All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Stupid, but obvious question:
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Permalink Reply by ScribeD on
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Kayla, Jesus tells us that Hell was created for the Devil and his angels. There are scriptures that tell us that many of them are already there (although Satan is not, as is commonly believed) see Revelation 9:1-11. At the final judgment, Satan and his fallen angels will be cast into the lake of fire . (see Revelation 19:20 - 20:14 for more detail).
However, there are many people who rejected God's plan of salvation throughout the ages who are in hell right now. Check out the story of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter 16.
This is a serious matter, about which most people never pay attention or have any concern.
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Permalink Reply by Kayla on
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But why did God create sin? He created everything so He created sin. Why not just create a fairytale planet so that we can all go to heaven? I'm not trying to sound condescending....I understand that he gave us free-will, and through free-will we can choose to do good or evil...But why is evil even an option? And God is omniscient...So....He knew Lucifer was going to become a fallen angel. Why did He allow evil to exist? If He wouldn't have created evil, Jesus wouldn't have had to die and everyone would be free.
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Kayla,
God created intelligent beings when He created Angels and humans. These beings have the ability to reason and the ability to choose. His creation used that intelligence and ability to reason to chose to sin, hence creating sin. I really do not have an answer for you. Volumes of books have been written about the subject in both the secular and Christian arena and I read some of the stuff out there and up to now I have no conclusive answer for you, for the origin of sin.
I will tell you this much though - We serve a Holy -Holy-Holy God who knows no sin. That I know for sure because He declares it through his word and in his presence I am undone because of the sin in me. His word is absolutely true and holy. He hates sin and I don't believe He created it, but did create the beings with the capacity to go against Him. When you stop and ponder/meditate on the parts of the plan that we know, of God's handy work, it truly is spectacular. It is beautiful.
Love and blessings to you - how is your arm Sis?
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That's true :-) And my arm is okay, thanks for asking. I still can't barely move my fingers or wrist though :-/
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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Kayla,
... it's a great question.
God is Holy. He is also Love. Why didn't He just make it so that when we all die we all go to heaven?
I can't presume to know all the thoughts of God, but I do know that His ways are perfect, and He doesn't make mistakes.
Everything that God does is done out of His Holiness and His Love. God will never force anyone...so if He made it so that we would all just go to heaven, that would kindof be the same as forcing someone.. don't you think?
There are people who don't want to even hear about Jesus, let alone spend eternity with Him. Before I was born again, I used to be one of those people. Why is evil an option? First of all, God didn't create evil. Evil is the absense of good. Just as darkness is not a thing on it's own...it is merely the absense of light. Evil is the absense of God. God didn't create sin. Sin happened as the result of the freewill of man. God allows each man/women to choose. God did not create us to be robots. He desires that we freely choose Him, but unfortunately some will choose the absense of Him (evil--selfish motivation) instead.
my thoughts.... Blessings, Carla
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Good question -
God could have created us as we will be, in a glorified state and yet able to make choices, but not able to sin. We are not now and will not then be robots. God could have created us a million different ways, but the way He has chosen to create us, we trust is the best one, but really that is a question that we do not have a detail answer for, but I will give you what the word says about it.
We do not trust this is the best way possible God could have created us to serve his good pleasure just because, but because we understand that we are finite (limited in every way) and He is eternal, but mainly because we have tasted of His goodness and his perfection. His goodness cannot be denied, so we have no problem resting on the fact that He knows exactly what He is doing, while we do not know it all. He knows the end from the beginning, we do not.
14 Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16 It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy... 19 One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"
God gets glory from both - his righteous judgment and His demonstration of love through His son's death and resurrection on the cross.
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!
All the mysteries of God are paradoxes to the flesh and at the same time they possess so much boldness, that one its left in a type of fears to misinterpret them, for something’s are not easy to comprehend. We are hence reminded, that if we desire to become capable of understanding them, we must labor to become freed from our own reason and to give up ourselves, and unreservedly to submit to his word.
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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on
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God created Lucifer, but Lucifer wanted to be above God. There is no way that the created can be better than the Creator. But Lucifer lusted for that position. and he found a created being to entice, he did exactly that...enticed Eve to exercise her free will, to eat fruit of the very tree that would open her eyes to good and evil. She enticed Adam and he also ate. Thus, sin began.
Fortunately for us, God gave us free will with all the other attributes He gave us, enabling us to make our own choice to accept Christ Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as atonement for our own sin. For those of us who have accepted Christ, we are no longer under the power of sin. We are free from it completely.
We are always concerned if we sin, i.e., when we don't follow the letter of the law, but when we accepted Christ and became born again, we also accepted His atonement for sin, all sins, one sacrifice for all sin, so sin is not counted against us any longer.
God allowed sin, but He also made a way of escape, for anyone who would accept it.
We want to blame God, but God actually should be praised for giving us the Sacrifice.
Some of these things are hard to understand with our finite minds, and not usually taught in Sunday School. You, Kayla, aren't the only one who has trouble understanding: we all do. Study of God's Word will eventually lead us to correct understanding.
May God bless you as you study His Word...
Rita
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Very well said Ama.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Kayla,
There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers (just kidding on the second part :-) If the question is important to you ... ask it. We encourage that here on AAG. I assure you that the leadership team will not let people get away with making others feela s if they asked a stupid question. We all are on a quest to know more about God and to know Him more. This is, I trust, one safe place to engage in that journey.
Your question cannot be fully answered because we do not fully understand God. We know about His nature, but do not fully understand His nature. We know about His character, but do not fully understand His character. We know about His will as given in the Bible, but the Bible only reveals what God deemed necessary for us to know.
What we can trust is that God, in His holiness and righteousness, has a plan for mankind and it is unfolding. This plan allowed man to have liberty to choose good and evil. We have proven are failure over and over by choosing evil or self (which is evil in this context) over God. God, the Son, has chosen to die in our place on the cross, but everyone will not receive His grace and redemption and be born-again. Much of this is a mystery, but to the born-again there is great joy and comfort in knowing that God has received us as His children (1 John 3:1-2).
The question I ask myself is can I be satisfied with God even if I don't have all the answers? For me, the answer is yes. Let me add, that this was not easy for me. I am a learner and digger. I want to know what I want to know! God has taught me that the greatest thing to know is not a subject, but Himself. I still dig, but what I now seek is Him over knowledge. In the process knowledge does come, but that only enhances the relationship.
Lord Bless,
LT
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>>God has taught me that the greatest thing to know is not a subject, but Himself.
Amen and Amen - To know Him is EVERYTHING.
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