Is God Responsible For The Evil In The World? No He Is Not.

[JAG**]

``

JAG Writes:

Man's Free Will is responsible for all the evil in the would.
God created a perfect world.
God created perfect human beings.
God gave human beings a Free Will.
Human beings used their Free Will to choose to do evil.
Human beings choosing to do evil is the reason we have
natural disasters and evil in the world-- and the reason
we have The Curse upon the Earth.

Many atheists blame the God of the Bible for all the natural disasters
and all the evil in the world.

You may ask, "How can atheists blame the God of the Bible for evil
when atheists do not believe that God exists?
Answer: They postulate that "if God does exist" then He is evil
because the Bible presents God as being Omnipotent {all powerful}
and therefore He could have created a world without any evil if He had
wanted to do that. He did not want to do that, therefore He is evil.

So? So there are many atheists who have said that the
God-That-Does-Not-Exist is responsible for all the evil in the world.

What does that mean? Well again atheists do not believe that God exists
but, for the sake of argument, they say that if the God of the Bible
does exist, then He is responsible for all the evil in the world because
He is Omnipotent and could have designed a world without evil.

I just recently read a lengthy thread on another forum where
an atheist and many of his fellow atheists blamed the God of
the Bible for inflicting the COVID-19 virus on humanity.

Yes, sure! Again, I know that atheists do NOT believe that God
exists. But they, for arguments sake, argue against the God of
the Bible and say that "if He does exist", He would be evil because
He could prevent evil, but chooses NOT to prevent it.

Has anyone read the books written by the infamous "New Atheists"?
There are 4 of them. Their names are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris,
Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens.

The atheist Richard Dawkins is an especially vile talking atheist.
Here is what the atheist Richard Dawkins said about the God of
the Bible:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant
character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,
unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser;
a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously
malevolent bully.” ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

Again, the "New Atheists" do not believe that God actually exists.
But they say that "if He does exist" He is evil as I explained above.
I keep repeating this because a large number of Internet posters
endlessly state that "Atheists do not believe that God exists" as if
we did not know that. We do know that.


Back to what some atheists have said about the
God-That-Does-Not-Exist . . .

They have specifically and clearly and emphatically declared
that the God of the Bible IS responsible for the evil in the
world.

Stephen Fry, an atheist, has a video on You Tube, He was
being interviewed and he was asked, 'What would you
say to God when you die and find out that Christianity
is actually true, and you are standing at the pearly gates?

Stephen Fry replied that he was going to ask God "Why he
put bone cancer in children? God, What is that all about?",
replied Stephen Fry.

Stephen Fry's video went viral and has become infamous on the
Internet. You see it quoted and linked to quite often.

____________

Back to The Problem Of Evil . . .

Centuries ago Epicurus formulated The Problem Of Evil like this:


Sayeth Epicurus:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not Omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”__Epicurus

The Christian analytical philosopher Alvin Plantinga has a very good
rebuttal to these "New Atheists" and to Epicurus.

Sayeth the Christian Alvin Plantinga:

{You will need to "deep read" what Plantinga says below
and spend some time studying and seriously analyzing
what Plantinga has written}

As Plantinga summarized his Free Will defense:[14]

"A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely
perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else
being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all.
Now God can create free creatures, but He can't cause or
determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so,
then they aren't significantly free after all; they do not do
what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral
good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of
moral evil; and He can't give these creatures the freedom
to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from
doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free
creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their
freedom; this is the source of moral evil. The fact that free
creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither
against God's omnipotence nor against His goodness; for
He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only
by removing the possibility of moral good."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_...urther_details

End quote.
___________


The "New Atheists" do not correctly understand the Biblical
doctrine of the Omnipotence {all-powerful} of God.

Epicurus did not correctly understand the Christian doctrine of
God's Omnipotence. God's Omnipotence does not mean that
He can do anything. God cannot create square circles. God
cannot make 2 + 2 = 7. God cannot give humans the Free Will
to do evil and at the same time prevent humans from doing evil.


The fatal flaw in Epicurus is he misunderstood the Christian
doctrine of the Omnipotence of the God of the Bible.

Conclusion: Mankind, NOT God, is the cause of sin, evil, and
natural disasters in the world.

JAG

 

`

 

[Sower]

18 minutes ago, JAG** said:

They have specifically and clearly and emphatically declared
that the God of the Bible IS responsible for the evil in the
world.

God created a perfect world, then man and woman corrupted it.
Then blame God.

