows it is the same as God committing the evil Himself. Yes, some of the evils in the world come from Satan tempting us, but if God allows it, as He certainly must, are the evils of Satan really the same as if God committed the evils in the first place?

As I understand it, Satan cannot do anything that God does not allow!
 
Yes, free will. We can and do, often chose to do evil over good. Satan, ever active is within each of us just waiting for us to bend to his will, desires and commands. As he is a fallen angel he has great power to usurp our wills and intentions, with the intent to become a God… He was ready and did, influence Adam and Eve, even if you put it in a allegory form of understanding. It is an argument that can go on forever just as which came first; the chicken or the egg. It is a part of the mystery that we can not fathom or nail down so it will be a discourse that will be like the cosmos; just go on and on and on. My pea sized brain just isn’t big enough to tackle the secrets of the universe. Peace.
 
Robert_Sock said:
Are you saying that Satan does not do evil, but we choose it all on our own? No, we know that Satan causes all the evil that exists in the world. My question given God allows it is the same as God committing the evil Himself. Yes, some of the evils in the world come from Satan tempting us, but if God allows it, as He certainly must, are the evils of Satan really the same as if God committed the evils in the first place?

As I understand it, Satan cannot do anything that God does not allow!
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When we sin, we choose to do evil, just like Satan does. Your role in creating your destiny is the greater good for which we are allowed to choose evil. God is not responsible for your, nor Satan’s, choices.
 
Mary_Estelle said:
Yes, free will. We can and do, often chose to do evil over good. Satan, ever active is within each of us just waiting for us to bend to his will, desires and commands. As he is a fallen angel he has great power to usurp our wills and intentions, with the intent to become a God… He was ready and did, influence Adam and Eve, even if you put it in a allegory form of understanding. It is an argument that can go on forever just as which came first; the chicken or the egg. It is a part of the mystery that we can not fathom or nail down so it will be a discourse that will be like the cosmos; just go on and on and on. My pea sized brain just isn’t big enough to tackle the secrets of the universe. Peace.
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But does not God allow us to be tempted by Satan to test our free will? If so, what would the difference be if God tempted us instead? By allowing Satan to tempt us seems to me to be As if God is condoning the evil Himself because He could have prevented Satan from tempting us. Whether God tempts us or God allows Satan to tempt us, the outcomes would be identical! (see The Book of Job)
 
Robert_Sock said:
But does not God allow us to be tempted by Satan to test our free will? If so, what would the difference be if God tempted us instead? By allowing Satan to tempt us seems to me to be As if God is condoning the evil Himself because He could have prevented Satan from tempting us. Whether God tempts us or God allows Satan to tempt us, the outcomes would be identical! (see The Book of Job)
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Maybe the outcomes would be the same, but what’s not, is allowing something versus doing something. I refer back to the example I provided.
 
davidv said:
When we sin, we choose to do evil, just like Satan does. Your role in creating your destiny is the greater good for which we are allowed to choose evil. God is not responsible for your, nor Satan’s, choices.
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Is God condoning Satan to tempt us, or not? Again, what would change in the outcomes if God tempts us or God allows Satan to do the tempting?
 
Robert_Sock said:
Is God condoning Satan to tempt us, or not? Again, what would change in the outcomes if God tempts us or God allows Satan to do the tempting?
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What are the three fonts of morality? Only one of them involves the outcome.
 
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