STUDY GUIDE FOR 103 HOW CAN A GOOD GOD ALLOW EVIL?

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1 STUDY GUIDE FOR 103 HOW CAN A GOOD GOD ALLOW EVIL? This Study Guide is to be used with the 103 Report found on freebible-study-lessons.com. Read through the above report and answer the following questions. 1. In Gen. 1:31 God looked at everything He had made and declared It was very." 2. In the evil and evil people did not exist. It is impossible for us to imagine what the world was like originally. We have only seen a world devastated by evil and sin. A world where these is no pain, sickness, violence - even in the animal kingdom -, and death seems like something out of a fantasy, yet that is how it was at the beginning...and will be again when Jesus returns. 3. God chose to allow for the of evil. 1 It is very important that we understand that God allowed evil, He did not create evil. God cannot do evil or condone it. Some extreme religious groups have taught God created evil. False! For example, there is a big difference in allowing your son to fail a school test because he is too lazy to study and causing him to fail by withholding essential tools. 4. It was the desire of God's heart to make as the king of creation a creature who He could love and who would love Him in return. 5. One of the highest angels against God. 6. No one can overthrow God, so Satan was defeated in heaven and his only option then was to the creature God loved. The Bible actually does not give us a lot of information about Satan

2 2 and his angels. God gives us enough information to let us know what is going on and what we should do. We should not spend a lot of time studying the dark side. Some Christians become obsessed with the occult. We are to understand the basics, as revealed in the Scripture - not other sources, but we are to focus on learning about Jesus and doing good [Rom. 12:21, 16:19; 1 Thess. 5:15; 1 Peter 3:11]. 7. Satan's goal was to the world by introducing evil into it. 8. God s command to Adam was to rule or have over the world and everything in it. 9. Adam and Eve and their descendants were created to and develop the world under the authority and inspiration of God. 10. God voluntarily gave man over this new world. 11. Did Satan s fall directly affect the physical world? 12. Man was not allowed to eat of the of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 13. Adam, as the of the human race, and knowing exactly what he was doing, also disobeyed God. 14. Who brought evil into this world? 15. In its very root, all evil is against the perfect God who made us and loved us. We are all born in rebellion to God. In case anyone wants to blame Adam, every time we sin we are saying, Adam, you made the right choice. Sin is sin. We may be tempted to think that we are not as bad as someone else. Doesn t matter. Even one sin is enough to separate us from God. [See report on Hell: God s Perfect Justice] Let s not compare ourselves with others. We need to compare ourselves to God s standard...and all of us fall short! 16. At the same time evil entered the world, also entered the world. 17. In order for God to destroy evil He would have to destroy the

3 3 entire race, the race He so greatly loved. 18. Because Adam was our representative before God, when he rebelled we all rebelled. 19. Adam turned and legally gave his responsibility to Satan. Because God is perfect justice, He cannot ignore our rebellion. As a perfect Judge, He cannot simply dismiss our case. Someone must pay the price. For every action there is a consequence. None of God s actions can violate the just system He has set up. All of His actions must be according to His legal system. That is why Adam could legally give his responsibility to Satan...and why Jesus could legally take it back. 20. Once Adam had chosen the path of rebellion he could not. 21. God chose to become a man in the Person of. 22. Because Jesus was not born in rebellion, like the rest of mankind, and because He lived a life of perfect, He could not die. Jesus was literally a Man Who could not die. Without sin there is no death. Jesus had eternal life within Himself. Nothing could harm or kill Him. He had nothing within Himself that deserved death. The only way He could die was to take our sin on Himself. 23. Jesus died. No one forced Jesus to die. He voluntarily gave up His life out of obedience to the Father and love for us. There was no other way we could be saved and restored to fellowship with God. It was His choice. He could have escaped at any moment during that torturous night and day, but to do that would have doomed us for eternity. 24. If we believe on what Jesus did for us, we are declared. 25. Because Jesus was made for us, we can be made innocent for Him.

4 4 26. When a person comes to, he is not the same person he was before. 27. God, in a master stroke of genius, has taken an evil person and him without evil and yet without destroying the person he was. 28. It is the man that is re-created immediately. 29. The cause of all evil, rebellion against God, has been removed. 30. The life patterns established in the are not changed immediately. 31. As Christians choose to obey God more and more then the effects and expressions of evil are gradually from their lives. 32. There are now two different creations on earth. The human race is not divided by ethnic origin, skin colour, beliefs, sexual orientation. It is divided into two camps by obedience or disobedience to King Jesus [Matt. 10:35, Luke 12:53]. Everyone who is in disobedience to Christ is on the same side of the line - the judgment side. This puts unconverted religious people, family people, and good citizens on the same side as atheists, murderers, homosexuals, etc. The only dividing line is unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ. Anything less is rebellion no matter how mildly or violently it may be expressed. 33, God, through Jesus has won back the on mankind's behalf. 34. Now, through His re-created man, God fights to destroy evil in the realm. 35. Planet is now the site of the greatest war ever fought. 36. Anyone who is not a re-created human being is not under the

5 5 protection of God and is a in the hands of Satan. 37. We need to be careful to realize this war is Christians vs. non-christians. We fight against Satan. Satan uses people - and they do have consequences for their actions - but we look past the people and see the motivating force behind them. If we only look at people we may miss what God is doing. Who would have thought that the murderous persecutor Saul would become the great apostle Paul? Read Ephesians 6. Notice how we war against Satanic evil. Sometimes we have worldly ideas of this warfare. The primary way we fight this war is daily living a life of submission to Jesus Christ. This fight is not for superheroes but for each of us. It is a daily choosing to live a life pleasing to God. The best way to get rid of darkness is to turn on a light. 38. We are deceiving ourselves if we think people to Jesus is the end of the war. 39. This war is fought and won by and obedience to the Word of God in love. 40. As we all apply the of God to laws and institutions of our respective countries, evil is driven from the earth. We do not change nations by forcing the Word of God from the top down. Social action is important but to be effective in the long term it must be from the bottom up. In other words, it is as the Word of God works in the lives of the average people in a country that changes move up until the nation is changed. Some countries try to force change in other countries by supplying rebels with money and guns. They would be more effective by sending in Bibles! 41. We gave authority over the earth to Satan and now God has given us the of taking it back through Jesus Christ. 42. Every we make wins or loses the war one inch at a time. 43. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus the war will be.

6 ANSWER KEY FOR 103 HOW CAN A GOOD GOD ALLOW EVIL? 1. good 2. beginning 3. possibility 4. freely, freely 5. rebelled 6. attack 7. destroy 8. dominion 9. rule 10. authority 11. No 12. Tree 13. representative 14. Adam 15. rebellion 16. death 17. human 18. legal 19. traitor 20. change 21. Jesus Christ 22. obedience 23. voluntarily 24. innocent 25. guilty 26. Christ 27. re-created 28. spiritual 29. root 30. mind 31. erased 32. human 33. earth 34. physical 35. Earth 36. pawn 37. not 38. leading 41. responsibility 39. faith 42. decision 40. Word 43. won 6