What are your thoughts on this trilemma?

Question

1. If God is willing but unable to prevent evil, he is not omnipotent

2. If God is able but not willing to prevent evil, he is not good

3. If God is willing and able to prevent evil, then why is there evil?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. However, please note that I'm not trying to prove that God doesn't exist, I'd just like to know how some of you would react.

Answer 1

2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Ezekiel 18:21 “But if the wicked turn away from all the sins they have committed and keep all my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live; they will not die. 22 None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

God does not eliminate evil because he loves those who have been ensnared by it and wants to give them every opportunity to turn to him.

Answer 2

To find out why God allows suffering, we need to think back to the time when suffering began. When Satan led Adam and Eve into disobeying Jehovah, an important question was raised. Satan did not call into question Jehovah’s power. Even Satan knows that there is no limit to Jehovah’s power. Rather, Satan questioned Jehovah’s right to rule. By calling God a liar who withholds good from his subjects, Satan charged that Jehovah is a bad ruler. (Genesis 3:2-5) Satan implied that mankind would be better off without God’s rulership. This was an attack on Jehovah’s sovereignty, his right to rule.

Adam and Eve rebelled against Jehovah. In effect, they said: “We do not need Jehovah as our Ruler. We can decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.” How could Jehovah settle that issue? How could he teach all intelligent creatures that the rebels were wrong and that his way truly is best? Someone might say that God should simply have destroyed the rebels and made a fresh start. But Jehovah had stated his purpose to fill the earth with the offspring of Adam and Eve, and he wanted them to live in an earthly paradise. (Genesis 1:28) Jehovah always fulfills his purposes. (Isaiah 55:10, 11) Besides that, getting rid of the rebels in Eden would not have answered the question that had been raised regarding Jehovah’s right to rule.

Let us consider an illustration. Imagine that a teacher is telling his students how to solve a difficult problem. A clever but rebellious student claims that the teacher’s way of solving the problem is wrong. Implying that the teacher is not capable, this rebel insists that he knows a much better way to solve the problem. Some students think that he is right, and they also become rebellious. What should the teacher do? If he throws the rebels out of the class, what will be the effect on the other students? Will they not believe that their fellow student and those who joined him are right? All the other students in the class might lose respect for the teacher, thinking that he is afraid of being proved wrong. But suppose that the teacher allows the rebel to show the class how he would solve the problem.

Jehovah has done something similar to what the teacher does. Remember that the rebels in Eden were not the only ones involved. Millions of angels were watching. (Job 38:7; Daniel 7:10) How Jehovah handled the rebellion would greatly affect all those angels and eventually all intelligent creation. So, what has Jehovah done? He has allowed Satan to show how he would rule mankind. God has also allowed humans to govern themselves under Satan’s guidance.

The teacher in our illustration knows that the rebel and the students on his side are wrong. But he also knows that allowing them the opportunity to try to prove their point will benefit the whole class. When the rebels fail, all honest students will see that the teacher is the only one qualified to lead the class. They will understand why the teacher thereafter removes any rebels from the class. Similarly, Jehovah knows that all honesthearted humans and angels will benefit from seeing that Satan and his fellow rebels have failed and that humans cannot govern themselves. Like Jeremiah of old, they will learn this vital truth: “I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.”—Jeremiah 10:23.

Answer 3

If God has to intervene in every act which takes away the ability from people to chose for themselves, he would cease to be God.

People would not know good from evil and therefore the ability to make a distinction between the two would not be clear and people would be further drawn away from God.

1. If God always prevented evil, people would never have the ability to make a choice for themselves to do good, they would not know the importance of doing good for the joy of it, rather they'd feel being forced or compelled to do good. No personal satisfaction or reward is gained.

2. Same reason as number 1.

3. The contrast between good and evil helps people distinguish the two forces, evil and good. God wants people to choose the good, but does not want to force anyone, because he wants people to feel the joy that comes along with being obedient.

If people don't know "good," they do not get to know God. If people never learn about God and the joy of following him, they turn to unbelief and unwillingness to do as God requests of them and thereby bringing about the ceasing of God's existence.

Our work on earth is important, our trials and "trilemmas," are necessary, not only for the survival and harmony of humanity, but also for the proof that God exists.

