I've addressed it multiple times. Maybe not on this thread. It's calamity not evil and it's judgement on people not God inventing evil.
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Ronald David Bruno
Well-Known Member
Judas betrayed Jesus at exactly the right time _ after being with him over 3 years ... and that was part of the plan - it was prophesied. He didnt make him do it, he knew he would, allowed it, and Satan entered him as if cooperating with this Divine plan, the sacrificial death of Jesus.
It would be wise to look at what scholars say:
"God is certainly sovereign over evil. There's a sense in which it is proper even to say that evil is part of His eternal decree. He planned for it. It did not take Him by surprise. It is not an interruption of His eternal plan. He declared the end from the beginning, and He is still working all things for His good pleasure (Isaiah 46:9-10).
But God's role with regard to evil is never as its author. He simply permits evil agents to work, then overrules evil for His own wise and holy ends. Ultimately He is able to make all things-including all the fruits of all the evil of all time-work together for a greater good (Romans 8:28)." JOHN MacArthur
Sounds similar to what I said.
"There's moral evil. There's what we would call metaphysical evil—finitude, for example. Whenever the Bible speaks of God bringing evil upon people, it is evil from their perspective. When the fires fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the people did not look upon that as a good thing. That was bad news. But it was ultimately good because it was an expression of God's judgment upon their wickedness. It was a punishment wrought by the hand of God upon evil. That doesn't mean that God did something wrong or something morally evil by visiting them with judgment.
RC Sproul
So, to expound in this topic, God dies not create "moral evil", but He created the conditions that a choice of good and evil had to be given yo man. And of course His judgments may be from our perspective, evil, disaster, troubles, woes, calamity, but sin needs to be judged.
Therefore, it is also necessary to say that God does not force us to sin, He allows it for His purpose.
"They have become like us, knowing good and evil."
*** Note also that the Hebrew word "ra" in Isaiah 45:7 is the same word in Gen. 2:17
What scholar? He planned for it. It's not his decree. Two very different things.
MacArthur is a calvinist. He embraces a contradiction. If God decrees evil he caused it. If he simply allows evil, that's different. Most calvinists try to have it both ways.
Brother James
Active Member
In order for there to be free will, doesn't there have to be the possibility to choose to do wrong? Could a universe containing no possibility of evil every be one of free will? Wouldn't that make all men merely automatons / robots who lack free moral agency? I'm aware that some do not believe man has free will, and my questions won't make sense to some, but this is how it strikes me. It is better to have reality/existence in which evil is a possible choice so that our craving and desire for God has value.
Sproul was a strict calvinist who said:
" Paul leaves nothing outside of the purview of God’s active control. Good and evil, our choice to believe in or reject Christ, the rising and setting of the sun—there is nothing that the Lord does not determine and control."
Obviously I disagree with his interpretation of paul's writings.
To determine something is to be the cause of it if you happen to be an all powerful being. Again if God actively controls evil saying he just allows it is nonsense.
But the Bible says God regrets. God changed his mind. You cannot have it both ways and be consistent in your theology.
God isn't Aristotle's unmoved mover. Not even close.
