Why does God allow evil?

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Why does God allow evil? 

Reblogged from Elizabeth Prata´s  the-end-time.blogspot.com

God doesn't cause tragedy. But God allows it. Why?

Todd Friel of Wretched TV answered this in a very good and biblical way. It is 7 minutes long and I recommend listening. The video is below. Here is a short, written summary of what Mr Friel said-

The bible makes sense to help us understand what appears to be senseless. We need to be proclaiming the reasons for evil the bible gives generally so that individuals can apply them specifically. We can't point fingers and say that 'this is the reason that happened to YOU,' but if we share the general principles of why God allows evil it may help someone understand and apply it to their own situation. God is always doing something for everyone involved in a tragedy. God uses sin sinlessly. He is always at work to the Good.

1. The Gospel
If there was not sin in the world we would not need Jesus as Savior and not know how amazingly kind God is to send Him to us. Without sin there is no Gospel.

2. Magnify His Goodness
When God's kindness is portrayed against the backdrop of evil His goodness is even brighter.

3. Repent
In Luke 13:1-5, in a sermon on the need for individual repentance for sin, Jesus talks about to 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them. They were innocent victims of a calamity which was due to no fault of those killed. Are we less sinful than those who were killed? No. We don't know the day or hour of our appointment with death, therefore the need to repent NOW is even greater.

4. Jesus loves children
He loves them. Maybe He wanted them with Him today. Let that comfort you.

5. Make us long for Him
The churches were packed after the tragedy and the candlelight vigils were frequent. We long for Him and rush to Him when under such duress and heavy weight.

6. Draws us to Himself
See above

7. Equips us to comfort
We can comfort someone else.

8. Prepare us for service
He uses sin sinlessly by increasing our gratitude today for service tomorrow. He uses something really hard to do some and to equip us for something in the future to empathize with others going through a similar thing, or for us to be able to endure something in the future.

9. Remind us of the battle
He uses sin to remind us of the battle in the spiritual realms for the souls of men, and to refocus our priorities.

10. Genuine decisions can be evil
He allows us to make decisions and sometimes those decisions can be downright evil

11. Reaping and sowing
Is it possible a nation is reaping what it has been sowing?

12. Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Some things are too high for us to know, or too burdensome. Would you tell your five year old the adult things we know of? They would either not understand or be able to handle it. Sometimes God reveals things to us later, or in heaven, when we can handle it.