God’s sovereignty is as simple to just say, God is in control. Sovereign is being the ultimate source of all power, authority, and everything that exists. Only God and God alone can make those claims so with that being said, it is God’s sovereignty that makes Him and Him alone, worthy of worship and worthy of praise. There are no limits to God’s rule. This is part of what it means to be God. He is sovereign over the whole world, and everything that happens in it. He is never helpless, never frustrated, never at a loss. And in Christ, God’s awesome, sovereign providence is the place we feel most secure, most free. The ultimate reason that suffering exists in this world is so that Christ might show the greatness of the glory of the grace of …show more content…
The negative and bad things in our life are on the dark side, or evil. God is the creator of all things.
Proverbs 16: 1, 4, 9 We must be willing for our plans to be changed. When God has a change of plan for my life I must be willing to make the changes that he sees. We must also be willing to seek God's purpose for our life. When things around us seem unpleasant, we must respond by showing good judgement and we must take great pleasure in God's purpose for us. God overrules the plans of men to fulfill His purposes.
Genesis 45:1-8; 50:20 We must learn that sometimes the opportunity for forgiveness takes a long time. If we have been offended, we must always stand ready to forgive and live our life as if forgiveness has already taken place. Focusing on how God uses our problems and troubles to grow our faith must be our motivation. If the offending party does ask for forgiveness, we should immediately give it and share how God used the incident for good. forgiveness should involve the humbling before the offended party and seeking their forgiveness. The person offended should offer forgiveness and never has the right to bring back up the issue once forgiveness has been granted. Most importantly, love in forgiveness can be demonstrated by not only granting forgiveness, but overlooking
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God allows suffering and evil, he does not will it to be done. God at any point in time could stop all the evil and all the suffering, but in allowing it he has a bigger purpose for you us. Evil in a matter of its meaning is meant with at intent to do evil. Evil is someone meaning to do harm to another person. No matter how devastating pain and suffering may be, it is not evil in itself. God does not have any evil intentions. Justice is not evil it only involves withholding mercy. God’s main characteristic is love, He does not force evil intentions in us, but he must allow things to happen in this world. God will never cause evil to directly be
Not preventing suffering is the same as actively inflicting it. Humans generally believe that if they love another person, they should prevent their loved ones from suffering. Why shouldn't God be the same? If a human causes suffering for an...
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.
Good, is portrayed by God, and evil seems to be what fate has in store for the
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God is a primary source document written in the 17th century, by a well-respected, Puritan woman. This book, written in cahoots with Cotton and Increase Mather, puritan ministers, tells the story of her capture by Indians during King Phillip’s War (1675-1676). For three months, Mary Rowlandson, daughter of a rich landowner, mother of three children, wife of a minister, and a pillar of her community lived among “savage” Indians. This document is important for several reasons. First, it gives us insight into the attitudes, extremes, personalities and “norms” of the Puritan people we learn about in terms of their beliefs, and John Calvin’s “house on a hill”. Beyond that, despite the inevitable exaggerations, this book gives us insight into Indian communities, and how they were run and operated during this time.
Suppose he had a reason to permit evil, a reason that was compatible with his never doing wrong and his being perfect in love, what I 'll call a justifying reason. For example, suppose that if he prevented evil completely, then we would miss out on a greater good, a good whose goodness was so great that it far surpassed the badness of evil. In that case, he might not prevent evil as far as he can, for he would have a justifying reason to permit it” (5). Even if God had a reason to allow evil, he who is all loving and powerful would want the least amount of people to suffer and feel pain. Since God knows what is going to happen before it actually happens, would he not be morally obligated to stop people from doing something evil to others, or preventing suffering by those who have been hurt by evil?
God is the source of evil. He created natural evil, and gave humans the ability to do moral evil by giving them a free will. However, had he not given people free will, then their actions would not be good or evil; nor could God reward or punish man for his actions since they had no choice in what to do. Therefore, by giving humans choice and free will, God allowed humanity to decide whether to reward themselves with temporary physical goods, and suffer in the long run from unhappiness, or forsake bodily pleasures for eternal happiness.
All in all, the problem of evil has been debated for thousands of years. Some believe that evil is caused by Satan and not humanity, such as the Manichaeanists and Bogomilists, and some believe that humans are the cause of evil, rather than God, such as Augustine, Peter Kreefe, and myself. While God is aware that a lack of goodness could occur, he is not the cause of it. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and all-loving and creates human beings with absolute goodness; however, with that that absolute goodness comes free will. With free will, humans have the ability to choose wrongly and therefore experience evil or a lack of goodness. God has given us that right because it is the only way to become happy. God cannot make one happy. The individual is the cause for their own happiness.
as God's sovereignty in election and salvation, the origin of evil and its impact upon humanity,
Proverbs 16:9: The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
When a person finds joy in something, they call it good. On the other hand, if it brings them agony, they call it evil. Good and evil can mean whatever people want you to think they mean. What is good to one person can be evil to another person. For instance, a soldier that goes to war for his country will be viewed as a hero. But the wives and children of the men that the soldier killed will view him as an evil person. No one really knows the true meaning of good and evil. All everyone really knows are just the world’s opinion on what good and evil really are.
Common misconceptions about God run rampant. Some believe He sins just as humans do. Others believe he craves the destruction of mankind. However, in reality, a righteous God exists, a Lord who tests His subjects' faith, a Ruler who controls all. People often contest that God holds no power over the earth. However, God's sovereignty remains evident in that countries fall when He decides to disestablish them. The fact that He disciplines the profane and prospers the deserving displays His uprightness. Though afflictions will come, people must persevere and continue to look towards God. Even though life appears hopeless at times, God remains all-powerful. His love for His followers remains everlasting. His control over the earth endures forever.
A strong Christian lesson on the true nature of forgiveness can be found in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:
The substance of forgiveness is known to be an important thing and concept in the teaching of Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus has made it clear that unforgiveness is known to be a serious sin nurtured in the heart. As per Jesus Christ, it is said that the person needs to be forgiven even if a serious problem is caused due to him. If not, even we would not be forgiven from God. As per Jesus, if you forgive the sin done by the people, your heavenly will also forgive you if you have committed any sin. We would always want the heavenly father to forgive us for whatever wrong things or the mistakes that we do. In fact, we always think that it is the duty of God to forgive us. However, we never consider that the degree of offence we have done. We always think that he is the God and it is his prime duty to forgive us no matter what we do. But if somebody does the same thing to us, we always feel that it is not important to forgive them we think that we should not let them go just by forgiving them. Hence, the most important thing that needs to be considered here by us is that we should learn to forgive people (...
Even though Adam and Eve did not encounter evil until the fall, they still had the potential for evil intrinsically within themselves. Likewise, although Lucifer was not wholly evil at the time of his formation, his pride and thus capacity to sin was part of his identity. If all of these characters developed the evil within them even though they were made good, one could question whether God is the creator of evil and is thus partly evil himself. Milton himself says that God “created evil, for evil only good / Where all life dies, death lives” (2.623-624). This seems in conflict with the earlier claim that God is omnibenevolent and free of
Forgiveness is the act of releasing an offender of any wrong or hurt they may have caused you whether they deserve it or not. It is a decision to let go of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group of people. When we choose to forgive, we’re wiping the slate clean, cancelling a debt, or as I love to say, “Letting it go.” In the Bible, the Greek word for forgiveness literally means to “let it go.” This concept, “forgiveness,” is easier said than done. Majority of people find it very difficult to let go of offenses and hurts caused by others. I really do believe that most people desire to let it go, but we lack the knowledge of how to do it. As believers, we are instructed by God maintain an attitude of forgiveness.