Replies

“”It was the same God who let the King of Syria kill hundreds of thousands of the northern tribes of Israel, and just last week permitted the church in Iraq to be attacked.””

All of these were acts committed by free will of men, not attributed to the will of God.

“”Do you really believe that God is powerless to stop the atrocities or didn’t know they would take place?””

God’s power is His Love which NEVER ceases or God would be moved,it is the free will of man that denies this love and commits heinous acts. Just because God knows all things does not mean you can attach the evil to Him

You’re failing to see that man turning freely away from God’s love is what punishes man,it is not an angry God that kills people,it’s lack of love of man NOT attributed to God

God does not change from Love or it would be an imperfection
The Scripture that seem to suggest God is inconsistent with perfection are to be metaphorically understood

Thus we see Saint Aquinas write...

“But even other affections (affectiones), which are specifically inconsistent with divine perfection, are predicated in Holy Writ of God, not properly but metaphorically, on account of likeness of effects. Thus sometimes the will in following out the order of wisdom tends to the same effect to which one might be inclined by a passion, which would argue a certain imperfection: for the judge punishes from a sense of justice, as an angry man under the promptings of anger. So sometimes God is said to be ‘angry,’ inasmuch as in the order of His wisdom He means to punish some one: When his anger shall blaze out suddenly (Ps. ii, 13). He is said to be ‘compassionate,’ inasmuch as in His benevolence He takes away the miseries of men, as we do the same from a sentiment of pity: The Lord is merciful and compassionate, patient and abounding in mercy (Ps. cli, 8). Sometimes also He is said to be ‘repentant,’ inasmuch as in the eternal and immutable order of His providence, He builds up what He had previously destroyed, or destroys what He had previously made, as we do when moved by repentance: It repenteth me that I have made man (Gen. vi, 6, 7). God is also said to be ‘sad,’ inasmuch as things happen contrary to what He loves and approves, as sadness is in us at what happens against our will: And the Lord saw, and it seemed evil in his eyes, because judgement is not: God saw that there is no man, and he was displeased, because there was none to meet him (Isa. lix, 15, “

And....

That God cannot will Evil by Saint Aquinas

EVERY act of God is an act of virtue, since His virtue is His essence (Chap. XCII).

2. The will cannot will evil except by some error coming to be in the reason, at least in the matter of the particular choice there and then made. For as the object of the will is good, apprehended as such, the will cannot tend to evil unless evil be somehow proposed to it as good; and that cannot be without error.* But in the divine cognition there can be no error . 3. God is the sovereign good, admitting no intermixture of evil. 4. Evil cannot befall the will except by its being turned away from its end. But the divine will cannot be turned away from its end, being unable to will except by willing itself . It cannot therefore will evil; and thus free will in it is naturally established in good. This is the meaning of the texts: God is faithful and without iniquity (Deut. xxxii, 4); Thine eyes are clean, O Lord, and thou canst not look upon iniquity (Hab.i, 13).