DAVEH: Thanx for sharing your thoughts on this, Perry.
Charles Perry Locke wrote:
DAVEH: Perry.....I intend to respond to one (or more) of your previous posts, but am getting behind on both my email and sleep! However, your below post compels me to ask you a question.
If you really believe that it is God's will that all be saved, why does God allow the Devil to exist to suck men into hell? Wouldn't it be expedient if God just predestined all men to be saved instead?
Dave, I believe that God has given us free will specifically so that we can choose to love him, or choose to reject him. Love that is forced, or programmed, is not love at all. I am sure that your children love you, and that you enjoy that fact. How would you feel if they were like automata, or robots, having no choice but to say they love you and go through the mechanical motions of showing it. I think you would agree that is not really love at all. While that may be entertaining for a while, it would bring no lasting joy. God wants us to choose to love him. but, we also have the free wil to reject him. I also believe that ALL men have the opportunity, and have since the creation, to love Him or reject him. Romans 1:19,20 reveals that.
I assume you believe God has the power to do that.....abolish hell and Satan. Yet he allows (or perhaps wants) him to exist. Why do you think the existence of Satan and hell are important to God?
Satan is a created being, an angel, in fact once an archangel. Evidently, he was given free will, too, but because of his pride he tried to place his throne above God's, and consequently was cast out of heaven to earth. His pride still causes him to interfere with God's plan by attempting to divert man's love away from God. I believe that God is sovereign over his creation, and that he could abolish Satan and hell, and indeed wil do that one day. But, I do not know why he has chosen to allow Satan have power on the earth for this period of time. Perhaps the Scriptures reveal that in some way I have not yet been shown. But, I accept that God, in his sovereignty, is perfect in his reasoning.
Perry
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