> General Discussions
An Experience of Evil, Why?
Deborah-Leigh:
There it is. There’s the gospel; there’s the purpose for human existence; there’s the plan of God. God is forming man into the very image of Himself. This requires not only a knowledge of good and evil, but an experience of good and evil. God provides both. http://bible-truths.com/lake3.html
aktikt:
George,
Thank you for your post. It made me think and I was troubled by it.
--- Quote ---This entire experience of evil is not to perfect our soul; but rather through trials and tribulation to humble us.
Ray has done a lot of work on this subject, it is worth spending a few hours on studying. Also there are many
good threads from prior discussions over the last couple years.
--- End quote ---
I carried the post around in my mind for awhile and found that it caused me to be troubled. I didn't think it worthy of God to give us an evil experience just to humble us without any further purpose. When I thought about it further, I realized that this experience of evil is to humble us indeed, but not for it's own sake. In other words, you said in your above post:
--- Quote ---This entire experience of evil is not to perfect our soul; but rather through trials and tribulation to humble us.
--- End quote ---
I maintain that God is not humbling us without the thought of perfecting our souls in mind, but rather this humbling experience is vital to perfect us. Jesus is/was/will be humble isn't He? Aren't we to be like Him? Jesus is perfect which includes His humble attitude therefore to be perfect requires us to be humble. God takes it upon Himself to humble us through our experience of evil for the purpose of making us like Jesus who is humble.
I wanted to clear this up because I imagined others might feel as I did without any answer.
Josh
Dave in Tenn:
I think of it this way, Josh. Being humbled is a necessary thing notwithstanding the character trait being produced. He is the potter; we are the clay. He is Sovereign God; we are sinful man. We are HIS workmanship. We will be humbled. Every knee will bow and every tongue will acclaim Jesus is Lord. We will know it, mean it, and understand exactly what that means. God doesn't exist for us...we are here for Him.
Certainly to 'be humble' is to be more Christ-like, but 'being humbled' is the way in which God deals with us. The carnal mind is enmity with God. He commanded us to love our enemies. He loves His enemies. He'll put them all under His feet where they belong. Having been humbled, then we can rejoice.
Just some added thoughts.
mharrell08:
--- Quote from: aktikt on March 19, 2009, 12:34:35 PM ---I maintain that God is not humbling us without the thought of perfecting our souls in mind, but rather this humbling experience is vital to perfect us.
--- End quote ---
I would agree as well Josh...all the trials, tribulations, experience of evils, judgments, etc. all fall under the umbrella of 'making man into the image of God. They are all necessary for us to be perfected into His image.
Marques
Deborah-Leigh:
The beast of supposed "free will" which is really self-will, does not want to leave peaceabley! It takes the very presence of Jesus Christ to dispel the beast of humanistic self-determinism... http://bible-truths.com/lake3.html
There are only three possibiliteis as to why....quote
Why there is evil and tragedy in the world;
Why people do evil things to other people;
Why the innocent must suffer at the hands of the wicked;
Why people are born with debilitating defects;
Why the whole world lies in spiritual darkness and paganism;
Why billions live and die without ever hearing the name of Jesus Christ their Creator and Saviour;
Why men are often tortured by providence and nature itself which operates completely and independently apart from any man.
When we understand these things we will understand the lake of fire and second death, and a thousand other things that happen in our lives today as well as in the lives of all humanity since Mother Eve!
http://bible-truths.com/lake2.html
We have to understand being humbled is the result of having our self-determination or sence of SELF, being driven and that quote..
like a real flogging. God will chasten us until He drives out the beast in us. The beast of supposed "free will" which is really self-will does not want to leave peaceably! It takes the very presence of Jesus Christ to dispel the beast of humanistic self-determinism, commonly called "free will."
Although we are not condemned when God judges us, we nonetheless must be chastened. ....
God "judges" us by "chastening "(paideuo) us, which means, teaching, training, learning, disciplining, punishing, instructing, and educating. And God "graces" us also by this same "chastening" (paideuo) which does not change meaning from one Scripture verse to another. Notice how other translations render this word paideuo in Titus 2:11-12:
"Teaching us..." King James
"Instructing us..." American Standard Version
"Disciplining us... New Testament (Henry Alford)
"And schooling us..." The Centenary Translation (Montgomery)
"Training us..." The New Testament in Modern Speech (Weymouth)
http://bible-truths.com/lake3.html
Arc
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