Posted on 12/19/2014 5:48:05 AM PST by Gamecock
I found this little ditty in the comments section of a theological liberal:
Old Epicurean trilemma (although also attributed to Carneades the Skeptic):
If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful.
If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good.
If God is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why does evil exist?
It sounds profound and deep, but the Bible has answered this question over and over again in its denunciation of our own goodness. When the man said to Jesus, “good teacher…” Jesus replied that only God was good. He was not speaking in hyperbole. He was making a statement about the goodness of man. We don’t have any inherent goodness in us. We are conceived in iniquity and without God’s grace in our lives, we continue on in iniquity until we receive our just rewards in the after life, a punishment that no man wants, but fully deserves.
The problem with the above statement is that those who make it assume the lie that we are born innocent and therefore, with the right education and upbringing, we can be good people. This is just not the case. As Paul wrote Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… (Romans 5:12). If there are those born innocent and never sin, then they would never die because death is the result of sin. Yet, all sin and all die because of our inherited sinfulness.
So is God being unjust by not preventing evil? Not at all. But we must understand that if He is to wipe out all that which is evil, that means He would have to wipe out all of humanity. It is in His grace towards some that He doesn’t deal immediately with the evil that does exists. Remember that He is not slow in His coming because He still has many to save before that day, since He is not willing that any of His elect would perish.
Yes, He could stop all that is evil, but does not do so for His own glory. He will be glorified both in His dealings with the just and the unjust at the end of time
I don’t suspect that those who hold to the above position to accept my answers here. But for those of us who have tasted His grace unto salvation, we can rest assured that the truths of the Bible about God are trustworthy. Only God is good. Only God is just. And thankfully, only God is truly merciful.
Just one more thought on the above statement: it really does show the arrogance of man. Who are we to question God’s motives, intentions and plans? He is not looking to us for instruction or wisdom. The people who make such statements are foolishly arrogant, and will have to answer to God some day for their stupidity. God will not be mocked, even if their statements seem profound. But that is the foolishness of the non-believer.
So then man can sin in Heaven?
“Which is it?”
It’s a gift, just a gift with potentially bad consequences if misused.
For example, say I give you an automobile. Most would be thrilled with that gift. Yet, if you get drunk, drive it, and run someone over, you can turn the gift into a curse.
Off the top of my head, I think man in Heaven would most certainly choose to serve God in every way.
Do you believe God did not expect them to fall?
How about the free will of one person clashing , fighting against the free will of another person, is it still free will ?
It’s called war.
Man will choose to serve God because his nature has been changed completely. He will not have the ability to sin once in Heaven, as the sin nature will once and for all be purged from him.
Of course we have free will. Just because we may be deluded, or influenced towards sin by other forces doesn’t mean that we still do not retain that essential element of ourselves. We may simply be unable to exercise it under certain conditions.
If we didn’t have free will, then God punishing us for sinning would be mere cruelty, like a child burning ants with a magnifying glass.
God foresees every choice, but that doesn’t mean the choice was not freely chosen.
Agreed, all of our choices are freely chosen. And our choices have been predestined (foresee = foreknown = predestined) by God.
What I mean is ? How can they call those who be with out free will robots.
That’s to say God’s elect, his beloved created in his image and character as robots it’s a insult to his elect, his beloved, his adopted ones, and a insult to God himself.
For they can never be robots when God’s love is directed towards them and in them in Christ.
Electronic mechinacal robots as far as we know them have no living souls created by God nor can they experience the love OF God.
To elaborate, we choose within our nature. And the nature of unregenerate man is that he will not seek after God.
Therefore, those who do not follow after God are punished because of their sins. And those that follow after God are rewarded because they were chosen by God.
But on the other hand, I have no idea how He operates. Perhaps he enjoys the spontaneity of events at times. He might even like surprises.
For me to say would be like the pot describing the potter.
It is blessing, because whenever we choose to do right we glorify God.
I don’t recall any promise from God of “fair” in the Bible.
God gives us free will because without it, there is no love.
For example, when we freely choose to serve God, that is an act of love. If, as muslims do, we serve God because he demands it, that is slavery, not love.
What would compel you to choose to do right?
It’s your will so free that you can, on your own, make a free will choice to do “right”?
Is that even in your nature?
Interesting. It seems Paul has some insight on this:
Romans 9:16-24
So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.”
So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another fnfor common use?
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Paul allow Pharaoh to do evil to demonstrate His power, and allows sin to endure to make know the riches of His glory upon the vessels of mercy, His elect.
Typo. God allow Pharaoh, not Paul...
Every so often, I will FR had an edit feature with history tracking...
There’s only one truly “free will,” and that’s God’s. All other wills are subject to His. Including Satan’s.
I know there are those who claim they chose Him, but Scripture declares otherwise:
Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
So being born again isn’t a product of our will, but God’s will. Those are absolute negations.
Repentance itself is a gift from God:
2Ti 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
Faith itself is a gift from God:
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Those are also absolute negations.
So neither salvation, repentance or faith are the products of human will.
Exactly.
Tell all those folks grousing upstream!
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