As we said two weeks ago God did not create any evil thing. He created only good things, and evil is a privation or corruption of a good thing. So the difficult question is where, then, did evil come from? That is, how did the privations or corruptions get there? The answer is free will. Evil cannot come directly from the hand of the Creator any more than polluted water can come directly from a pure mountain spring. Freedom means the power to choose otherwise, so one is free to do good and also free to do evil. We must be given the freedom of choice or we would be robots, puppets, or automatons. God made evil possible by creating free creatures; they are responsible for making it actual. Thus, sin was born in the breast of an archangel in the presence of God. God created only good things. One good thing He made was free will. A good being, with the good power of free will, chose to put his will over God’s. Who caused Lucifer to sin? No one did- he was the cause of his own sin. So why doesn’t God stop it all? Why doesn’t He call a halt to all suffering? The only way God could literally destroy all evil is to destroy all freedom. No one can be praised or blamed for an act in which they had no free choice. Now, evil is still on the rampage, both morally and physically. Hatred, crime, war, tornados, earthquakes, poverty and starvation. The fact that God has not yet defeated it does not mean He never will, in fact that is exactly what the Bible says He will do. But we humans want to know the reasons for everything, if we can’t or don’t understand, we look for someone to blame. We cannot just accept God’s Sovereignty and that there is a purpose and reason for everything. So next week we will look at the purpose and avoidability of Evil. Excerpts from chapter 3 &4, If God, why Evil? By Norman L. Geisler, I encourage you get this book and read all of Dr. Geisler’s research and 50 years of knowledge in theology, philosophy, and apologetics on the college or graduate level.
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