Thursday, April 2, 2009

Long time no post...

Hey,

Yes, I'm still living and breathing and being myself. I'm so sorry that my blog has just sat here with no post. Truly my life has been so busy, I can't narrow it down to one thing that I want to post about. Well, today, it's different. I'm going to talk about how a God can exist even with so much torture, crime, and death in the world.

First of all- We are all sinners. There is no way to explain any goodness in us except by the blood of Christ. And even then, it's not our goodness, but the goodness of Christ in us. The fact that we have moral laws is based upon Christ, our ultimate standard. We know what sin is because of God's ultimate righteousness. Seeing God's amazing goodness, we are able to see how horrible we are.

Second- God is just. His punishment falls on us- the sinners that only deserve eternal hell. We only deserve to die by His Holy Hand. We have only earned the right to be punished for our sins.

Third- God is merciful. Even though we deserve hell and eternal damnation, He gave us the option of eternal LIFE through Christ Jesus. He sent His Son to take the wrath for us so that we don't have to bear the unbearable pain of being subject to His punishment. We can't be saved on our own- we need Jesus!

This is all I have time for today, but if you have any questions, please post. I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that it was encouraging to you!

From your sister and friend-

Lydia

8 comments:

Nathaniel M said...

I might add this:

There is no logic in saying that, because there is an omnipotent and omniscient God, there should be no evil.
He is indeed perfect. However, we are imperfect and sinners, and we are evil by nature. The devil a major cause of evil, not to say that excuses us from our fault of evil.

That is generally my main argument as to why a perfect deity can exist at the same time as evil.

Nice post though :)

Lydia said...

Well, God is not evil. Evil did not come about by His hand. Evil was caused by the sin of Man. Thus, the sin of Man will be punished by the uncontainable righteousness of God. However, if we choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will have eternal life, because Christ bore the pain for our sin. He took the wrath.

In return for this great eternal life that He's given us, we are to believe in Him and bring Him all the glory. And, we are to spread the gospel to the world.

Thanks for posting Nathaniel!

lyd

Kat said...

That was a very encouraging post, Lydia!!

I was having a similar discussion recently with some of my other friends. We can just say "God created everything," but since evil did not come about by His hand, who created evil? Is everything not created by God evil?

Hmm..food for thought!

Lydia said...

There is nothing that was not created by God. Evil is the absense of God. Sinning causes us to be drawn away from God. God is always the same. It's us who change.

Congrats on your harp performances kat!

Anna said...

good post, lydia.

people have been trying to reconcile how a loving, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-perfect God could allow evil. we don't know the answers to all these questions. but we do know what He has told us.. that He IS all powerful, all-knowing, etc AND that He is not the author of evil, and that He has ordained all things according to the council of his will, to show His glory during this time and the time to come. we can't reconcile it perfectly on human terms.. but we can believe that this is all true! our responsibility is the same: to honor and glorify God, and to seek Him for mercy b/c we are lost otherwise.

Lydia said...

I might also add that God does not predestine people to evil. He predestines people to be subject to his wrath. We are all evil w/out anyone predestining us to evil. God predestines some to his MERCY and some to his WRATH. The only just thing is for us to go to hell. Salvation is mercy, and mercy is Love.

Kat said...

"God predestines some to his MERCY and some to his WRATH."
Ah, so you are a Calvinist I take it :)
I'm still not sure where I stand on this issue... I need to get it figured out. I've heard many people say that if someone appears to have abandoned Christianity, they could still come back and it's not our place to judge. But this is all so confusing to me =3

Lydia said...

Haha. I am a reformed Calvinist, and not a hyper calvinist (i hate being thought of as a hyper Calvinist). However, that statement that I made was straight from scripture. Romans 9:22-23. It says it right there. Also, predestination vs. free will debates are not calvinism vs. arminianism debates. They are sometimes catagorized that way because most HYPER calvinists believe that there is no such this as free will. I, on the other hand, believe oppositely. While we have free will, it can only choose evil because of our sin. Therefore, in order to be saved, God has to allow His Spirit to move in us to choose salvation. We were created with perfect free will, but with the fall, came a marred image of God in us and a marred free will. Therefore, we ONLY can choose evil. (Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; 5:9, 140:3; 10:7... etc. etc.) I'm interested to hear your thought, kat! <3