Engage Now Q&A #1
In November of 2019 CHBC hosted the ENGAGEnow 2019 Conference. During the breakout sessions we allowed people to write down questions. Those questions and an answer are being provided here for your own benefit. It is our desire to continue equipping you in the faith to engage the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Questions from ENGAGEnow 2019 Breakout Groups:
Question: If God knows that some people are going to be bad, and creates them anyway, doesn’t that make God bad?
Answer:
(Provided by Deanna Huff)
Is God bad for allowing people to have free will over making them into some sort of robot?
Gotquestions.com states it this way:
In Alvin Plantinga’s view, a fallible person who is morally incapable of sin is a being without free will. Therefore, it is reasonable to say God can either make sin impossible, or He can make men free, but not both. The free will defense suggests the possibility that, to God, humanity’s capacity to make moral choices is a higher priority—and a more important moral imperative—than a universe entirely free from evil.
In other words, the Creator’s desire to give mankind a free will suggests the logical possibility for evil to exist in a world created by an all-good and all-powerful God.
(https://www.gotquestions.org/free-will-defense.html).
God created the world and mankind to know him, love him and fulfill their purpose to honor him, but the fall of Adam and Eve caused mankind to pursue their own purpose, thoughts and actions. But God was so loving that he did not want man to stay in the condition of sin and continue to do evil. This is why, he came in the flesh of Jesus Christ and gave his life on the cross. Mankind now has the opportunity to change by repenting, which means confessing your wrong actions, asking God to forgive you and doing what is right according to God. Romans 10:9-10 states, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Man can change because of God and one day, God will rid the world of pain and suffering for those who repent and believe. Revelations 21:4 states, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Remember, God created mankind with a free will over being a robot to love him fully and one only sees half the picture if suffering is the only picture recognized. Jesus wants people to see the whole picture, which is God created all things to glorify him and when man sinned, God came to fix it through Jesus Christ, death, burial and resurrection and one day, he will make a new heaven and new earth for all those who repent and there will be no more suffering.
