We have asked the question, \u201cIf God\u2019s so good, why does evil exist?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
We acknowledge that these three Statements Appear Contradictory:
A. God is all good.
B. God is all powerful.
C. Evil exists.<\/p>\n
In our first two devotional thoughts, we answered, \u201cIs God all good?\u201d with a resounding YES!
And, we answered the question, \u201cIs God all powerful?\u201d with an emphatic YES!<\/p>\n
Of course, answering \u201cYES\u201d to both of those questions leaves us in a bit of a bind. If God is all-good,<\/p>\n
it seems logical to believe that He would want to destroy evil.<\/p>\n
If God is all-powerful, it seems logical to believe that He would be able to destroy all evil.<\/p>\n
To understand why God doesn\u2019t destroyed all evil we must understand\u2026<\/p>\n
C. Why does Evil exist?<\/p>\n
In an attempt to answer this question, we have examined four profound realities. To me, these truths help us understand a little more how a good, loving all-powerful God could allow evil to exist:<\/p>\n
1. God did not create evil, but He created the potential for evil.
2. Evil is a corruption of what is good.
3. God could eliminate SOME evil, but the problem would still remain.
4. God could destroy ALL evil, but that would include you and me.<\/p>\n
So, now we turn to some positive aspects about God and evil.<\/p>\n
5. God has provided a future without evil for those who choose Him now.<\/p>\n
This is the whole message of the Church: that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to face the death sentence that we deserved for our own evil, so that we could experience a full and abundant life with Him now and forever in heaven.<\/p>\n
2 Timothy 4:18 (ESV) \u201cThe Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not some promise that evil will never touch us or hurt us in this world. It is a conviction that no matter what happens to us on this earth, our ultimate rescue into heaven is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
6. God has provided peace and hope in the face of evil.<\/p>\n
Next week, we will explore this aspect and discuss \u201cHow do we cope with evil and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have asked the question, \u201cIf God\u2019s so good, why does evil exist?\u201d We acknowledge that these three Statements Appear Contradictory: A. God is all good. B. God is all powerful. C. Evil exists. In our first two devotional thoughts, we answered, \u201cIs God all good?\u201d with a resounding YES!And, we answered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3627"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3629,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions\/3629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}