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NASB | Romans 5:12 ¶ Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 5:12 ¶ Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all people [no one being able to stop it or escape its power], because they all sinned. |
Bible Question:
[quote from Robert] Have you considered the post from brother Tim Moran last Friday? Quote ""This is a tough question. My short answer would be this: Evil is not a thing that can be created. Rather, evil is the choice to disobey God's law. Evil is a natural possibility where choices are really available." So, evil did not have to be created, nor did it have to exist prior to creation. It simply was a natural result of the creation of beings with a will. Once the possiblity existed for Adam and Eve to disobey God, evil resulted. " (End of quote thanks to Tim Moran) Zero, re- "the knowledge of good and evil" Knowledge refers to the ability of a person to know the difference. Adam and Eve after receiving the knowledge of good and evil due to their act of disobedience experienced the feeling shame for the first time. I cannot except the idea of evil before creation. We are not given very much information about before creation, except that God had looked down through the ages and had purposed to redeem lost sinners through Christ "before the world began" Eph. 1:4 In Strong's concordance "evil" Strong's #07451 transliterated "Ra" is an adjective which would support the idea that we have evil actions as seen in disobedience and good actions as seen in obedience to God. Since God is the standard, everything else is measured relative to him. "In the beginning God (Elohim) Gen. 1:1 If try to look into the dateless past we find "Elohim" who was, who is and who will be, forever, for he is eternal. Peace in his name Robert **************End Quote************ "This is a tough question. My short answer would be this: Evil is not a thing that can be created. Rather, evil is the choice to disobey God's law. Evil is a natural possibility where choices are really available." [Gen. 2:16-17]"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: [ver.17] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Clearly "GOOD" and "EVIL" exist and they exist only together. And they existed prior to creation. The choice is not a tree of "GOOD" *or* a tree of "EVIL", it's a tree of "GOOD and EVIL". "Since God is the standard, everything else is measured relative to him." Here is a "ZERO" theory summary: Everything, with the exception of "0", has an opposite that neutralizes the other and brings the two back to "0"(the "STANDARD"). Example:(positive-negative)(black-white)(night-day)(before-after)(up-down)(-2....2)(GOOD-EVIL). The twist is that they are both dependant upon each other for their very own existence, you can't have one without the other or they will both cease to exist. They both cease to exist because if you had just all "GOOD" then it wouldn't be "good" anymore it would be "STANDARD" and it can't be "STANDARD" because only "0" is "STANDARD". Can you see why I need to know where "evil" came from? Did God create "evil"? |
Bible Answer: zerotheory God had existed in eternity; time itself has been created by him. This means that before the creation of the universe, God had existed alone. And since Scripture teaches that there is no evil in God, the question arises as to "the source and origin of evil." We cannot say that God himself, although there is no evil in him, committed evil; Scripture denies this possibility. James 1:16-17 tells us, "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." If God is the source of "every good and perfect gift, "and gift,"does not change," it means that he does not perform anything other than that which is good. An answer consistent with the biblical data would be that God had created creatures with the ability to choose, although he possessed complete control over even their wills, and that it was good for him to have done so. But these creatures by God's good sovereign decree, decided to make choices that were contrary to the goodness of God and therefore resulted in evil. We must insist, contrary to the "free will" of humanism, that God did not merely "permit" evil, but he decreed it; otherwise, it could not have originated. Now, the Bible says that if there is no moral law, there would be no sin. Therefore, sin is a transgression of the moral law. Since the moral law states that which is good, evil is thus a deviation from objective goodness, and is therefore not really a thing in itself.What follows from this is that goodness can exist without evil, but evil cannot exist without objective goodness. If evil, as it seems,is an "ought not," then it cannot exist without an "ought." It is possible for there to be an objective standard of goodness without any deviation from it, but it is not possible for there to be a deviation from goodness if the goodness itself is undefined or non-existent. For example, it is conceivable to have a speed limit without anyone violating it, but it is impossible to violate the speed limit if there is no such thing. Likewise, it is only possible for there to be evil if there is good, but it is possible for there to be good without the existence of evil. God does not need Satan to define him. Evil indeed exists, but not as a thing in itself; rather, it is a deviation from the good. This does not mean that evil is an illusion, as some non-Christian systems of thought assert,but that it does not have independent and objective existence, as is the case with goodness. In brief, goodness is defined by the word of God, and evil is in turn defined by (the deviation from) goodness. What God says is good, is good; what deviates or contradicts what he says is evil. Did this help you? God bless! P.S. My first post is from my files, and was not fitted to this window, let's see if this second post will fit, if not, you get the message. Praise God. |