"Evil", Why is it in the world?

Evil, it is all around us, every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every year, for centuries, since the garden of Eden. I believe that God gave man the choice to obey Him and follow His directives or to go his own way, resulting in "evil".

Free will was given to man by God, and when man takes his free will and does not follow God, good and evil are the results, rather than the will of God.

God did not make evil. Evil is the result of man's disobedience to God's priciples, and a lack of hearing God and a lack of receiving godly counsel from Him.

Did God "create evil"? No! Some will use the Bible verse: Isaiah 45:7, I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. This word, create, here, means that God is creating new conditions or circumstances. (see The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon). In some books of the Bible, like Genesis, create means to make something out of nothing. In Isaiah 45, it is used poetically. Another use of "create" in Psalms 51:10, Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Used here it means "transformation".

Some will say that if God created everything, then he had to create evil, because evil is here! Not so. Did God create houses? cars? telephones? boats? cell phones? Did God create your bad attitudes and actions? No, God did not! But, He did create the earth and all things visible and not visible to the human eye. He gave man the ability to make things, to come up with ideas and dreams and make them a reality. When God gave us free will, he gave us the ability to live godly, or in right standing before Him, or we can choose to do our own thing, which may be good or evil. Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen. 6:11-12 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

God did not create evil. When He gave men a free will, they brought evil into the world by their own thoughts and their own actions. Men apart from God have an evil heart, an evil mind.

Why doesn't God stop the evil? Isn't he powerful enough? These are good questions. If God is good, why doesn't he stop all of the evil and bad people that hurt others?

The answer comes back to the free will of man that God gave him. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat of all the trees of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what did they eat of? You guessed it! When they chose the knowledge of good and evil, they could no longer remain in the garden with God. They, in a sense, had to now live by the knowledge of good and evil. They no longer lived by the instruction of the voice of God.

We all are connected to the first man and woman. When they disobeyed and fell from God's presence, we all fell. We are all the offspring of Adam. Our only hope is in Christ Jesus. He takes us out of the old fallen creation and puts us into the new creation. We must live out our lives in this fallen world with God's grace, power, and mercy. We who are saved by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will enter into the new creation when this world dissolves.

At the end of this present world, God will do away with evil forever!!!!!! God will finally STOP evil, at the appointed time. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.

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Reading The Whole Bible

As a young christian, I studied the Bible by topic most of the time. I found it hard to try to read through. The old English is sometimes difficult for us to understand in our time. I like the old English translation and it is great for studying the scripture in Hebrew and Greek.

The Bible seems terribly BIG.... but I heard that it can be read in 72 hours!!!!!! If you read one hour a day, it would take 72 days to read it. If you read for 30 minutes a day it would take 144 days to complete. If you read 15 minutes a day it would take 288 days to read the whole book!!! This is less than a year!

I have finished a novel in less days than that! But with the Bible, I always take time to look up words, compare other scriptures etc. so this also adds to more time to read through the Bible.

About 10 years ago, I began reading through the Bible for the first time!!!!!!! I did it! I read through the Old Testament 4 times and the New Testament 6 times in two years.

Now, I have begun again to read through the Bible. I read one book and think about which book I would like to read next. I try to read at least 2 chapters a day. I would like to post what I am reading and make comments.
Have a great day everyone!