Presence Of "Evil?"

[chezlaw]

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The Bible says that Man is a fallen creature. Born in sin, and living in rebellion against God. (Sin can be seen as rebellion in some contexts).
If you accept the Bible's statement, then you might ask how much suffering does God PREVENT?
If we truly are all sinners (and I see nothing in the world to DISPROVE it), in a state of rebellion against God and His Laws, caring only for ourselves, unloving, unspiritual, and unwilling to acknowledge Him--then what sort of world should we expect?


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I'm struggling with this. If we are all born in sin then that's the way god decreed it should be. So all the suffering that results is down to god. Then god prevents some of this suffering providing we worship him.

This sounds like an argument against god being good, which I'm sure is not what you mean.

chez

[kalooki45]

Sorry if I was murky [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]
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If we are all born in sin then that's the way god decreed it should be.

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According to the Bible, Man chose to sin through disobedience.
God told Man that to "eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge" would result in death. Or in other words, Man chose Knowledge over God's known will, lost innocence and perfection, and in the process brought death to the world. Man wanted to REPLACE God with his own wisdom, and become as a God himself. Through his God-given free will, he could and did make this choice for himself.


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So all the suffering that results is down to god.

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According to scripture, there was no death or suffering before the Fall, so we can ascribe suffering to Man, not God. ( I'm leaving out Satan, as he will only complicate things needlessly) :P

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Then god prevents some of this suffering providing we worship him.

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I wasn't very clear. What I was trying to say was that if you accept a fallen world, in rebellion against God (goodness and holiness), one could logically expect it to be even WORSE than it is. I ascribe the lack of constant, universal suffering to God's mercy. His mercy is for everyone, not just those who worship Him.

No one respects a parent who allows their children to "run wild" without correction. It's universally understood that to excessively protect them from the consequences of their mistakes "spoils" them, and results in a warped, rotten kid who will never reach true maturity.

God is not a bad parent,
but "tough love" isn't very popular with the recipients!

He wants to bring us to a saving faith in Him, a Trust that we naturally lack. Suffering is ONE of the things that gets our attention...and that attention is paramount to Him, because He desires our eternal salvation, and is "unwilling that any should perish".