Why doesn't God just destroy the devil?

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The better question to me is why would am all knowing deity create its own enemy? If the Christian God knows all and is all powerful then it knew in advance that Saran would use its free will to rebel.

Or is God not all knowing and all powerful?
 
God is the Creator not the Destroyer! And hell has its compensations… 🙂
 
Where’s the beauty in not having the plan God has? In which I don’t know it in whole but if my son was good & never had the opposite to overcome then where’s the glory? I would be bored of this planet. Freewill is the essence of Love in which if was forced then it takes away from the meaning. Again if u have Children&have a good heart by nature u will see Gods ways but unfortunately the evil in the world tampers with perceptions. In which we will all have different in some sense but also that’s another thing, I would get bored if everyone was the same because overtime there’s nothing but one even if had many, if I was like u or vice versa then there be no point because simply that there is a purpose. Why try to find out about after life if can’t even fathom this one? Y try to think bigger if living small? Because were made in the image without the power of Gods mindset. Its like a child who doesn’t understand the things the father knows. Only the child can learn in time of growth&still may not know. Difference is the child grows to know the father he looked up to is not everything expected because that’s the imperfection observed. God will not reveal everything because that defeats the trust&also gives mankind a new way to try to go on without God. Evil would use Gods ways if was widely known. The Devil knows the Bible better than anyone &even uses churches to his advantage. I’m sorry to say but it doesn’t have to make sense to us. Only reason y things make some what sense as far as science is because we study it on a comprehensive level but still can be like wow that does that from mixing that etc…we become custom to what triggers our sensory. If we can taste,smell,hear,see it thennnn we believe. That’s easy. God is beyond this world so u only will study it by studying the mind &soul&mankind hasn’t had success. Whoever said there wasn’t something before the bible in sense of before earth in its entire existence? There’s a spiritual war here&out of these realms. God could have made us to prove something. It does say “made in OUR image” which yes people relate that to the trinity but what about more than that? Says “do not put any other Gods before me”. The one true God yes. Our God wants to be the God for us. A Jealous but slow to Anger God. We have those traits but in the state of imperfection. God made himself know through the works of life with beauty defined in many ways of wonder&with Jesus. If I sent my only Son to show the world I exist but not in your form but here’s a part of me,& the world killed him. I would look away too. The Love would try to understand &Jesus being our lawyer helps but See that’s the thing God understands & yet has emotion too so God is perfect compared to us in deed. God can only be defined by worldly terminology but its really beyond imagination like a child trying to understand the surroundings. An Atheist once told me " u have feelings because it just happened to be a good survival tactic". I laughed&said “maybe so but it comes from somewhere&by design has that purpose in which God just happened to be, but that’s beyond me”. There was a lot to the debate to put in words on here but basically he used science & evolution against God but still couldn’t answer my questions. Just used doubt. He only believed in what man can explain.
 
Perception is everything. We can all look at the same thing&see it differently whether by choice to deny what see or just because the differences in imagination. Imagining something doesn’t mean its not real. We can imagine something we’ve seen before or something we haven’t to later discover it or maybe never seen it &just thought was creativity of the mind dreaming, in which can be real too because not all dreams are far fetched&if one is it just may be too much for the mind to accept. We can all view God somewhat different but still doesn’t change who God is. We can look at the universe & doubt a creator because its beyond our reasoning. We advance in technology but limit our selves to faith? We use the tools of science with God as the master scientist & still doubt him? I keep my Hamster in its cage to prevent the cat from getting it, or perhaps another death but its fed&safe in its constructed habitat but it still wants out not knowing the risks it has no knowledge of the dangers &would only leave if I gave it that escape but not realizing paradise was in its massive contraption. Anyway we know. We have more knowledge but yet we test Gods existence is the worst for it shows selfishness. I’ll skip the detail of that but anyway compassion is another word we can ridicule or defend but its all on perception so the mirror only reflects what u want to see. The soul is in the eye of the beholder, just think about all the phrases & sayings&just know there’s always an opposite. Its the balance of life. Its what separates Gods people from others but all in all we are all still Gods children just some more lost than others.
 
Try to keep an open mind. Close minded will not excel anything but ignorance. We are all under mind control whether its from mankind/media or God. Religion in general can fall under mankind/media so becareful. Humans can push others away with imperfections. Judgement etc…but again its all on perception. Can conform to worldly ways or to something more which be Godly ways. Not to be taken as to be a God but to full fill the will of God. Mind control is happening from many sources, I just broke it down into 2. The main ones…so we follow mankind or God. That’s what it comes down too.
 
tonyrey said:
How do you know? It seems fanciful to think a **non-existent **person’s decisions are knowable!
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That’s what omniscience is all about…the ability to know everything. The protestants like to say God has a plan for your life.
 
oldcelt said:
But God knew it would happen before the person was ever created.
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Just because God knows something doesn’t mean that the person is bound to do it. If the person would have done something else, God would’ve foreknown differently.

God wants us to love Him freely. Who doesn’t want to be loved freely? Would you want a robot or a person to love you? That being said, there will be those who misuse their free will like the devil. God is willing to give essential grace to everyone, whether they use it or not is completely up to them.

Hope this helps you understand the Catholic position. God Bless!

