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Putting Evil In Persective!
the Cross, Why do the powers of evil effectively
operate in the world ?
" And having disarmed the power and authorities
he made a public spectacle of them,
truimphing over the. By the cross, " Colossians, 2:15
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on
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Elaine,
Why do we allow the powers of evil effectively operate in the world?
Blessings...
Rita
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I believe there will come a day when this is taken care of, right now we are position of grace
Where God is commanding all men to repent , Evil is a necessary part of free will , man has
free will, w can choose what we want. aot of people sin because they choose to , it is our
Natural inclination.
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Elaine,
I agree with you, but.....
the change needs to start with us.
We can remove sin from our lives if we choose. Yes, there are evil people in this world, but ...they choose the evil because of greed, usually. They want to do things their way, they want to come out on top. Money is a root of evil. Need of fame, being the best is a root.
WE can remove this sin from our lives if we will work at it. It is easier to criticize someone than it is to praise them. Each Christian should start with cleaning up their own life. Once they get theirs cleaned up, they can clean up someone else's. (I'll bet they are too busy doing what's right to correct someone else.)
This last week, we had revival in our church. It was wonderful. The pastor who spoke used examples all the way through it to show the need for each of us to stop doing what we we wanted and do what God commands. He did it in such a way as to show each of us the need to look to ourselves to change.
We need to shrink our world to something we can handle. We need to teach others about God, within our own world. If we would follow his example, we would have a ripple effect that would spread a long way. If each of us perfect our world around us, to the best of our ability, we would have tremendous results. I determined to correct my little area in the world, living on a smaller basis, and changing what is wrong in my little area that surrounds me. Hopefully others will follow suit. We do lead by example.
Much of what we deal with was caused by us taking a back seat, so to speak. WE didn't speak against it in the first place. We need to let our own Christianity have an effect on those around us.
What do I want within my little world? I don't want ungodly leaders. I don't want a person leading me that is motived by money and fame. I choose against that for myself. I choose against blaming someone else. I choose to correct what I am doing wrong. I choose God's rules for my life.
I have found peace knowing that I can make a difference if I will correct myself first.
Blessings...
Rita
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Rita, I am in full agreement with you, but we live in a wicked world now, drugs, alchole, domestics violence, stealing,
killing, are own children are not safe going to s hooligan anymore, Paul writes eloquently of the suffering of this
present time, ( Romans, 8;18) We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now and
not only the creation , but we ourselves , who have the fruit of the Spirit groan inwardly while we wait for adoption ,
the redemption o our bodies, ( Romans, 8:22-23 ) As Jesus wept st the tomb of Lazaurs , lamenting death power
over one he loved, Christians continue to groan under the power of evil in solidarity with fallen creation.
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Elaine,
>>If Christ has truely defeated the power of Satan on the Cross, Why do the powers of evil effectively operate in the world ?
Because that is the dispensation/time we are living in. It has been decreed to be so, for now. Christ indeed has defeated all his enemies. They have never really been a real challenge, God laughs at his enemies, meaning they are no challenge to him, but there has been need for their rebellion to exist and be allowed. As creatures with the ability to choose according to the liberties granted to us (both angels and humans), it is necessary for now for things to be as they are.Things as we know will not always be so, this age will soon pass away and the reality of Christ's victory will be complete. For now the Kingdome has come, but thought here, is not here in its entirety. Not because the power of Satan is so great hahaha that angel has been made a public spectacle, but because God remains working his perfect and holy will and purpose upon his creation. The beauty of all of it is that we know these things, because God has revealed them to us through scripture, is all there. We know the ending of this story.
We do live happily ever after with our Lord and King.
We as the church have the authority in Christ to bring light into the darkest of places and there is a beauty there to be had. No matter what we do, which we should do, we have to be doers, this world is passing a way – hallelujah and a new heaven and earth is coming up. It’s going to be amazing.
Your question can be viewed and answered in multiple ways. My answer is just one of them.
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Permalink Reply by Colby on
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Elaine,What David has written sums things up nicely, in my view, and from a Biblical perspective. And I like the way you phrased this topic. A battle between the forces of God and evil is underway. Perspective is needed here, and the Scripture provides it.The problem of evil has vexed theologians for centuries. How can an omniscient, just and perfect God allow evil and suffering to exist? Why? What purpose does it fulfill in God's grand plan? Do people truly have a "free will" or are we constrained in the choices we can make by a sin nature?As David, wrote: "Your question can be viewed and answered in multiple ways. My answer is just one of them."
