From: mlee@post.RoyalRoads.ca (Malcolm Lee)
Subject: Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER
Organization: Royal Roads Military College, Victoria, B.C.
Distribution: world,public
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 20:45:37 GMT


In article <C0Lz63.9Jp@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v22964qs@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Mike Cluff) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan8.190917.15570@ra.royalroads.ca>, mlee@post.RoyalRoads.ca (Malcolm Lee) writes...
|> > 
|> >In article <C0I4Ft.8C6@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v22964qs@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Mike Cluff) writes:
|> 
|> >I am sorry.  I couldn't accept the atheist belief even though I thought of myself
|> >as an atheist for the longest time.  I couldn't just do it to the groove and do
|> >it, just do it because it feels good.  
|> 
|> Please don't mistake atheism for hedonism/epicureanism.  Not all of us, when
|> we decide that the "parents" aren't "home" eat up all the ice cream and poop
|> on the rug.  Morality to many atheists like myself is internally conceived,
|> not externally.  
|> 
Point taken.  I apologize to anyone I may have offended with my offhanded remarks.
This was my attitude prior to becoming a Christian.


|> >|> Okay, why did God create Satan?  He was omniscient and omnipotent, after all.
|> 
|> >Satan was originally an angel, as you may or may not know.  He and all his 
|> 
|> I was aware of that, actually (I was a Christian at one point).  This once
|> again raises my "why create those who'll make bad choices" issue from other
|> posts...
|> ******************************************************************************
Yes, this has been a recurrent question that I've been asked several times and I
do admit that I've had to seriously consider it too.  After much consultation with
some of my Christian brothers and sisters and the Bible, I've come to a few 
observations and conclusions.  Follow me if you will:

1 > God is omnipotent.  God is omniscient.  All knowing, all powerful.
2 > God can see into the past, present and future.

Therefore, God knows the future of any person that He creates.  He knows whether
or not that person will be saved.  The question then becomes, why bother creating
this person if he is only going to rebel in the end anyways?  

Yes, God creates the unbeliever even knowing fully well that that person will 
reject Him in the end.  Why does God do this?  Love.
 
If a father knows that his son will grow up to rebel against him, will that father
cease to give his son life?  I think not.  A father would do anything to save his
son, even if it meant sacrificing his own life for his.  Because God loves us so much, He will not deny us the gift of life.  Even to His enemies, he will give the gift of life.  By giving life to His creations, there will always be the
chance that some of them will accept Him and love Him back.  Regardless of how
slight that chance may be, He will offer life to all if only to redeem even one.
A case in point is the story of Sodom and Gommorah.  If only one righteous person
were to be found in either of these cities, God would have spared all of them.  As
it turned out, there were no righteous persons to be found and so both cities were
wiped out.

God wants us to love him back.  To further this end, God sent His only Son to redeem mankind so that we may come to know of His love for us.
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