21 minutes ago, JAG** said:

Again, I know that atheists do NOT believe that God
exists.

They will.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace,
and bring glad tidings of good things!

Then He said to His disciples,
“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Sow those seeds!

[brian100]

I think Jesus said you only had to liveth and believeth in him to never die. So it don't matter what evil people do. Why? B.c he protects you from them.

[ayin jade]

1 hour ago, Sower said:

God created a perfect world, then man and woman corrupted it.
Then blame God.

 

And many still blame God. 

[ayin jade]

1 hour ago, brian100 said:

I think Jesus said you only had to liveth and believeth in him to never die. So it don't matter what evil people do. Why? B.c he protects you from them.

My Christian brother in law was murdered by an unsaved evil man. It matters what evil people do.

[brian100]

Will it matter to you if your brother becomes a mass murderer? You will not care about him anymore.

Edited July 22, 2020 by brian100

[RonaldBruno]

3 hours ago, JAG** said:

``

JAG Writes:

Man's Free Will is responsible for all the evil in the would.
God created a perfect world.
God created perfect human beings.
God gave human beings a Free Will.
Human beings used their Free Will to choose to do evil.
Human beings choosing to do evil is the reason we have
natural disasters and evil in the world-- and the reason
we have The Curse upon the Earth.

Many atheists blame the God of the Bible for all the natural disasters
and all the evil in the world.

You may ask, "How can atheists blame the God of the Bible for evil
when atheists do not believe that God exists?
Answer: They postulate that "if God does exist" then He is evil
because the Bible presents God as being Omnipotent {all powerful}
and therefore He could have created a world without any evil if He had
wanted to do that. He did not want to do that, therefore He is evil.

So? So there are many atheists who have said that the
God-That-Does-Not-Exist is responsible for all the evil in the world.

What does that mean? Well again atheists do not believe that God exists
but, for the sake of argument, they say that if the God of the Bible
does exist, then He is responsible for all the evil in the world because
He is Omnipotent and could have designed a world without evil.

I just recently read a lengthy thread on another forum where
an atheist and many of his fellow atheists blamed the God of
the Bible for inflicting the COVID-19 virus on humanity.

Yes, sure! Again, I know that atheists do NOT believe that God
exists. But they, for arguments sake, argue against the God of
the Bible and say that "if He does exist", He would be evil because
He could prevent evil, but chooses NOT to prevent it.

Has anyone read the books written by the infamous "New Atheists"?
There are 4 of them. Their names are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris,
Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens.

The atheist Richard Dawkins is an especially vile talking atheist.
Here is what the atheist Richard Dawkins said about the God of
the Bible:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant
character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,
unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser;
a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously
malevolent bully.” ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

Again, the "New Atheists" do not believe that God actually exists.
But they say that "if He does exist" He is evil as I explained above.
I keep repeating this because a large number of Internet posters
endlessly state that "Atheists do not believe that God exists" as if
we did not know that. We do know that.


Back to what some atheists have said about the
God-That-Does-Not-Exist . . .

They have specifically and clearly and emphatically declared
that the God of the Bible IS responsible for the evil in the
world.

Stephen Fry, an atheist, has a video on You Tube, He was
being interviewed and he was asked, 'What would you
say to God when you die and find out that Christianity
is actually true, and you are standing at the pearly gates?

Stephen Fry replied that he was going to ask God "Why he
put bone cancer in children? God, What is that all about?",
replied Stephen Fry.

Stephen Fry's video went viral and has become infamous on the
Internet. You see it quoted and linked to quite often.

____________

Back to The Problem Of Evil . . .

Centuries ago Epicurus formulated The Problem Of Evil like this:


Sayeth Epicurus:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not Omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”__Epicurus

The Christian analytical philosopher Alvin Plantinga has a very good
rebuttal to these "New Atheists" and to Epicurus.

Sayeth the Christian Alvin Plantinga:

{You will need to "deep read" what Plantinga says below
and spend some time studying and seriously analyzing
what Plantinga has written}

As Plantinga summarized his Free Will defense:[14]

"A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely
perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else
being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all.
Now God can create free creatures, but He can't cause or
determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so,
then they aren't significantly free after all; they do not do
what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral
good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of
moral evil; and He can't give these creatures the freedom
to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from
doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free
creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their
freedom; this is the source of moral evil. The fact that free
creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither
against God's omnipotence nor against His goodness; for
He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only
by removing the possibility of moral good."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_...urther_details

End quote.
___________


The "New Atheists" do not correctly understand the Biblical
doctrine of the Omnipotence {all-powerful} of God.

