Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Question

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

-Epicurus

If God is omnipotent, then he should be able to see into the future. Therefore our destiny is predestined. What good is free will then?

Answer 1

God is able, but uses it to exercise free will choice until the final day.

What seperates us from machines is our ability to make choices. These choices can be influence by both good and evil. God allows both to be available. Wicked people make evil choices to feed their own desires for power and greed. Many can do this and appear pious or even politically correct. The good that people do is usually done in quiet humility, which makes for boring news. All in all, with all the choices, man's time is not infinite, there will be an end. According to God's timeline in Daniel, we are coming to the end very soon. It is then that God will cast evil, death, sickness and sin into outer darkness. See the timeline at the link below.

Answer 2

Eph. 1:5 - Paul teaches that God “predestined” us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ. "Predestination" means that God knows what we will do before we do it (it does not mean that God determines what we do; otherwise, we would have no freewill). Predestination is taken from the Greek word "prooridzo" which means to know or declare in advance by God’s foreknowledge. See, for example, 1 Peter 1:2 where Peter writes about the “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” The terms “predestination” and “the elect” always refer to God’s knowledge (not human knowledge) because God is outside of time (and humans cannot predict the future). There are two types of "predestination," to grace and to glory. In this verse, Paul is teaching about predestination to grace, which means becoming a Christian.

1 Pet. 1:1-2 – Paul teaches about being destined by God for obedience to Christ. This is another example of predestination to grace. But there is also predestination to glory.

Rom. 8:29-30 – Paul also writes that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now Paul is writing about predestination to glory, which means not only becoming a faithful Christian during our lives, but persevering to the end by conforming our will to Christ's will.

1 Cor. 15:49 – Paul writes that we are conformed in His image at the resurrection, when we shall bear the image of the man of heaven. These are the people who were predestined to glory.

Rev. 3:5 – Jesus warns that He can blot out the names that are in the book of life. This refers to those currently, not ultimately, justified (those who are predestined to grace, but not to glory).

Eph. 1:5; 1 Peter 1:2; Rom. 8:29-30; 1 Cor. 15:49 - therefore, predestination is either to grace (which we could lose) or to glory (which we cannot lose). As alluded to above, some non-Catholics confuse the definition of "predestination" (which means God knows what we will do before we do it) and "predetermination" (the erroneous belief that God determines what we will do). But God does not author evil. We choose evil by our own freewill.

Answer 3

I think that if God exists, it knows everything but has very little ability to influence our physical world. It exists in a different world and has total control over that world but not ours. WE will have total control over ours in the near future.

About predestination: the important point is that WE don't know the future so can WE act as if there is no predestination. There probably isn't any anyway.

Answer 4

The evil is also God's creation.
Good is God's frontage, and evil means God's back side. For God there is nothing evil. Just like the sun, there is no darkness. But for us there is light and darkness. Just like if you keep the sun back side, there is your shadow. And if you keep yourself in front, sun, there is no darkness. We create darkness or evil. As soon as I change my position—instead of remaining in front of God, I keep God back side—then there is darkness, evil. Therefore God is all good. And for us, when we forget God, that is evil. And when we are in God consciousness always, everything is good.


The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is anu, or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never responsible for the actions and reactions of the particular situation which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condition, therefore, the embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life. The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramätmä, or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning for the living entity. The Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God disposes. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord, being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the minute independent living entities.

Answer 5

God is putting an end to all evil . . . . . soon . . . . its his time not yours . . . . . .. God is able . . . . . .you have not yet seen the evil you speak of . . . . . he is omnipotent.

You are taking a quote from someone you never met. I choose to do the same:

The Narrow Way
(Luke 13:24)
13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 *Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.


God Bless

Answer 6

If God is required to prevent evil, Epicurus has a point.

Answer 7

Evil and good are inherent in all human beings.It is we who choose either to be good or bad. Sometimes the circumstances drive him to be bad.We need not blaim god for everything because he simply does not exist.

Answer 8

That day will come as a thief in the night.

Answer 9

Amen.

He seems to be guilty of that he warns us against.

Pride.

Becoming proud that he is king of kings, mentioning numerous times how powerful he is (lest we forget!)

Wonder when he is gonna fall?