6-3-19<\/p>\n
You have heard the question a hundred times in your life, asked by anguished parents or victims, from wise-guy atheists to anti-religious bigots.<\/p>\n
Maybe you have asked it yourself at times.<\/p>\n
The quick answer is that mankind has chosen sin and rebellion \u2013 distilled as evil. Whether you believe in the literal account of the Garden, and Adam and Eve; or people\u2019s individual free will and exercise of liberty in our daily lives, every human being commits evil. To a greater or lesser extent? Surely, but\u2026 we<\/em> permit evil in the world, because we all exercise it.<\/p>\n The deeper \u2013 but just as profound \u2013 response is that God is not the culprit. He is the answer, but not the source. None of us is God, so we should stop drawing up a to-do list for Him, or scribble out a better Job Description.<\/p>\n If He gives His children free will; and we, His children, choose to transgress\u2026 that<\/em> is why there is sin, and evil, in the world.<\/p>\n You think He should create a place where sin and evil do not exist? He has<\/em> created such a place: Heaven. In the meantime we live on earth, and our<\/em> job descriptions include serving God by serving our fellow men and women. By avoiding sin and evil, sharing God\u2019s love, and telling of forgiveness in Christ.<\/p>\n Perhaps you are impatient, or virtually so, waiting for Heaven. Do you realize that we are slightly above the angels? Angels cannot experience redemption, or forgiveness, or the glories of a born-again life. No angel can know what it means to sing \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a more logical question \u2013 more pertinent, more pressing \u2013 than How can God permit evil in the world?<\/p>\n I suggest to you that asking this question frames the spiritual challenge in the clearest terms:<\/p>\n How can My children, with all things I do permit and gift them with \u2013 the sacrificial death of My Son; forgiveness; fellowship divine; My promise of eternal paradise \u2013 how is that My children still sin and rebel and reject Me every day?<\/em><\/p>\n Questions, questions. But that is one question to which we all have the answer.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n