If God is love, why does he permit wickedness?

Answer 1

GOD does permit wickedness, and millions on earth willfully make a practice of it. For instance, they declare wars, drop bombs on children, scorch the earth, and cause famines. Millions smoke and get lung cancer, practice adultery and get sexually transmitted diseases, use alcohol to excess and get cirrhosis of the liver, 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.

Answer 2

"Bad Things—Why Does God Permit Them?
If God's purpose is to build a paradise earth, how is it that the earth today is so filled with wickedness, suffering, and sorrow? If God is the Almighty, why has he permitted these conditions for so long? Is there hope of an end to all our troubles? What does the Bible say?

The Bible shows that mankind's troubles began when one of the spirit sons of God rebelled against Jehovah's sovereignty, or dominion. (Romans 1:20; Psalm 103:22, NW Ref. Bi., ftn.) No doubt this angel was among those who had rejoiced at seeing the creation of man. But then covetousness and pride took root in his heart, and he was enticed by the desire to have Adam and Eve worship him instead of their Creator, Jehovah. Speaking through a serpent, much as a ventriloquist speaks through a dummy, this angel induced Eve to disobey Almighty God. Her husband Adam then followed her into disobedience.—Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-6; James 1:14, 15.

That rebellious angel came to be known as "the original serpent." (Revelation 12:9; 2 Corinthians 11:3) He is also named Satan, meaning "Opposer," and Devil, meaning "Slanderer." He called into issue the rightness and righteousness of Jehovah's rulership of earth, and he challenged God that now he, Satan, could turn all mankind aside from true worship. God has allowed Satan some 6,000 years to attempt to prove his challenge, so that the issue over Jehovah's sovereignty might be settled for all eternity. Man-rule independent of God has failed miserably. But men and women of faith, among whom Jesus is the outstanding example, have kept integrity to God under the severest trials, vindicating Jehovah and proving the Devil a liar. (Luke 4:1-13; Job 1:7-12; 2:1-6; 27:5) You, too, can be an integrity keeper. (Proverbs 27:11) "
This short article may be the answer you are looking for...

Answer 3

At first it might seem that if God created all things then evil must have been created by God. However, there is an assumption here that needs to be cleared up. Evil is not a "thing" - like a rock or electricity. You can't have a jar of evil! Rather, evil is something that occurs, like running. Evil has no existence of its own - it is really a lack in a good thing. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole - but it cannot be separated from the dirt. So when God created, it is true that all that existed was good. One of the good things that God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or non-good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a "thing" that required God to create it.

Answer 4

Hey! Good question! Here's my take on it all.

The term "God" could mean anything...making it a neutral and often times meaningless word that people spend way too much time arguing about...

People who "believe" in "God" are simply doing what they want to do...they give definition to the word and apply it however they want - negatively or positively. In your private life the word is as important as you want it to be.

"God" aside, in the end it's what we do for each other that will make the world a better place. Not arguing and fighting over meaninglessness and silly religious traditions that were developed before the age of modern Science and medicine.

Do your best to promote scientific learning and rational thinking and don't worry about it. Man will always have an obsession with a "higher power" so we might as well get used to it...

Be well!

Answer 5

It is not easy to answer questions like this but perhaps it can be thought of in this way. Every wickedness begins as a new born baby. If God is to continually get rid of evil then he would have to get rid of the human race. But the scriptures teach that he lets the evil and the good grow together until the end, the harvest when the wheat shall be gathered into the barn , hence metaphorically saved and the chaff or waste be thrown out, cast into the fire. This is certainly not exhaustive yet I think it may have a germ of truth. You will find these ideas and themes throughout the Bible along with different examples.Gods thoughts and ways are above ours.

A paraphrase of Psalm one follows, which deal with this subject in a limited sense but giving the mind of God in part .For now we only see and know in part but later we shall more fully know.
"How blest are they who keep from evil ways,
who heed not sinful counsel all their days,
nor seek the company of wicked scoffers,
but take delight in all the Lord God offers
within the statutes of his holy Law:
both day and night they ponder it with awe.

They are like trees that grow beside thestream,
whose fruitful limbs with ripened bounty teem,
whose verdant leaves will fade and wither never;
all that they undertake in faith will ever
be blessed by God with great prosperity.
But wicked ones a different lot shall see.

For they, like chaff, before the wind are blown
and will not last before the judgement throne,
nor will they stand in council of the holy.
But God protects all those who follow solely
the paths of virtue and of righteousness,
while death shall stalk the ways of wickedness.

Answer 6

Strength through a trial of temptation cannot be obtained if such 'temptations' did not exist.

Likewise, one cannot be an example to others of how they can be saved if they weren't 'lost' to begin with.

Love is easily done when the path is strewn with roses, but not-so-easily done when strewn with bolders, and the sky is full of rain and thunder. Wickedness has many purposes in existence, and the level of one's understanding allows them to 'know' what that is.

Answer 7

There is work for God to do. He wants a certain number of humans, He wants things to end in the timing that He set. I don't know what you might know about the Old Testament, but God hasn't finished yet.

Then there is Hell. A place where He has put into effect that will contain all those things that displease Him. A place where nothing else is.

So He has set the time and place, and it will be in His time, according to His will that it will all happen.

Answer 8

Love (God) only knows us as created; Love does not see wickedness; Love only sees what is real, because Love only creates the real...the unreal (wickedness) does not exist. Only Love (God) exists. Everything we dream apart from Love is fear, and fear is unreal. There is Love and everything Love creates...only this.

Answer 9

The judeoXtian god permits wickedness in all its forms because he/she authored it him/herself.

Isaiah 45:7. "...Who fashions light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates evil, I am HaShem who does all this."

Answer 10

Look at it this way. How would you know what it feels like to be happy or feel good if you never felt sad or down. You would not have emotions, you have to know pain to feel pleasure, and grief to know happiness