Why prevent comments on your latest post about grace? I would like to add my own experience of God's grace for which I am humbled to have His mercy over many years and might aid others seeking salvation.
I was pleased to read your article Scott. I understand from it you are a mature and objective spiritualist. One point I would like to add is when evil has served its purpose, it retreats but does not go away forever. It WILL re-appear whenever nescience again disturbs the balance of peace in the world. You can find more in depth information about this in ancient Vedic texts such as Srimad Bhagavatam and other Puranas.
You need to be careful in making such a statement as you have done, that "we can prove that God created evil for a purpose and plans everything in His universe".
This can be easily misunderstood by someone who is unfamiliar with Scripture. God is not the author of evil. God created Lucifer, and the other angels who fell, and just as He did with man, He gave them free will. Moral evil is a choice. Fallen man in his state of total depravity, is incapable of choosing to do good. Even the good that fallen man does, will not earn salvation. Bad things do happen, people get ill, they die - this is all the result of sin, which came about through disobedience to God. The book of Jude tells us that " the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” These angels made a decision of their own free will to abandon their proper dwelling i.e dwelling with God.
The evil referred to in Isaiah 45:7 instead refers to harmful natural events, calamity, misfortune, adversity, affliction, or disaster. It is in this second sense that Isaiah speaks, and his meaning is reflected in most modern Bible translations of Isaiah 45:7 : “I make success and create disaster”.
God is sovereign in all things, and has foreordained all that comes to pass - including natural disasters, various other "evil" events, or by using unregenerate men to fulfill His purposes - eg Nebuchadnezzar, Pontius Pilate.
Thank you. I needed this today… have been feeling despair when I contemplate the world lately.
Why prevent comments on your latest post about grace? I would like to add my own experience of God's grace for which I am humbled to have His mercy over many years and might aid others seeking salvation.
I was pleased to read your article Scott. I understand from it you are a mature and objective spiritualist. One point I would like to add is when evil has served its purpose, it retreats but does not go away forever. It WILL re-appear whenever nescience again disturbs the balance of peace in the world. You can find more in depth information about this in ancient Vedic texts such as Srimad Bhagavatam and other Puranas.
You need to be careful in making such a statement as you have done, that "we can prove that God created evil for a purpose and plans everything in His universe".
This can be easily misunderstood by someone who is unfamiliar with Scripture. God is not the author of evil. God created Lucifer, and the other angels who fell, and just as He did with man, He gave them free will. Moral evil is a choice. Fallen man in his state of total depravity, is incapable of choosing to do good. Even the good that fallen man does, will not earn salvation. Bad things do happen, people get ill, they die - this is all the result of sin, which came about through disobedience to God. The book of Jude tells us that " the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” These angels made a decision of their own free will to abandon their proper dwelling i.e dwelling with God.
The evil referred to in Isaiah 45:7 instead refers to harmful natural events, calamity, misfortune, adversity, affliction, or disaster. It is in this second sense that Isaiah speaks, and his meaning is reflected in most modern Bible translations of Isaiah 45:7 : “I make success and create disaster”.
God is sovereign in all things, and has foreordained all that comes to pass - including natural disasters, various other "evil" events, or by using unregenerate men to fulfill His purposes - eg Nebuchadnezzar, Pontius Pilate.