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Interesting post above. I am delighted to make a response. And when you reply back, I may not be on for a while. So, if you'd like please send me an email at my personal address, loganedens@hotmail.com. Thank you.

Sir, you and many others have asked those same questions about God and evil. I am thrilled to answer them.

First, if God knows everything, and his knowledge can't change, then everything is predetermined and there is no free will, right? Please listen very closely.

Knowing what men will do with their freedom is not the same as ordaining what they must do against their free choice. God's knowledge is not necessarily incompatible with free will. There is no problem in saying that God created men with free will so that they could return His love, even though he knows that some will not make that decision. God is responsible for the fact of freedom, but men are responsible for the acts of freedom. In His knowledge, God might even persuade men to make certain decisions, but there is no reason to suppose that HE coerces (force) any decision so as to destroy freedom. He works persuasively, but not coercively.

Secondly, Where did evil come from? (please read this completely)
In the beginning, there was God and He was perfect. Then the perfect God made a perfect world. So how did evil come into the picture? Let's summarize the problem this way:

1. Every creature God made is perfect.
2. But perfect creatures cannot do what is imperfect.
3. So, every creature God made cannot do what is imperfect.

But if Adam and Eve were perfect, how did they fall you might ask? Don't blame it on the snake because that just backs the question up one step; didn't God make the snake perfect too? Some have concluded that there must be some force that is equal with God or beyond His control. Or maybe God just isn't good after all. But maybe the answer lies in the idea of perfection itself.

1. God made everything perfect.
2. One of the perfect things God made was free creatures.
3. FREE WILL IS THE CAUSE OF EVIL.
4. So, imperfection (evil) can arise from perfection (not directly, but indirectly through freedom).

One of the things that makes men (and angels) morally perfect is freedom. We have a real choice about what we do. God made us that way so that we could be like Him and could love freely (forced love is not love at all, is it?). But in making us that way, He also allowed for the possibility of evil. To be free we had to have not only the opportunity to choose good, but also the ability to choose evil. That was the risk God knowingly took. That doesn't make him responsible for evil. He created the fact of freedom; we perform the acts of freedom. He made evil possible; men made evil actual. Imperfection came through the abuse of our moral perfection as free creatures.

As for the snake, the same answer applies. God made Satan the most beautiful of all creatures with the perfection of free will. Satan rebelled against God, and that became the first sin and the pattern for all sin that followed. Some people ask, "What made Satan sin?" That is like asking what caused the first cause; nothing outside his own free will caused him to sin. He was the first cause of his sin and you can't go back any farther than that. When we sin, ultimately we (by our wills) are the cause of the evil we do.

Thirdly, Why can't evil be stopped? (chuckles) That question has been rattling through the halls of college campuses for hundreds of years.

1. If God is all-good, he would destroy evil.
2. If God is all-powerful, he could destroy evil.
3. But evil is not destroyed.
4. Hence, there is no such God.

Why hasn't God done something about evil? If he could and would do something, why do we still have evil? Why is it so persistent? and it doesn't even seem to be slowing down!

There are two answers for this question. Firs, evil cannot be destroyed without destroying freedom. As I said before, free beings are the cause of evil, and freedom was given to us so that we could love. Love is the greatest good for all free creatures (Matt. 22:36-37), but love is impossible without freedom. So if freedom were destroyed, which is the only way to end evil, that would be evil in itself, because it would deprive free creatures of their greatest good.

The argument against God from evil makes some arrogant assumptions. Just because evil is not destroyed right now does not mean that it never will be. The argument implies that if God hasn't done anything as of today, then it won't ever happen. But this assumes that the person making the argument has some inside information about the future. If we restate the argument to correct this oversight in temporal perspective, it turns out to be an argument that vindicates God.

1. If God is all-good, He will defeat evil.
2. If God is all-powerful, he can defeat evil.
3. Evil is not yet defeated.
4. Therefore, God can and will one day defeat evil.

The very argument used against the existence of God turns out to be a vindication of God in the face of the problem of evil. There is no question here that if it has not yet happened and God is as we suppose Him to be, that we simply haven't waited long enough. God isn't finished yet. The final chapter has not been written. apparently God would rather wrestle with our rebellious wills than to reign supreme over rocks and trees. Those who want a quicker resolution to the conflict will have to wait.

Finally in closing, What is the purpose of evil? The question that roars in the minds of those who suffer is, "WHY?" "WHY DID I LOSE MY LEG?" "WHY DID OUR CHURCH BURN DOWN?" "WHY DID MY LITTLE GIRL HAVE TO DIE?" "WHY"? Unfortunately, I nor anybody can't always give an answer that satisfies the souls of those who hurt and makes sense of their pain. But to those who use this as a reason to deny God's existence or goodness, I an others can give an answer. Their argument is something like this:

1. There is no good purpose for much suffering.
2. An all-good God must have a good purpose for everything.
3. So, there cannot be an all-good God.

This problem can be dealt in two ways. First, we need to make a distinction. There is a difference between our knowing the purpose of evil and God having a purpose for it. Even if we don't know God's purpose, He may still have a good reason for allowing evil in our lives. So we can't assume that there is no good purpose for something just because we don't know what it could be.

Furthermore, we do know some of God's purposes for evil. For instance, we know that God sometimes uses evil to warn us of greater evils. Anyone who has raised a child has gone through the months of fearing that the baby would touch a hot stove for the first time. We hate the thought of it, but we know that once she does it, she won't do it again. She will instantly have an existential awareness of the meaning of the word "hot" and will obey our warning readily when we use it. That first small pain is allowed to avoid the danger of bigger ones later.

Pain also keeps us from self-destruction. Do you know why lepers lose their fingers, toes, and noses? Usually, it has nothing directly to do with the leprosy itself. Rather, the disease causes them to lose feelings in their extremities, and they literally destroy themselves. They can't feel the pain when they touch a hot pan, so they are about to bump into, they hit them full force without slowing down. Without the sensation of pain, they do tremendous damage to themselves and don't even realize it.

While it may seem like a high price to pay, some evil helps to bring about greater good. The Bible gives several examples of this in men like Joseph, Job, and Samson. Each went through real sufferings. How would the nation of Israel have survived the famine and had a refuge in which to grow if Joseph had not been sold into slavery by his bro's and imprisoned unjustly? Would Job have been able to make his marked spiritual growth had he not suffered first? (Job 23:10) What kind of leader would the Apostle Paul have been if he had not been humbled after his exalted revelations of God? (2 Cor. 12) Joseph summarized the matter when he told his brothers, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen 50:20). Finally, permitting some evil actually helps defeat evil. One of the first steps in some of the substance abuse rehabilitation programs is to give the patient all that he can stand of the substance until he gets sick of it. IT's easier to quit once you've had a bad experience. Projects like the "Scared Straight" program at Rahway Prison have stopped many young people from following a life of crime, but the convicts who tell them about prison life have both caused suffering and are suffering. And then there is the ultimate example: the Cross. IT seems that there an infinite injustice was wrought on an innocent Man so that good might come to all. The evil that he endured as our substitute allows us free access to God without fear, because our guilt and punishment have been taken away. I'd like to mention what C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." IN some sense, we need pain so that we are not overcome by the evil that we would choose were it painless. He alerts us to the fact that there are better things than misery.

Therefore, please consider my response. Nevertheless, unless you see signs and wonders you probably will not believe. I didn't believe until God revealed himself to me. He has done this in many ways – through miraculous experiences, through moral consciousness, through creation, and in many other ways.

Love in Christ, ( have a good day )

Logan C. Edens