Why evil persists
It is common knowledge to everyone that God is the creator and owner of everything. How abundantly rich and wealthy is God! However, it is interesting to note that though God owns people, he does not own their hearts.
People own their hearts. When I talk about the heart in this message I refer to the most important part of a person; the seat of affections, choices, feelings and thoughts. Each person has a divine right to direct his or her own heart freely and deliberately without interference from both human and divine agents.
God created the heart of man but He being the Lord God who knows the importance of sovereign will He cannot violate the will power of a man He has created to function like Himself. But the sovereignty of God respects the sovereignty of man. Though animals and other creatures can be forced to do the bidding of God man cannot be forced, his consent has to be sought.
Man cannot be compelled to be holy; he has the freedom to be a murderer or a holy man. If a man chooses to do anything He can do it even if the consequences are not good for him and the rest of mankind. Thus by giving man a divine option to be a master of his destiny and a captain of his soul God risked loss of control over His most treasured creature — man.
The above explanation helps to explain why God does not stop crime, sickness, poverty, mass destruction of people by despots and the general perpetuation of evil in the world. Man has a right to do as he pleases. This does not mean that what man does is not subject to God’s judgment. Far from it, that is why the principle of reaping what you sow was put in place as well as the existence of heaven and hell. Heaven and hell are final destinations but a man can wreak havoc today without instant divine control. Unless God is summoned through prayer by the righteous ones to intercept a man’s wrong course of action his work can proceed unchecked. Well said is the statement: evil continues if the righteous people do nothing. Did you hear that? It did not say that evil continues if God does nothing but if the righteous people do nothing. Why not God? It is because God respects one’s choice whether good or evil after all final judgment awaits man, and it will be according to each man’s works. But if other people see that one man’s freewill is now disturbing their own freewill and peace they can seek God for justice now. God will respect the will of the righteous and intervene but not always according to the righteous’ wishes but according to his own counsel and wisdom.
The divine option given to man by God to do as he pleases is the main reason why people behave even in a way that is hostile to peace, prosperity and the greater good of the majority. Do not complain why God does not do something about all the evils in the world. It is not a question of Him not having power to stop evil because He once wiped out the entire human race save only Noah and his family. So what is the solution to this conflict? The answer lies in the heart of man. Check out the answer in the next article.
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