-Vince
 
oldcelt said:
That’s what omniscience is all about…the ability to know everything.
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It is .the ability to know everything that is knowable. And we have to be omniscient to know the precise limits of what is knowable! Are you certain a **non-existent **person’s decisions are knowable? Or is it speculation? 😉
The protestants like to say God has a plan for your life.
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Calvin believed not a drop of rain falls without God’s express command but orthodox Catholics don’t believe in predestination. We all have a vocation but we can choose to follow it or disregard it.
 
vincent10395 said:
Just because God knows something doesn’t mean that the person is bound to do it. If the person would have done something else, God would’ve foreknown differently.

God wants us to love Him freely. Who doesn’t want to be loved freely? Would you want a robot or a person to love you? That being said, there will be those who misuse their free will like the devil. God is willing to give essential grace to everyone, whether they use it or not is completely up to them.

Hope this helps you understand the Catholic position. God Bless!

-Vince
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I’m sorry, but your reply makes no sense. If the all powerful, all knowing knows it, are you saying that man can alter what was known eons ago? Either he knows everything or he doesn’t?
Catholic teaching when I was learning it said that God is omniscient…
So, if someone makes the decision to reject grace…God already knew it.
 
tonyrey said:
It is .the ability to know everything that is knowable. And we have to be omniscient to know the precise limits of what is knowable! **Are you certain a **non-existent ****person’s decisions are knowable? Or is it speculation? 😉

Calvin believed not a drop of rain falls without God’s express command but orthodox Catholics don’t believe in predestination. We all have a vocation but we can choose to follow it or disregard it.
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According to OT:
Jeremiah 1:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
 
oldcelt said:
I’m sorry, but your reply makes no sense. If the all powerful, all knowing knows it, are you saying that man can alter what was known eons ago? Either he knows everything or he doesn’t?
Catholic teaching when I was learning it said that God is omniscient…
So, if someone makes the decision to reject grace…God already knew it.
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Maybe an example might help. Lets use prayer.

"We should not think of prayer as changing God’s mind or changing events. God knows from eternity everything that will transpire in time, so that prayers do not literally change anything. For God’s foreknowledge already takes our prayers into account. God’s foreknowledge is chronologically prior to the prayers we offer, but the prayers are logically prior to what God foreknows. If we were to pray differently or fail to pray, God would not be caught by surprise but have already factored that into His providential plan.

So then how do our prayers make a difference if they do not change things? Precisely by being factored by God into which world He has chosen to create! Were we not to pray, then perhaps God would not have done such-and-such. Because God knew that you would pray for a certain thing, God has so arranged the world that that thing happens. Had you not prayed, God would have created a different world instead. So through His middle knowledge of how we would pray in different circumstances, our prayers make a tremendous difference in which world is actual."

By. William Lane Craig

Since my words are never convincing, maybe his will be.
 
vincent10395 said:
Maybe an example might help. Lets use prayer.

"We should not think of prayer as changing God’s mind or changing events. God knows from eternity everything that will transpire in time, so that prayers do not literally change anything. For God’s foreknowledge already takes our prayers into account. God’s foreknowledge is chronologically prior to the prayers we offer, but the prayers are logically prior to what God foreknows. If we were to pray differently or fail to pray, God would not be caught by surprise but have already factored that into His providential plan.

So then how do our prayers make a difference if they do not change things? Precisely by being factored by God into which world He has chosen to create! Were we not to pray, then perhaps God would not have done such-and-such. Because God knew that you would pray for a certain thing, God has so arranged the world that that thing happens. Had you not prayed, God would have created a different world instead. So through His middle knowledge of how we would pray in different circumstances, our prayers make a tremendous difference in which world is actual."

By. William Lane Craig

Since my words are never convincing, maybe his will be.
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So in the case of a person in hell, God already knew it before he blew the breath of life into that individual. Would have been a great deal more merciful not to create the person at all, don’t you think?
 
oldcelt said:
According to OT:
Jeremiah 1:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
Click to expand...
Only Fundamentalists believe every sentence in the OT is literally true.
 
oldcelt said:
So in the case of a person in hell, God already knew it before he blew the breath of life into that individual. Would have been a great deal more merciful not to create the person at all, don’t you think?
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Like I said before, the only way God could have human beings love Him freely is if He gave them free will. Despite God’s every effort to save them, if they choose to be without God, they get exactly what they wish for. They have no one to blame but themselves.

“For God desires all be saved, and come to the knowledge of truth.”
1 Timothy 2:4
 
tonyrey said:
Only Fundamentalists believe every sentence in the OT is literally true.
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Are you saying that this passage is not true? Remember, it doesn’t matter to me. I am just trying to point out the fallacies in some of the beliefs I have hear expressed in this thread.

The Christian/Catholic God is either all-knowing or He is not. If He is all knowing, then he knows the condition of a person’s soul, or whatever Satan has, before they were ever created. If so, some rather unpleasant implications follow about the nature of the Christian God.

If he is not all knowing, life is a ****-shoot, which is what I believe.
 
vincent10395 said:
Like I said before, the only way God could have human beings love Him freely is if He gave them free will. Despite God’s every effort to save them, if they choose to be without God, they get exactly what they wish for. They have no one to blame but themselves.

“For God desires all be saved, and come to the knowledge of truth.”
1 Timothy 2:4
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Then He is not all-knowing, if He desires something that he already knows isn’t going to happen, that would be crazy.
 
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