God is love, why does he permit wickedness?

Question

I have my Bible trained thinking on this, as I am a JW. This is a question I am asking everyone else. Please tell me your thoughts. In a few, I will post my thoughts on the matter. Have you thought about it? God is Love, Why does he allow wickedness?

Millions of people on Earth today practice sin willfully. They declare wars, drop bombs on children, scorch the earth, and cause famines. Millions smoke and get lung cancer, and so on. Such people do not truly want all wickedness stopped. They only want the penalties for it eliminated. When they reap what they have sown, they cry out, "Why me?" And they blame God, as Proverbs 19:3 says: "A man's own folly wrecks his life, and then he bears a grudge against the LORD." (The New English Bible) And if God stopped their evildoing, they would protest their loss of freedom to do it!

Jehovah's main reason for permitting evil is to answer Satan's challenge. Satan the Devil said that God could not put men on earth who would be true to Him under test. (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-10) Jehovah allows Satan to remain to have opportunity to prove his challenge. (Exodus 9:16) Satan continues to bring woes now, to turn men against God, as he tries to prove his challenge. (Revelation 12:12) However, Job kept integrity. So did Jesus. True Christians do now.—Job 27:5; 31:6; Matthew 4:1-11; 1 Peter 1:6, 7.

Have you parents ever entrusted some possession or responsibility to your sons or daughters, to see whether they were capable of meriting even greater trusts? So Jehovah God is testing humankind, to see which individuals are to be trusted to care for the paradise earth under Christ’s kingdom. He permits wickedness now for a purpose, BUT HE DOES NOT CAUSE IT. Some calamities come by chance: “Time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.” (Eccl. 9:11) Other calamities come as a result of human foolishness. “God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising.” (Eccl. 7:29, Jerusalem Bible) Still others are brought about by Satan in his endeavor to turn all persons against God, knowing that they will blame God instead of him, knowing that many do not even believe that he, Satan, exists.—Rev. 12:12.

There is a God, and he has reasons for permitting wickedness. But his time for stopping it is not far off.

Answer 1

Satan the Devil is to blame for every human death which has ever occurred.

The Scriptures teach that God currently tolerates Satan's killing of humans until the issue of who has the right to rule is settled. Satan kills by means of Adamic sin, debauched conditions in Satan's world, and personally or by demons.

(Job 1:12-19) Jehovah said to Satan: "Look! Everything that [Job] has is in your hand. Only against him himself do not thrust out your hand!" So Satan went out away from the person of Jehovah. 13 Now it came to be the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother the firstborn. ...18 [A servant of Job] came and proceeded to say: "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother the firstborn. 19 And, look! there came a great wind from the region of the wilderness, and it went striking the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon the young people and they died.


The Scriptures teach that Satan is inclined to kill humans, and prevent the salvation of individuals.

(John 8:44) You are from YOUR father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.

(1 Peter 5:8) Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.


If Adam and Eve had never sinned, the Scriptures teach that they never would have died. When Satan targeted Eve and Adam to become sinners, Satan knew that mankind would NOT continue to have everlasting life. Thus Satan is really to blame for every human death that has ever occurred.

(Genesis 2:16,17) Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: "From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die."

(Genesis 3:1) Now the serpent... began to say to the woman: "Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?"

(Romans 5:12) Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin


Jehovah is eager to undue everything that the Devil has done, and Jehovah has assigned Jesus Christ to perform this restoration. It will be accomplished soon.

(1 John 3:8) The Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, namely, to break up the works of the Devil.

(1 Corinthians 15:21) For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man.


Those who do not believe that the earth will be restored to Edenic paradise conditions seem too-quick to believe that a lowly creature (such as Satan) could actually CHANGE the divine purposes of Almighty Jehovah God. Jehovah put mankind in paradise earth, and Jehovah will make sure that mankind lives forever in paradise earth, despite a delay which will shorter and shorter as human lifetimes extend toward infinity.

(Isaiah 65:17-25) For here I am creating new heavens and a new EARTH; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. ...21 And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. 22 They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. ...25 The wolf and the lamb themselves will feed as one, and the lion will eat straw just like the bull [caps added]

(Revelation 21:1-4) And I saw a new heaven and a new EARTH; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. ...Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away. [caps added]

(Genesis 1:28) God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill THE EARTH and subdue it [caps added]
(Genesis 2:17) You must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die [so never eating from that tree means never dying]
(Psalms 37:11) 'the meek will possess the earth'
(Proverbs 2:21) 'upright will reside in the earth'
(Isaiah 45:18) 'God formed the earth to be inhabited'
(Matthew 5:5) 'the mild will inherit the earth'

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20010901/
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://jw-media.org/beliefs/trueworship.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/

http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_05.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_10.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_09.htm

Answer 2

Well, I believe (as a Buddhist who also believes in God) that evil only exists in our own minds...

I think that if a person changes their thinking, they can avoid evil in their lives...

In fact, I know this to be true... I've done it.

There is no such thing as evil, satan, or pure wickedness in my world... people just make mistakes... but nature and God do not...

For instance, to focus on the Death aspect is rather selfish... think about the life that was given before it... that is what we really have... that is the gift...
Death is just a transition period between life cycles... it's just a point where you have to say good bye and move your energies in another direction...
Life is what we get to enjoy... so why focus on what we can't even see?

Answer 3

God permits it currently because it's leading to where He said it would. He told us the last days would be like the days of Noah (Noe), and those days were full of wicked people doing wicked deeds. He is showing us once again that it was known before it happened. For wickedness to run rampant, all God has to do is take a step back and let men do what they want. Man is not good, as long as man has sin, they will be wicked, no man is good, not one. He does not commit these wicked things, we do. He has taken a step back and allowed these things so that those who believe will know the season that is upon them and make ready. Blessed are those who see and hear.

Answer 4

I think the religious answer would be because God knows that compulsory obediance is not worship. God knows that in order for God's Kingdom to come it must be through intentional choice on the part of all members of humanity. That would be true worship.

Answer 5

Humans cause the wickedness. God gives each one of us a free will. He hopes we decide to believe that Jesus is God and live for Him. Some people choose to reject God. It is a choice of their free will. All people, including ones who accept and ones who reject God sin. The effect of sin is what we call wickedness. If God wiped away all wickedness, He would also be wiping out our free will. No one would have the free will to choose to believe in Him or not. We would be like robots.
I hope this makes some sense.
Blessings.

Answer 6

Wickedness is the result of people walking away from GOD. GOD is always good. It is how humans interpret the fact that makes it evil. Wish you wisdom!

Answer 7

God gave mankind the power of free will.

Free will allows people, like you and I, to chose the path that we shall lead in life. If we chose to be evildoers and act wickedly, it's not because that is what God wants us to do, it's because that is what we have chosen to do by our own free will.

Answer 8

You need to grasp what i'm gonna say or think hard after you have gone through my answer. If there is no wickedness how will he test your love for him as only wickedness is what makes us away from the right path, the path of God. If love becomes all pervailing then what elses is there, good, bad are two ends to strike balance in this world.

Answer 9

If God didn't allow wickedness, then He would be going against His own laws of free agency, thereby undermining Christ's sacrifice, which is essential to His plan.

Answer 10

God gave man free will
and its up to each of us to chose to do good or bad in this life