Should God be Held Responsible for the Evil that Men Do?

by The wanderer 51 Replies latest jw friends

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Tetra:Only insomuch as he "inspired" them to higher ideals.

    DDog:
    You interpreted the text by using it in a specific context as an answer.

    Personally I would love to sell my brother and make a few shekels

    Frankie:
    I agree. The starting point of the question is a false premise.

    Running with the theme, though, if God is omnipresent then isn't there a sense in which everything is happening to Him?

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    BSoM:
    I guess it probably doesn't help that I have the opinion that we've been left as the caretakers and Lords of this planet, and God is pretty much letting us get on with it unless we ask for assistance. If we permit human sacrifice then it is slaughter on our own altars, or Six's

    Corinne:
    Define "perfect". IMHO a good many things are perfect, in that they are fit for the use to which I would like to put them. My car is perfectly suited to drive to work, etc.

    Josh:
    From a Christian perspective the more difficult question, taking the line of reasoning that I'm using, is "is God responsible for people accepting Him?". Unfortunately theology is full of dichotomies, as you seem to have found this last year or two with your full-circle reasonings on a range of subjects.

    LT, of the "candid" class

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien
    Only insomuch as he "inspired" them to higher ideals.

    little toe,

    so, if he "inspires" them to "lower ideals", like misogyny and intollerance, he would be held responsible as well?

    theology is full of dichotomies,

    indeed, i see what you mean. and yes, no one is free of contradiction, even the atheist.

    tetra

  • Deputy Dog
    Deputy Dog

    LT

    DDog:
    You interpreted the text by using it in a specific context as an answer.

    I asked if this text is the answer. Does God claim to be "Responsible for the Evil that Men Do"? I think the text is clear.

    Isa 45:7

    I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the LORD, that doeth all these things.

    Believe it or not English is my first language I don't need an interpreter.

    Is God an "extreme hyper-Calvinist"?

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Josh:
    I don't see the example of Jesus as being mysogynistic or intolerant of anything other than rank hypocrasy. I much prefer this later explanation of God than the version espoused by the Bronze Age.

    DDog:We've gone the rounds on that verse before. Aside from it contradicting other verses if used in the context that you offer it, I'm not one for building a whole aspect of theology (indeed a foundational one) on a single word in a single verse.

    Believe it or not English is my first language I don't need an interpreter.

    When dealing with Hebrew this is of little assistance

    Other translations use the word "calamity" or "discord". Personally I prefer them to allowing the disjointed concept of laying the responsibility of author and creator of "evil" at God's feet.

  • RAF
    RAF
  • RAF
    RAF
  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien
    I much prefer this later explanation of God than the version espoused by the Bronze Age.

    you mean YHVH?

    and therein i agree with you little toe. jesus was not intollerant or mysoginistic.

    seems to me like not even gods are free of evolution. ;)

    tetra

  • RAF
    RAF

    Ross :

    Define "perfect". IMHO a good many things are perfect, in that they are fit for the use to which I would like to put them. My car is perfectly suited to drive to work, etc.

    I was not expecting this question damn't ...
    Before to answer your question let me introduce the answer to fit to the topic itself.

    To me we do existe because God in being everything would be only him if we wouldn't have free will (to me we are all spirits in a human situation) when the Word said he had mad us at his image means to me that we have the same needs ... means being creative and busy.

    So any paradise where everything is just cool do not look very interesting (Adam had a job, calling things and stuff, that's creative, but for how long?)

    The perfection in the matter is about having different spirits able to be creativetogether (to share whatever is created along the time).

    If you take care of the context and the subject of John 14 (the verse 12 is actually talking about what where we are supposed to get - it have nothing to do with the now - because Jesus is explaning the concept of duality what he his relatively to God)

    12. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

    (nobody ever did and will never do anything "bigger" than what Jessus did on earth himself)
    So when he said that it means ... wait what you have seen by now is nothing ...

  • Deputy Dog
    Deputy Dog

    LT

    Other translations use the word "calamity" or "discord". Personally I prefer them to allowing the disjointed concept of laying the responsibility of author and creator of "evil" at God's feet.

    "calamity" or "discord" works fine for me.

    I'm not one for building a whole aspect of theology ( indeed a foundational one ) on a single word in a single verse.

    Well, did God mean for Joseph to be sold into slavery by his brothers? Gen 50:20

    Here are some more verses

    Act 4:27

    For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

    Act 4:28

    For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

    Do you think that God wanted Jesus murdered?

    Isa 53:10

    Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit