Most people, understandably, have a serious problem with evil in a place created by a good God. Having read a lot of confused posts over the year...I know that there is a number of people who are caught up on this question. (please allow me to help you a bit)
Everything about evil hinges on how we view the act of creation. There is one way of viewing creation (I believe it is the correct way) wherein a good and holy and pure God ALLOWS light/good to birth out of darkness/evil. The key word is ALLOWS.
For example, let's pretend you are God....unlimited good.....but the reason you are an eternal God is because you always follow a certain way of doing things.....eg.....Wisdom. However, via your imagination, you visit a dark place of limited good....wherein you imagine people....and you want to "rescue" them.
[Note......Did evil always exist in God's imagination....yes...but only as a potential.]
God portrays for us this potential evil as a vast, dark sea of chaos in the begining of the Bible....Why a "vast" sea? Because, like a sea, it seems to us that potential evil is almost unlimited....but not life giving like fresh water. Why "dark"...because He is not actually there yet.
Now, let's further pretend that you want to rescue ALL limited good from that sea of chaos.....How could you do it without contaminating your own goodness?
The short answer is that you freely choose only perfect goodness..(your Perfect Act of Mercy--Jesus)..knowing that all things will come crashing into being...and you can then rescue the limited good within the larger choice of perfect goodness.
Hence a Perfect God ALLOWS his Perfect Son to travel through the dark sea of chaos...(picture Moses at the Red sea....or Noah.....or the Jordan crossing...or baptism...etc) which "momentarily" brings existence to the non-existent. Those temporarily existent beings can complain and moan about the dark chaos of their neighborhood (evil) or they can cry out to the Lord of Life--Jesus as he passes along the path of Wisdom.
"Today is the day of salvation."
Everything about evil hinges on how we view the act of creation. There is one way of viewing creation (I believe it is the correct way) wherein a good and holy and pure God ALLOWS light/good to birth out of darkness/evil. The key word is ALLOWS.
For example, let's pretend you are God....unlimited good.....but the reason you are an eternal God is because you always follow a certain way of doing things.....eg.....Wisdom. However, via your imagination, you visit a dark place of limited good....wherein you imagine people....and you want to "rescue" them.
[Note......Did evil always exist in God's imagination....yes...but only as a potential.]
God portrays for us this potential evil as a vast, dark sea of chaos in the begining of the Bible....Why a "vast" sea? Because, like a sea, it seems to us that potential evil is almost unlimited....but not life giving like fresh water. Why "dark"...because He is not actually there yet.
Now, let's further pretend that you want to rescue ALL limited good from that sea of chaos.....How could you do it without contaminating your own goodness?
The short answer is that you freely choose only perfect goodness..(your Perfect Act of Mercy--Jesus)..knowing that all things will come crashing into being...and you can then rescue the limited good within the larger choice of perfect goodness.
Hence a Perfect God ALLOWS his Perfect Son to travel through the dark sea of chaos...(picture Moses at the Red sea....or Noah.....or the Jordan crossing...or baptism...etc) which "momentarily" brings existence to the non-existent. Those temporarily existent beings can complain and moan about the dark chaos of their neighborhood (evil) or they can cry out to the Lord of Life--Jesus as he passes along the path of Wisdom.
"Today is the day of salvation."
