The Freedom of God
The freedom of God is yet another attribute of God. It is precisely this attribute of God that leads to a greater understanding of why evil exists in the world. We must ask, though, “How is God free?” When we say that God is free, we are saying that He is an utterly undetermined Being. To proclaim that God is free is to state that God is free to do what He wants and how He wants to do it. Within Western Christianity, both Calvinists and Arminians will agree on this point. God is free. He is undetermined. He does what He wants and how He wants to do it. The issue becomes divided when the implications of this are brought forth with God’s creation of man. The Genesis account states that Man is created in God’s image. One way of interpreting this is to say that Mankind is not a collection of robots but free beings, creatures free to make decisions and to suffer the consequences of those decisions. This implication shines brightly in the realm of the question, “How can a loving God allow evil to exist?” If God has created Man free, then Man can make decisions with consequences that can—and will—affect others. God, if He honors making Man in His image, would be contradicting Himself by putting an end to every evil decision that results in evil actions (does this mean God never intervenes? No. This will be explored in a later installment). This attribute of God, and the implications thereof, will become even clearer when one theory to satisfy the question of evil emerges: “The Free Will Theory.” But before exploring the various theories that are presented to deal with this issue, we should first look at how the Question of Evil has been dealt with in various religions, including the ethical monotheistic religions such as Christianity.
The freedom of God is yet another attribute of God. It is precisely this attribute of God that leads to a greater understanding of why evil exists in the world. We must ask, though, “How is God free?” When we say that God is free, we are saying that He is an utterly undetermined Being. To proclaim that God is free is to state that God is free to do what He wants and how He wants to do it. Within Western Christianity, both Calvinists and Arminians will agree on this point. God is free. He is undetermined. He does what He wants and how He wants to do it. The issue becomes divided when the implications of this are brought forth with God’s creation of man. The Genesis account states that Man is created in God’s image. One way of interpreting this is to say that Mankind is not a collection of robots but free beings, creatures free to make decisions and to suffer the consequences of those decisions. This implication shines brightly in the realm of the question, “How can a loving God allow evil to exist?” If God has created Man free, then Man can make decisions with consequences that can—and will—affect others. God, if He honors making Man in His image, would be contradicting Himself by putting an end to every evil decision that results in evil actions (does this mean God never intervenes? No. This will be explored in a later installment). This attribute of God, and the implications thereof, will become even clearer when one theory to satisfy the question of evil emerges: “The Free Will Theory.” But before exploring the various theories that are presented to deal with this issue, we should first look at how the Question of Evil has been dealt with in various religions, including the ethical monotheistic religions such as Christianity.
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