Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
I appreciate your answer (even if it wasn't the 'friendly' month of August) but my wait for understanding on this issue continues. The 'freewill' argument may have wings when it comes to 'evil acts' caused by man, but i don't think it can be stretched to account for 'evil acts' out of mans control.
For a number of years i worked in terminal care ...[text shortened]... If God did indeed count the cost of giving the devil freewill, then i humbly request a recount.
There are a lot of things that happen we could count toward being good or bad. Scripture
teaches that God sends rain on the good and bad, those types of things happen to all
people all of the time. God gives and God takes away, we are owed nothing by God, He
blesses us all the time and more times than not we are unthankful, ungrateful for the gifts
He gives daily.
Our will and behavior does go to things being good or bad, we choose to act
a specific way towards others. We don't send the rain, but we can send comfort, we can
make sure someone is fed, cared for. We can give them the freedom to live as they will
even if we disagree, or we could bind them up to make them do as we see fit. We could
give them food for cost, make them pay for it in obedience or submission.
I think real evil is when we act to harm another, when we force our will upon them, when
we make them less than us, when we turn them into instruments of our pleasures or
need to rule over.
God gives us our lives, so all us receive this gift from God, God has also set a time
that we will die in this life. So events that take us are not really evil, but those that deny
us the time God has granted us are in my opinion. When God does it, it is just God
doing God will do with what is God's.