God's ways are not our ways. We do not understand God's ways. But the Bible is clear (as David underscores) that God has a plan for addressing evil and suffering, which is already underway, and that in the end his victory is certain and will be complete.
In the beginning all was perfect until our original parents sinned, introducing evil and suffering in the world, which have been with us ever since then. God sent his son Jesus Christ to live among us and die on the cross to atone for our sins to provide the means by which humanity can be reconciled with him. And in the resurrection of Christ, he defeated death for us. We have been promised that we, too, will have eternal life and be resurrected in glorified bodies (Phil3:11; 1Cor15:12).
The prophetic book of Revelation says that the end is coming. It promises a new heaven and a new earth, of a new order of things. “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
Grace and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior,
Colby
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I neglected to include omnipotence as one of God's attributes, as it plays a key role in any discussion of the problem of evil.
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Permalink Reply by Mary O on
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Do you think God winks at or ignores some it, but with the hope He can save as many as possible? That's what I'm thinking.
Acts 17:30
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
2 Peter 3:1-18
1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
I thought of theses verses as I was reading your post. :-)
Love and God bless,
Mary
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David you have answered your own question, evil exist because we as sinners alloe it to , God did not allow evil ,
We have chice to let evil in or out.
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Elaine,
Evil exist due to various reasons. As bro Colby mentioned in his post, the problem of evil is a difficult one. The topic of the origin of evil, has driven theologians through the ages to write volumes on the topic, for it is one of the most difficult issues to find answers for without going beyond what the word enlightens us to conclude.
Evil would exist even if we did not do evil. Evil is the absence of obedience to God.
We live in a world where there are probably millions, if not billions of fallen angels who do evil things, so evil would still be a reality.
God did not only allowed evil, but He wills evil to exist or evil would not be in the world. Let me explain before you start looking for stones to stone me with hahaha
Nothing can happen without God allowing it to happen. God could have created us in a glorified state, as we will be. We will be in a state of holiness, yet we will be able to choose, for certainly God does not want robots. We will be able to choose according to the liberties God will grant to us in the new heaven and new earth, but our inclination will not be to do evil, but to enjoy fellowship with God in holiness. Hallelujah.
Back to the topic. Nothing happens without God's will being involved, absolutely nothing. Here me, I am not saying God creates evil nor does He delight in evil. Saying God wills for evil to exist DOES NOT MEAN HE MAKES EVIL HAPPEN, it simply means that if God did not want evil to exist, it would not and further it would have never existed.
However evil does exist and out of all the millions of ways God could have made us, he made us dammable, which means, we are able to be damned to hell, actually, until God saves us from his own wrath we are all condemned and heading straight to hell.
God is perfect, holy, and righteous and in Him there is no shadow of turning - He is beautiful in all his ways. He is pure and lovely. God creating a being with intelligence, able to reason and with liberties, opened the possibility for his creation to create evil, God who knew exactly what we would do created us any ways and before the foundation of the earth provided a sacrifice for our treason.
Oh beloved - our God is good and He is in control. Not some sorry fallen angel or his followers. It is God who is in control and He alone. Only what He allows to happen can happen. His purposes are holy and perfect and to try to figure him out or rather figure out his plan is an exercise for those who are into studying his beauty for a life time and the next, so by no means stop searching his deep waters.
As born again believers we do have the ability to overcome evil in a real and almost permanent way. We have the ability to not be master by anything but the Holy Spirit, for we are either slaves to sin and Satan's system or to God and his beautiful ways. We choose. We choose death or life for our day to day, but our Lord is in control of every molecule in the universe.
Satan is not running anything, but what He is allowed to run. We, we hahaha we, we don't run a thing. We are to be completely dependent on Christ.
We struggle to abide in Christ badly, but let us be of good courage for our King is able to work in us holiness/sanctification and we can really attain levels of maturity in Christ that are beautiful.
Love and blessings to you sis.
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Thank you Colby I am in full agreement with David, that is why I said He answered his own question, thank you so
Much Colby I am even more enlightened, and the Glory goes to God.
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Mary O bless you dear sister you put everything in perfect order, thank you so much , these comments are just
Wonderful.
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