Best apologetic answer for sin being allowed

[Ernie]

What is the best apologetic answer you can come up with when asking why God would get angry at sin and be absolutely anti sin when he at least allowed it to be created, and knowingly realize what would become of it?

 

[Bob]

Thank you for your post and questions.

God created us in His image and gave us free will (He did not choose to create organic robots). Since I am a reflection of God, and He loves me, it follows I am expected to love Him. Also, since He loves all people unconditionally, it follows I am expected to love my neighbor.

God expects I will not intentionally harm my neighbor and help my neighbor when that is appropriate. In other words, God expects me to be gentle and peaceful, as well as sharing and caring. To act otherwise is to act contrary to God’s expectations: that is being sinful.

Blessings.

 

[Ernie]

Thank you for your post and questions.

God created us in His image and gave us free will (He did not choose to create organic robots). Since I am a reflection of God, and He loves me, it follows I am expected to love Him. Also, since He loves all people unconditionally, it follows I am expected to love my neighbor.

God expects I will not intentionally harm my neighbor and help my neighbor when that is appropriate. In other words, God expects me to be gentle and peaceful, as well as sharing and caring. To act otherwise is to act contrary to God’s expectations: that is being sinful.

Blessings.

What would your answer be to the many who don't believe in free will and are more reform/Calvinism in belief?

 

[ProDeo]

What would your answer be to the many who don't believe in free will and are more reform/Calvinism in belief?

Ask them if they believe they have a will at all.

If that does not work, ask them if someone put a loaded gun to their head with the question to renounce Christ, else....

Whatever they choose they will realize their will is free, only if it is for a few seconds.

 

[Lambano]

What would your answer be to the many who don't believe in free will and are more reform/Calvinism in belief?

A Calvinist (which I'm not) would probably answer along these lines: All things are for God’s glory, and God is glorified through His mercy in saving His Elect from their sins. God is also glorified through His justice in punishing the sins of the non-Elect.

 

[ScottA]

What is the best apologetic answer you can come up with when asking why God would get angry at sin and be absolutely anti sin when he at least allowed it to be created, and knowingly realize what would become of it?

" He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” (Revelation 22:11).​

In other words...God has as much as revealed his own reason and answer. Because in all of God's revelations down through the ages "here a little, there a little", at the time of John's book of Revelation such a truth could finally be revealed--because we has come past that point of all that was "finished" on the cross. Which before could not be revealed because knowing the truth, men would not have carried out all that was first to be revealed in the lives of many generations--that is: That, life in this world is not unfolding by chance according to the will of men--but is the will of men--that freewill given by God--that was finished even before the world began (just as the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world)--but is rather those things that were before are now revealed being made manifest in this world in the lives of men...in a timely chronology that never was, but was finished in the twinkling of an eye (God's eye)--then made manifest for a witness before the Judgement.

 

[Lambano]

22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:22)

9. “Remember the former things long past,

For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,

10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying, ‘My plan will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’”. (Isaiah 46:9-10)

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2)

God allows sin because His plan for us requires that we know through experience Good and Evil in order to be like Him.

 

[Button]

22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:22)

9. “Remember the former things long past,

For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,

10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying, ‘My plan will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’”. (Isaiah 46:9-10)

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2)

God allows sin because His plan for us requires that we know through experience Good and Evil in order to be like Him.

Weren't we like him before Adam and Eve ate of the tree?

 

[Lambano]

Weren't we like him before Adam and Eve ate of the tree?

Genesis 3:22 was after the Fall, so apparently the imago Dei was deficient in that we lacked the knowledge of Good and Evil until we actually disobeyed. Why that would be, I can only speculate, but for whatever reason, that seems to be important to God.

That was a fascinating question.

 

[ProDeo]

Weren't we like him before Adam and Eve ate of the tree?

Apparently not.

Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

 

[Aunty Jane]

What is the best apologetic answer you can come up with when asking why God would get angry at sin and be absolutely anti sin when he at least allowed it to be created, and knowingly realize what would become of it?

This is such a great question....and one that I myself struggled with in my younger days.

Why does sin govern all our lives when we don’t want it to?....we don’t like what it does to us or to anyone else....all sin brings heartbreak....and has bad consequences....so why did God allow it when he could have just ended it?

I studied hard to find the answers. And when I did...it made a lot of sense.
Please bear with me as I explain...

When God created the humans and gave them one simple command...one that did not cause them any hardship whatsoever.....he placed a prohibition on one tree of the garden that he had claimed as his own property. They were not to eat the fruit of that tree, under penalty of death.

Why was that tree there in the garden in the first place? It represented God’s Sovereignty.
God had provided all the various fruit trees in the garden for human consumption, but only this one tree was off limits. Why?

What was the tree called? “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Why did God want this knowledge withheld from his human children?
In the natural scheme of things, there are equal opposites in many things that we take for granted every day....”up/down”...”in/out”...”forward/backward”....”with/without”...”positive/negative”....”for/against”...and so on, so why were these “opposites” “good/evil” alone, to be kept from the humans?

If we can imagine the goodness of God, and then imagine it’s equal opposite, it becomes obvious, I believe why God wanted that knowledge withheld. It would not benefit humankind in any way....it would actually be a burden that they were not designed to carry. God never wanted any evil thing to touch our lives.
He would guide and direct human’s lives so that evil would never touch them....all they had to do was obey his instructions and unending life in paradise would be their eternal future. The other tree in the garden was “the tree of life” and there was no prohibition attached to that.....so as long as the humans obeyed, no harm would ever befall them. But a knowledge of evil entered into the world and life would never be the same again...(Gen 3:22-24)

As an appointed guardian (Cherub) in the garden of Eden, the angel who became satan the devil was observing all that transpired, and he was apparently a magnificent creature, who began to desire worship for himself.....he is spoken about figuratively by Ezekiel, in an address to the King of Tyre...

“Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering. . . .On the day that you were created They were prepared. “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you.” (Ezekiel 28:12-15 NASB)

This explains his defection I believe....he was the one who wanted “to be like God”.....and the only way he could get what he wanted was to separate the humans from God.....partaking of the forbidden tree would get him what he wanted....
Because they were free willed, he used the woman, (lying to her about God’s intentions and removing the penalty), telling her that they would not die, so she went on to persuade her husband.....the devil alienated the humans from their God, and they were evicted from their paradise home.

God could have eliminated the rebels right there and then, but unless the issues raised in the accusations satan had made against the Creator, were completely settled, there was nothing to stop any other rebel from raising the same issues over and over again. The only way to settle the issues, was for God to hand the human race over to his accuser...(Luke 4:5-7) the one they had chosen to obey, to show both humans and angels the folly of disobedience and the consequences of obeying the wrong god. If only the humans would have obeyed their Creator, we would be living a very different life.

But in order to settle those issues, once and for all.....God allowed the devil to use his temptations to test out the whole human race, so that these issues could never be raised again....there will be nothing to spoil the future.

Those who remain faithful and obedient, will have the reward of a wonderful life. God did not subject us to this life without a very good reason.
Jesus’ sacrifice paid to release the flawed human race from sin and death...so, everlasting life will be restored in paradise as God first intended. (Rev 21:2-4)
We have so much to look forward to...