This is a discussion board to get us started. Anyone can chime in with questions, comments, etc. Feel free to ask/post anonymously if you that would make you more comfortable.
Perhaps evil exists in this world in order to display the fullness of God's divine love, to make a place for Christ to suffer and die for our sins. Romans 5:8
I don't know if I'd say evil exists simply to make a place for Christ to suffer. Christ's work is a response to an already-fallen world. In God's foreknowledge, he willed that Christ would come to rescue people from evil-based sin. Making it the other way around creates an unnecessarily circular argument: 1. Christ wanted to suffer, 2. but that would require evil, 3. so let's allow evil. I will agree with the first part of your sentence though: evil exists to provide a contrast and enable us to see God for what He really is: love in spite of ourselves. Without that contrast, Heaven would be that much less fulfilling. In other words, the amount of joy/contentment/relief to be experienced in Heaven is inversely related to the amount of evil we endure here. The farther down we go, the more we gain on the trip up. That truly means something if the trip up will last forever while the trip down is merely mortal.
I like what you are saying but what if the evil we are endouring is so great and heavy we can't see God anymore;even as a Christian follower. Being knocked down so much, and trying to persevere through him seems impossible. no matter how hard we are trying to get up from our fall, something is right there to knock us back down. I feel like a the people on your video of evangelism you showed at church the other day. I'm walking along in my faith and "boom" I'm down...over and over again....
I think I'll name my next kid "anonymous" so he gets credit for all the stuff nobody else wants to claim. -bill
ReplyDeletePerhaps evil exists in this world in order to display the fullness of God's divine love, to make a place for Christ to suffer and die for our sins. Romans 5:8
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I'd say evil exists simply to make a place for Christ to suffer. Christ's work is a response to an already-fallen world. In God's foreknowledge, he willed that Christ would come to rescue people from evil-based sin. Making it the other way around creates an unnecessarily circular argument: 1. Christ wanted to suffer, 2. but that would require evil, 3. so let's allow evil. I will agree with the first part of your sentence though: evil exists to provide a contrast and enable us to see God for what He really is: love in spite of ourselves. Without that contrast, Heaven would be that much less fulfilling. In other words, the amount of joy/contentment/relief to be experienced in Heaven is inversely related to the amount of evil we endure here. The farther down we go, the more we gain on the trip up. That truly means something if the trip up will last forever while the trip down is merely mortal.
ReplyDeleteI like what you are saying but what if the evil we are endouring is so great and heavy we can't see God anymore;even as a Christian follower. Being knocked down so much, and trying to persevere through him seems impossible. no matter how hard we are trying to get up from our fall, something is right there to knock us back down. I feel like a the people on your video of evangelism you showed at church the other day. I'm walking along in my faith and "boom" I'm down...over and over again....
ReplyDelete