Epicurus did not correctly understand the Christian doctrine of
God's Omnipotence. God's Omnipotence does not mean that
He can do anything. God cannot create square circles. God
cannot make 2 + 2 = 7. God cannot give humans the Free Will
to do evil and at the same time prevent humans from doing evil.


The fatal flaw in Epicurus is he misunderstood the Christian
doctrine of the Omnipotence of the God of the Bible.

Conclusion: Mankind, NOT God, is the cause of sin, evil, and
natural disasters in the world.

JAG

 

`

 

Isaiah 45:7 disagrees with you.

New International Version
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

New American Standard Bible
The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

New King James Version
I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.’

"I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." KJV

Calamity, disaster or evil, God creates it, allows it - for a purpose.

You don't get the big picture. We would not understand what good is, His attributes nor appreciate them unless we know EVIL. When we experience evil and good comes along, it is so wonderful. We couldn't understand faith, mercy, forgiveness, love, hope, Grace, healing or peace if we did not suffer some form of evil. 

Think about the earthquake that hit Haiti that killed 300,000.  Most would view that as something terrible, maybe evil. However, the world was blind and ignored  the this impoverished country filled with evil vodoo and cruel leaders until this earthquake. Then immediately, mercy, help, goodness, food, kindness, compassion, love and the gospel flooded this country. What happened? Many saw the light, saw God and His true attributes and believed. 

Calamity/disaster comes to punish or judge as well. Revelation is filled with the coming catastrophic events that will destroy over half of the population.  God's wrath will be experienced by all sinners who have rejected Christ.

Evil is approaching its precipice and will soon be put down.

This does not say that man is not responsible for sin. Sin is breaking God's commandments. 

Nevertheless, God is sovereign. He has a perfect plan. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by RonaldBruno

[Wesley L]

10 hours ago, brian100 said:

Nobody can lay a hand on you with the right Faith in Mary And Jesus.  I almost died 10 x.. but God save me from all of it. I even know he can change events!!!

His power to save in the physical world is so awesome! He can make death go away. People will see you killed, and then report it, but they are crazy for seeing it when you emerge unharmed.

God saved you from death, I may agree with that.
But your claim that it is because of your right Faith in Mary and Jesus... that is just a wrong conclusion of your experiences.

By your claim, you are telling everybody that all the apostels had the wrong faith. They all died terrible deaths.
By your claim, you are telling everybody that christians who were murdered, they all had the wrong faith.

I am gratefull God saved you in your live many times. I believe that joyfully.
But you are misleading people with your wrong conclusions. I reject that because the truth is not in your claim.

 

[Wesley L]

10 hours ago, brian100 said:

Why believe in a God if he is powerless to save you? Just believing in Jesus isn't faith. You have to believe in Jesus and Mary!

Our salvation is not consumed in this world. Our salvation is consumed in heaven, eternally.
What happens to us in this world would become insignificant compared to our eternal lives in heaven.

Certainly I treasure my own life, I would pray to God for protection.
But bad things happening in my life does NOT mean that my faith is wrong or weak.
What is there to persevere if we don't have any hardships in life or even facing murder and death.
What is there to grow in faith if we don't have hardships in life?

I get the notion that you belief in a different god than Jesus Christ.

John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

Edited July 23, 2020 by Wesley L

[Michael37]

14 hours ago, JAG** said:

Man's Free Will is responsible for all the evil in the would.
God created a perfect world.
God created perfect human beings.
God gave human beings a Free Will.
Human beings used their Free Will to choose to do evil.
Human beings choosing to do evil is the reason we have
natural disasters and evil in the world-- and the reason
we have The Curse upon the Earth.

Hi JAG**, Yes, disobedience to God, whether by Satan, Adam & Eve, or any coming after them including ourselves, does give cause for thought about why our Creator made his creatures with the capacity to oppose and deny Him, and why He has instigated a Creation with the potential to bring suffering and sorrow into being.

I like to think that having eternity at His disposal God has eliminated all other possibilities in favour of the existence we have been given, and that the current juxtaposition of the eternal & infinite with the temporal & finite will ultimately prove to be worth more than we can presently imagine.     

   2Co 4:7-18  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.  (8)  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  (9)  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;  (10)  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.  (11)  For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.  (12)  So then death works in us, but life in you.  (13)  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;  (14)  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.  (15)  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.  (16)  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  (17)  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;  (18)  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

@JAG**  Thanks for an excellent topic on which to comment.

Blessings from Michael37