B
Bishopite
Guest
You understand that the Hebraic word “ra” can
have a multitude of meanings not just evil it can also mean woe or calamity or suffering.
The word “pray” also has differing usages like “ask” this is common with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words and languages in general.
God allows evil, calamity and woe upon people but He didn’t create it nor doesn’t actively will evil. I’m not uncomfortable with using God and evil in the same breath although I would be uncomfortable with saying God is a Master without Him first being a Father who is love.
1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Habakkuk 1:13
“13Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,
And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked wallow up Those more righteous than they?”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton Son, that whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life.”
“The world” isn’t just the elect, but everyone.
God also gives everyone the ability to know right from wrong in Romans 2:14-16.
Paul also speaks of the natural moral law of God .
Romans 1:19-20
“19****because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made,** so that they are without excuse.”**
Romans 2:13-15
"13for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
14For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, **15in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them," **
God gives everyone sufficient grace in order to be saved so that no man is without excuse precisely because they have the law written on their heart; that is the natural moral law of God. To say God predestines some to hell is irrational and is in error.
Because to die in grave sin IS certainly terrifying. And you are trying to make the point that Catholicism (or non-Calvinist’s) teach that God is ONLY love. He is also a judge as a Father is a judge, He is a Master over us as we are slaves. And He is other things too, but He is primarily a God who is love. Love judges as a Father judges, love rebukes righteously, love condemns evil.
And because we ALL sin! We all lack something, divine grace and we all have a tendency toward sin. Our nature is weakened so that in our weaker moments we do fear God, but at times we also look forward to seeing God in His fullness. St. Augustine said, "our hearts are restless until the rest in You [God]
Yes,John 3:16, "God so loved the world…"
Evil isn’t a “thing” like a rock or electricity. You can’t have a jar of evil. Evil is something that occurs, like running; it has no existence of its own. Evil = sin, sin = evil. Sin is a lack of something, a lack of divine grace, it is a lack of a good. Holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole and yet it can’t be separated from the dirt. Evil is not a thing, it is a lack of grace.
God allowed their demise because He gave them over to what they wanted NOT what they were ONLY born to do. Romans 2:4-6
"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
5But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO
**