Howdy everyone out there in spin city. Hope that today finds you symptom free and the sun shining in your part of the world today. Hope that you are cooking with the gas. The urge hit me to do a post this morning so here ya go. I am getting a little long winded on some of these posts so I am going to give you the short to the point version on this one. The last time we talked about why does God let evil and suffering happen in this world. In that post I said that it is because of the choices that man has made throughout time. The next question, for this is why doesn’t God just stamp out evil? I mean He is the all knowing all powerful God why doesn’t He just get rid of it all. That is a fair question I would think wouldn’t you? My first though on this is from Lamentations. It Lamentations 3:22 it says “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. So you may ask what has that got to do with stamping out evil? Well the question is if God gets rid of all evil what makes you think you would make the cut? I am a pretty laid back type of guy; I like to think that I am easy to get along with. Try to walk the straight and narrow, do what I am supposed to do and all that. But I do not fool myself either, I AM A SINNER. I have sin in my life. I do things that I know that in the eyes of God I shouldn’t do. I believe that all of us have some sin/evil in us. Before you get your feathers all puffed up like a wet hen and scream back at me I do not have any evil in me. I am a good person. In the book of Romans it says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means each and every one of us has sinned. We have some evil in us. This is where the problem comes in. We tend to put values on “evil” or degrees of evil/sin. We see some things as evil or worse than others. We have taken the “value” from it or the degree of some sin has gotten so low that we do not see it as sin any more. I can remember the day that it was not proper for Ozzie and Harriet to sleep in the same bed together, (guess I am dating myself here) they had twin beds. Now on TV today we see everyone sleeping with anyone coming down the pike and think that it is ok. Make no mistake it is still sin, we just don’t see it that way anymore, we accept it and watch it. I believe I could do a poll of everyone on this forum to define what is good and what is evil or sin and the answers would vary from person to person. What some would see as evil others would see as just part of life and think nothing of it. When God comes to take out evil He will take it all out. So when God comes to take out evil do you want Him to give you what you deserve? Will you make the cut? If God pays us what we deserve, like it says in Lamentations we will be consumed. But God does not work that way. He loves us, He has mercy on us. He does not treat us as our sins deserver or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. The next time hear someone ask why God just doesn’t stamp out evil or bad thinks just ask them if they would make the cut?
Thanks, Ted. I concur. To rid the world of evil, at any particular time, God would have to get rid of man, whom He loves, and desires to come to repentance. At some point, that will happen, but not until God decides. Evil though, is not a thing. It is a lack of a thing, a lack of goodness, a lack of virtue. All goodness and virtue comes from God. Anything that did not come from God is not virtuous, not good. So evil is a lack of what God have given us, not something that God has given us. God does not have evil to give. God cannot give what He does not possess. Therefore, God is good, pure good, pure virtue, and evil is not from God. Here is a very 'good' video, which I think explains why there is 'evil' in the world, or a lack of God's goodness. It is less than 2 minutes long, very well done and easy to understand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfd_1UAjeIA&feature=player_embedded Thanks for bringing us this topic. Hank
Hank Very good video. I would suggest that anyone interested in the topic watch it. Good comments! I agree 100% Hope you enjoyed it.
I read these posts over several days...made me think and reflect on what an awesome God we have. Thank you two for commenting.