Answer 4

he is willing and able to do everything. however he lets us choose what to do and lets us make choices. we are the ones who choose to do evil. i think of evil as tests to my self and faith. just like job when he lost everything. but he still stayed faithfull to God. if we are truly christians then no matter what we would still follow God and love God and not blame him. i mean why blame him when we should blame satan. there are many other evil things that could have come about that God does prevent. God said that he hardend pharohs heart so that he would not let his people go. he could have after the first sign soften his heart and pharoh would have let his people go but God said i will harden his heart. the jews saw what God did and still had disbelief. they kept saying you took us out of egypt to die in the desert. and each time God came thru for them. and when Moses went to get the Ten commandments they made a calf, even after seeing all God did they still chose to turn away. many of us do the same. we can see all God does for us but when the going gets tough then we turn away. or some of us is the other way around. we live how we want to and when the going gets tough then we turn to God for help. but again some of us start to blame God for allowing things to come about. for instance if you have a 5 year old who gets killed by being hit by a car you might blame God. however what is a 5 year old doing in the street to get hit in the first place. and second instead of blaming God maybe say you know God you always have a plan so your will be done and more on and we ought to be happy our son is in heaven.

Answer 5

Your question has a fallacy - number 2. You presume that preventing something bad from happening is always "good" but that is hardly true. Some people just can't seem to learn except by the hard way. Also, how many people's lives have ended up being drastically better because something "bad" happened to them? How something turns out is largely a product of your own mind - your attitude and how you react to your circumstances. You can accept it and go on, or you can sulk and fuss - the choice is yours. Which brings us to the next point - we have free will, and part of having free will is having to deal with cause and effect - not just our own cause and effect, but also the effects of every dumb thing that all the other idiots out there with free will do (and, we must admit, some people aren't just stupid, they're downright evil, and do evil things because they like to and want to - their free will). It's like quantum physics - the ripples spread out, and things that happen to one person or in one place affect other people and other places (the butterfly effect). And the earth itself is no longer clean and pure - we have sinned and shed blood and done all kinds of unclean stuff on it. According to scripture, the earth is cursed and will remain so until the Messiah returns to straighten everything out. So natural disasters also happen - not because God "made" them happen, but because of plain old cause and effect - geology at work. God doesn't usually interfere with cause and effect - when He does, we call it a miracle. But out here in real life, a miracle wouldn't help most of us - we'd still be our same old selves. God only gives miracles to people who need them, not to everybody that wants one. He sees how your "miracle" would affect you later in your life, or affect your friends and family now - and sometimes He sees that the results of a miracle would make things worse for us, not better. It's like refusing to give your toddler a cookie before dinner - it's for their own good but try telling them that! It's like refusing to help your kid to his science project that he waited until the last minute to do. Most of our prayers are really just us figuratively asking that 2 and 2 will not equal four.

Answer 6

You need to demonstrate why 2 is "not good". That is, on what basis do you believe that if God is able but not willing to prevent evil, that he is not good? Could being able but not willing be a good thing? Could he have other motivations that you haven't considered that would outweigh the apparent conflict?

Answer 7

how many people learn without consequences? They want proof and then their life falls apart, then what do they do? Look for hope. If He prevents all evil, how is that not making us robots? With evil, there is real choice.

God allows it because it's there to learn from. It's not His fault man is so selfish he chooses to find every excuse to not walk uprightly.

Where is the choice or faith in seeing an almighty, glorious God? We'd all serve Him out of fear instead of choice.

Answer 8

Do you not see the good that God does? Look in your life and try, just TRY to count all the blessings He has bestowed upon you. Evil is in this world because of Satan and the sins of Adam and Eve. Do not blame God for the works of Satan. If everyone would let God into their hearts and daily lives, much less evil would exist due to the lack of people falling for Satan's temptations, but that is apparently asking too much...

Answer 9

I havent taken logic in ages! I will answer with what I hope to be a sufficient answer to your question.

I believe God, being omnipotenet allowed evil to happen; being the creator, He obviously was aware of it being His hand in it happening. Why did He allow it to be created and ultimately develop and be used? I believe that God wants those who choose Him. If there were no evil, there would be absolutely NOTHING bad in ANY situation. Sounds uptopian doesnt it? However, it takes the ability to make choices away and cancels out free will. As horrendous as evil is and what it has brought humankind, I am glad to have choice and freewill in my life.

Answer 10

God is able to prevent evil; however, he chooses to not. Why? Because WE, humans, have created evil.
Evil is the lack of good, and nothing more. In much the same way, darkness is not measurable, excpet as a lack of light.
You measure the amount of light, not the amount of dark, right? Same thing...you measure the amount of good.

God created all things, and He did so creating them as good. Man turned from God, and this did things apart from God. Apart from God is known as "evil," because it is apart from all that is good.

God also gave us the free will to do these things. If He were to disallow us to choose against Him, to choose evil, then we would not really have the choice.

Either God allows us to choose every choice, or He does not allow us to choose at all. Thus, we must be able to choose to create evil...to choose against what God wants.