If God can't interfere with freely chosen evil acts (e.g., murder) he's not all-powerful, is he?

Question

Someone PLEASE help me understand.

I'm praying and not hearing a thing.

Answer 1

Its not that he can't. He won't. (that won't stop him from sending us to Hell, of course. He's such a loving guy.)

Answer 2

God can interfere with whatever He wants to interfere with. Nothing happens here on earth that doesn't go through his divine filter.

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

To help you understand, I would have to know some specifics. If you are asking how could God allow some vicious criminal to murder some harmless victim then all I can tell you is that is one of those things that we who believe trust that God who is eternal has taken into account in ways that go far beyond our ability to understand.

While I doubt that you will find that a satisfying answer, consider this analogy. Have you ever seen a row of dominoes where when the first one was pushed down there was a ripple effect and finally the last one in a long line went down?

If a small bug knocked over a dominoe it might see that dominoe fall and hear the noise of other dominoes falling but it would be unable to view the whole process and see all of the results of it's one action. It's the same with things that God allows that don't make sense to us. We can only see the immediate effects of something and we can't take in the whole picture over time and all of the other things that will result from what He allows to happen.

Answer 3

One might ask why we should not expect god to be at least as reasonable and compassionate as the average person? Take a simple scenario that was given to me on a yahoo group: You are in the kitchen. You see a toddler headed towards a stove where a pot of oil bubbles away furiously. He reaches up... do you sit there and watch him do grievous harm to himself when he pulls it down, thinking pain, fear, scarring or death are just rewards for wanting to know? Or do you get up and pull him to safety? This is a good one. Where’s god;s warning when people are nearing unknown but certain danger? Here are my ideas: First, it is possible that the value system that is placed on this equation is meaningless in relation to some HIGHER PURPOSE? Perhaps the history of death and pain and suffering is a spit in the pan compared to what the ultimate goal is? Does a mother focus on the pain of child birth when she first holds her infant in her arms? Or is she elated with the result such that the pain becomes meaningless? Chaos, pain and suffering are inherent propensities in this system, but in the evolution of biology toward man they were certainly necessary components of the equation. Unlike the animal, whose pain is a conditioned response mechanism, man (now conscious) has an understanding of these things. He understands pain, suffering, mortality. Now he must suffer the consequences of that knowledge. But given the loftier goal of creating new personalities, perhaps the awareness of the chaotic nature of our environment and the pain and suffering and death we know in our conscious states is well worth attainment of another goal? In other words, maybe the means justify the end. Quite possibly not even the intervention by God would change the final outcomes. Secondly, this scenario assumes god can intervene. I believe god is just another word for perfection or morality and that saying that god could grab the infant or give him some warning is the same as saying your morality could grab the infant and save him. You (being moral or godly) want to save him because you have god (morality) within you.

Answer 4

A willing abrogation of absolute power is not a lessening of that power. God gave humankind the ability to choose good vs. evil, or Free Will. For God to trump human choice (for example, forcibly stopping murder) would require God to take back the gift of Free Will.

In that instance, God would be (supposedly) both offering free will and withholding it at the same time ("You get this ability as long as you don't screw it up.") Now, this scenario is obviously illogical, and prefacing such a scenario with "God can" does not change that illogical nonsense. It is not a lessening of God's ability to say that He is incapable of nonsense.

What you are really dealing with is not a problem with God's power, but God's will. You are not alone in this question; people have been asking it for thousands of years.

It is not a question of God being ABLE to trump our will with His. That is beyond question: He is able to do it. However, that isn't how Free Selves are supposed to work. Free Wills are made to be willingly and loveingly surrendered to each other, not forcibly taken. God is not a rapist. He offers Himself to us, and waits for us to offer ourselves to Him. This is God's choice.

Answer 5

Let's define freewill---done voluntary, choice between alternatives, choose a course of action without external coercion but in accordance with the ideas or moral outlook of the individual.

God created you with a freewill for a purpose. He could have made you robotic but He chose to create you with a freewill along with intelligence.

He does not want to interfere or force you to do as He says. He gives you appropriate information as to what is expected of you.

Of course He has the power to make you do as He says but He does not want to. God puts that responsibility on you.

It is a test. Will you pass or fail?

Answer 6

God can interfere all he likes but he chooses not too. How are you going to get to heaven or hell? Answer: By your actions. If God steps in and stops you from doing your free will then how will you prove or disprove your self in his eyes? God created us and gave us the rules by which to live our lives. He will not interfere unless asked to. he sits in heaven and watches us and when we die he judges us on our deeds within this lifetime. Did we do right or did we do wrong. It is as simple as that.

Answer 7

It's not that He can't it's that He won't. He gives us free will to make our own choices -good or bad. Then he allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions. Sadly our bad choices have a ripple effect and sometimes innocent people get caught in those ripples. But God will help us through if we call out for help.

Answer 8

God know about everything in advance. He planned our actions, thought, everything, before the world was even created. He lets bad happen so that the good will shine through. God CAN interfere, he just chooses not to in order to bring glory to His perfect plan.

God had the power to raise the dead. I think he could handle controlling the motives of humans, His creation.

Answer 9

God very well could interfere, but then the game hes playing with satan for our souls would be one sided dont ya think?

Answer 10

I think I can explain it with one change of wording in your question .... change the "can't" to "won't".

We ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and now we know the difference between the two. We choose to know evil. All of us humans choose it, and God allows us this choice. He wants us to choose to love Him, but invariably at some point, we choose to know evil too.

Answer 11

Very good point. Theists always talk about free will, but then mention God intervening in the world's affairs in some way. Doesn't make sense.