Why Doesn't God Intervene to Stop Evil?

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Achilles6129

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So here’s the question: Why doesn’t God intervene to stop evil? Thoughts?
 
Sometimes he does, but he didn’t stop his own Passion and Crucifixion and he told us to expect “tribulation”. He also said that if his persecutors did what they did to him, the green wood, what would they do to the dry. He didn’t explain it, he lived it. So I’m thinking if an explanation would work so we could understand, that is the way he would have communicated it.
 
My opinion: God is not a big, powerful “person” who sits in heaven and micromanages our lives!
 
We live in a world of good** and** evil, not good versus evil. Our complex world simply could not sustain itself if it was not for the element of evil.
 
Isn’t God ultimately responsible for everything that happens, since he could obviously prevent it?
 
He did in Jesus Christ and those that do His will stop evil in their lives, and those that don’t are still victims of evil because of their own choice, or ignorance of Jesus Christ.
 
ynotzap said:
He did in Jesus Christ and those that do His will stop evil in their lives, and those that don’t are still victims of evil because of their own choice, or ignorance of Jesus Christ.
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This seems problematic - maybe you can clarify. Are you saying that if I live a good life, no evil will happen to me? Am I, then, a victim of evil because of my own choice?
 
There are bad things that happen because we live in a fallen nature world due to the choice of Adam and Eve. That is not God’s fault. He gave man a free will out of love, because you can’t love and be loved without the free will to do so.

Death, disease etc are all part of the fallen nature of the world. But man also has the free will to do evil. God has done something about that. He sent his Son to teach us how to do good and how to be reconciled when we do evil. He’s promised us that we will be with him as we should have been.
 
Achilles6129 said:
So here’s the question: Why doesn’t God intervene to stop evil? Thoughts?
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Here is a brief answer from the Compendium:
“Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil. This was realized in a wondrous way by God in the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, from the greatest of all moral evils (the murder of his Son) he has brought forth the greatest of all goods (the glorification of Christ and our redemption).”
 
vsedriver said:
There are bad things that happen because we live in a fallen nature world due to the choice of Adam and Eve. That is not God’s fault. He gave man a free will out of love, because you can’t love and be loved without the free will to do so.

Death, disease etc are all part of the fallen nature of the world. But man also has the free will to do evil. God has done something about that. He sent his Son to teach us how to do good and how to be reconciled when we do evil. He’s promised us that we will be with him as we should have been.
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It’s not God’s free choice to make everyone in history suffer the sentence for two people’s screw up? Did he have no choice in whether those would be causally linked? Sorry but the three-year-old being molested because someone 1000 generations back broke a rule is just hard to get our brains around.

So, since Mary was born without original sin, would it not follow on your view that she didn’t have the free will to love or be loved?
 
TheSecondMile said:
Here is a brief answer from the Compendium:
“Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil. This was realized in a wondrous way by God in the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, from the greatest of all moral evils (the murder of his Son) he has brought forth the greatest of all goods (the glorification of Christ and our redemption).”
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Curious to hear your thoughts on what good comes from (i.e., “after”) a soul spends eternity in Hell. Surely a soul ending in Hell is an evil (a privation of the good - a falling short of its telos). ?
 
Neoplatonist said:
Curious to hear your thoughts on what good comes from (i.e., “after”) a soul spends eternity in Hell. Surely a soul ending in Hell is an evil (a privation of the good - a falling short of its telos). ?
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Good question. I had originally contained some of my own thoughts in the post but then I deleted it to keep it short and simple but perhaps I shouldn’t have.

In the case you mention, I appeal to free will, which is good in itself but can result in evil. Perhaps this is an instance of the reverse, evil coming from good. The good comes from God but the evil is a free choice of the person.

A soul ending in Hell is a falling short of its proper end but I question the assumption that hell is “separation from God” or, as you put it, “a privation of the good.” How can this be if God is the act of being? I think it is better to think of hell as a separation from God’s grace, which we can cooperate with or reject because free will.
 
Either there is no God or it is our duty. Regardless I would say that is our duty.
 
Achilles6129 said:
So here’s the question: Why doesn’t God intervene to stop evil? Thoughts?
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When God does not intervene to stop some evil it is because He deems it is more expedient not to stop it, foreseeing that the occurrence of the evil will allow for some greater good. If God could not bring about a greater good from some evil, then He would not permit the evil and would hinder it from occuring. God bless you.
 
Neoplatonist said:
This seems problematic - maybe you can clarify. Are you saying that if I live a good life, no evil will happen to me? Am I, then, a victim of evil because of my own choice?
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I am not saying if you live a good life that no evil will happen to you, even Jesus allowed evil to happen to Him, to give us an example of what we will experience even if we follow Him. The major difference is that evil will have no hold on us, as it had no hold of Him, He even emphasized it. As long as we remain faithful to Him, He is our security against evil in spite of it’s power over the fallen state of man. Life is a testing ground of faith, hope, and love in and of God, Jesus is God-man. We are victims of evil if we make evil choices, and without Christ we will make them because human nature is afflicted with weakness of will, and darkness or ignorance of mind due to the fall of our first parents. We inherit original sin and it’s consequences. Sin and the devil have a hold on man and only Christ can save him. Why do you think man commits sins of inhumanity to man? With every generation that comes into the world, come in with this condition. War after war, greed, selfishness, murder, lies, lust, avarice, anger and hatred, ignorance, pride, and lawlessness etc. Self-serving, not other serving, polarization of wealth, civil discord to name some. Psychological illness, and traumatic stress from the treatment of others. You would think one generation would learn from the one that went before it, such is not the case when it comes to moral behavior as human experience attests to.

Life is a spiritual warfare to test the worthiness of mankind, to sound him for spiritual quality founded in a virtuous life, that is not possible without God who infuses these virtues into man when he accepts Jesus Christ as his God and Savior, and no one will take His place. Satan is man’s mortal enemy seeking to destroy man any way he can, and the best way he can do that is to turn him away from God through man’s weaknesses. Through his passions, through his ignorance, by lies and deceits even in science, and through man’s best intellectual efforts to learn the truth. I know, not only believe that evil spirits exist and are constantly active in their efforts to prevent them from gaining salvation through Jesus Christ. I can’t give you my experiences, and neither can others, all we can do is speak what we know. Hoping that our words will fall on ears that God made receptive. We can only point the way, and Christ is the way.
 
God did intervene to stop evil. By now the whole world should know the story.
 
ready said:
When God does not intervene to stop some evil it is because He deems it is more expedient not to stop it, foreseeing that the occurrence of the evil will allow for some greater good. If God could not bring about a greater good from some evil, then He would not permit the evil and would hinder it from occuring. God bless you.
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Where is there any Biblical evidence for this? Jesus Christ says that the majority of the human race goes to hell (Mt. 7:13-14) - how is that the “greater good”? Isn’t there pointless suffering and evil in the world?
 
Achilles6129 said:
Where is there any Biblical evidence for this? Jesus Christ says that the majority of the human race goes to hell (Mt. 7:13-14) - how is that the “greater good”? Isn’t there pointless suffering and evil in the world?
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Check out Job.
 
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