Is GOD Allowing EVIL to PERSIST!
Religious or not just take a minute, and read this. I'm not judging or preaching, just pondering. (if you've got a minute read this, if you've got two tell me what you think of it.) God created us all with a choice, to serve Him or to serve ourselves. True evil in our world comes from the later of the two choices. That is truly what we are here to learn. When you follow the first of all the directives that Jesus put forth, IE: When Jesus was asked " Teacher what is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." "This is the first and great commandment." Matthew 22:36-38. When we follow this commandment we are bound to do God's will. Within that state of mind there is no doubt, all of our fear, and hatred, and self serving nature is defeated. When true evil manifests it is from these that it is born. When you look to any sin you have committed throughout all of your existence you most probably will come back to one of these. Especially fear. When you keep your mind, your heart, and your soul focused on loving God there is no room for evil. I believe that the lesson that we are here to learn is just that; Doing YOUR will creates evil to gain a handhold on your life. Doing God's will serves God and evil is defeated. If God were to remove evil, He would in effect be taking away your choice, your free will. At the very least removing evil would remove any opportunity for us to see the consequences of our actions. In closing I would just like to point out that as men, and women we may never be able to completely ignore our impulse to take control and go our own way, it is very difficult to completely surrender your will to God. Those that have are said to reach sainthood. Those that have not are still loved and cherished by God. That is what grace is, only by the grace of God are we saved. Hopefully we can gain faith in our lives, and accept His will, day by day, a little more. Because I believe that the more we do, the less evil will be with us. If you look at it this way I guess the question would be better served; Why we as the children of God, allow for evil.
F.Michael Sigler
Mike is a new friend of mine with so terrific writing skills, stop by his Blog, http://notwritenow.blogspot.com/
to experience more of his talent.
5 comments:
"it is very difficult to completely surrender your will to God."
Well, I don't believe in a god. No god! And especially not the Christian god. And I just don't get it. Why surrender my will to this god? I am born with free will, I'm supposed to be able to use it... but God already knows what I'm going to do before I do it? That's not free will. Now surrendering that so called free will to God sort of makes me a slave, doesn't it?
Nope, thanks. I'll stay an atheist. It has served me quite well so far.
I'll be back. :)
Ute,
Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion here. I realize that we have two very different ideas concerning this subject.
Free Will is one of God's greatest gifts and was given so that we would not be "slaves" to God. His desire has always been to express His love for us and receive our love in return. When you guide and teach YOUR children, you're actually doing the same thing. You're teaching them what you see as "good" and warning them from what you see as "evil", they in turn must "choose" whether to obey (submit their will) or to suffer the consequences. You guide them out of Love, they obey out of Love and trust.
As for God already knowing what you're going to do, you're absolutely correct, He does! But, knowing what you're going to do, and forcing you to do something are two very different things. He always gives you a choice.
Even the choice to remain an "Atheist".
I will say that choosing to believe that God doesn't exist will not make him NOT EXIST, It will only make it so that you can't know Him.
Thanks again for your comments, you are welcome here.
"I will say that choosing to believe that God doesn't exist will not make him NOT EXIST, It will only make it so that you can't know Him."
Thank you for your response Karen. Let me turn this around though. I didn't choose to believe that a god doesn't exist. I simply don't believe in any god. Choosing to believe that something doesn't exist is not the same as not believing.
Plus, couldn't it just be the other way around? Simply because you choose to believe that the Christian God exists (as supposed to all the other gods who exist in other people's opinions), doesn't mean that he exists... right?
Having said all that. Thank you for publishing my comment. I really do appreciate it. I have commented many times and my comments were simply deleted.
"Nope, thanks. I'll stay an atheist. It has served me quite well so far.
I'll be back. :)"
I'm Just going to say that if you weren't seeking to find your own relationship with God (however you define Him) you wouldn't be here. There is no such thing as an accident.
By the way; the fact that God is omnipresent doesn't take away your free will. He sees the universe and all time as one complete tapastry, your only looking at your own personal threads. Surrender to His will and you surrender to your own true self, you are not seperate from God.
With Love,
F.Michael Sigler
You're right it is wimping out of evangelism. More a sort of a rant. An argument about free will isn't going to convict asnyone about sin. Don't appeal to the mind attack the conscience.You have to presume that subconciously everyone, even Atheists, knows that they are sinning against God. As Romans 1 says, the existence of God is easily known by how the world around us is made; 'not knowing' is not an excuse. There's a subliminal message written into the very nature of things. But the prose of evangelism is to take a big red pen and write it clear. Assume that people nkow that they are lost sinners. Coming to God isn't a lifestyle-enhancer, its a parachute, a life-boat a miracle cure. but hey, well done for bringing up the subject. Never mind whether you think you can surrender your will to go eithe, we just need to be willing to be made willing, ever heard of that?
Tony
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