Help with a Hub: A question about God's omniscience and omnibenevolence.

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   Luke Holmposted 8 years ago

   Help with a Hub: A question about God's omniscience and omnibenevolence.
   
   I'm writing a hub about the following question and other perspectives would be very helpful:
   
   If God is omniscient (all-knowing) and omnibenevolent (all-loving), then why does He create souls that he knows will burn in Hell? To create a soul that He knows will ultimately turn away from him and burn in eternal hellfire does not seem very omnibenevolent.
   
   If your answer is free will, then couldn't God create only the souls that He knows will end up in Heaven? These souls could still have free will, testing the waters of good and bad, but eventually turn to God before death.
   
   What do you think? 
   
   

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   blessedpposted 8 years ago

   I try to avoid questions, questioning why God did X or Y because He is the most High God and He does what pleases Him. But this is my 2 cents answer to your question. 
   
   God doesn't make souls to go to hell. There is free will, we have the choice to chose where we spend eternity. There is two roads before us which do we chose. Straight is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the road that leads to eternal life. Which do you chose?
   
   Each of us is created in the image of God. There is neither black or white, rich or poor. For God looks at the heart of man and not the wealth of a man.
   
   For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
   
   Salvation is free and Christ Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, that not one but all of us can have eternal life.
   
   If we love the Lord God serve Him for in serving Him and no other we have secure our eternal home in glory with Him.
   
   Again I say the choice is ours where we want to spend eternity. We have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible the road map to eternal life tells us.
   
   Free will and free choice.

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      Luke Holmposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Blessedp, thank you for your poetic and reflective response. I find it a bit difficult to defer back to the Bible on questions like this because of how much man has influenced the text. Regardless, I'll think carefully about what you've shared.

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      celafoeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      GOOD JOB.  BUT Don't hesitate to answer questions, your input is needed.    so many on here answer with foolish answers and those like you that know God need to speak up, "you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free"

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   Jennifer Mugrageposted 8 years ago

   That's a fantastic question.  I do not believe there is going to be an answer that will make sense to human beings.  We will tend to believe that if the only possible kind of universe was one in which there was a lot of unjust suffering, and many even went to hell, that it would be better for God not to have created.  But at that point we are telling Him His business.  Obviously, God thought it WAS better to create.  Even though it meant a hell of a lot of suffering for Him too.
   
   So at that point, there are going to be two possible responses.  Some people will decide, I know better than God, therefore He must not be all good.   Others will decide, God knows better than me, so I will trust Him even though He does things I don't approve of.
   
   Both of these are heart choices, a matter of loyalty, because this a realm where pure logic cannot help us.
   
   (For what it's worth, I do think it might be a fallacy to think that God could know beforehand which people "would" believe.  Any person could go either way at any moment.  It's true that there is a lot in the Bible about predestination, how God foreknew those whom He called, but there is also an awful lot of persuasion and pleading for those who are holding out, as if they really had a chance.  So I think both doctrines are in the Bible, and this is one of those rare cases of a true paradox where both things are really true even though they seem completely contradictory to us.)

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      Luke Holmposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Jennifer, thank you for your excellent and in-depth response. This truly is a paradox, one difficult to wrap my mind around. I like the heart-centered approach of trust. Your response has gotten my wheels turning. Thanks again

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      Jennifer Mugrageposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Luke, I'm glad it was helpful. I look forward to reading the Hub when it comes out.

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   augustine72posted 8 years ago

   I am writing this answer for the author of this question of course, but more so for my Christian friends also. First of all I am no one great. I am just an ordinary Christian. This is what the Holy Spirit has taught me and so I don’t claim any credit for it. I am just a humble tool.
   
   The question is “If God is omniscient (all-knowing) and omnibenevolent (all-loving), then why does He create souls that he knows will burn in Hell?“ Basically this is a difficult question to answer simply because there is a flaw in the question. The questioner assumes that God creates souls and that is the flaw.
   
   When God created man, He made him with 3 parts - the body, the soul and the spirit. His creation was complete. Now the wheel was set rolling. Man was supposed to produce children with the 3 parts and multiply and fill the earth. But, when man committed sin, he took control of the wheel and steered it in wrong directions  and caused destruction. We cannot blame God over here. Let me explain further.
   
   God told man that he was not supposed to eat the fruit of one particular tree and that he would die in the day that he ate it. Man ate the fruit and death did happen. The part of him called the “spirit” died or was rendered inactive. People with dead spirits are the ones who go to hell. Once the spirit of Adam was dead, he started to produce children who were spirit dead. As a result all mankind was set to go to hell. We cannot blame God for this either. Infact God in His mercy devised a way to make the spirit of man active and and save him from hell. “Unless a man be born again he shall not see the kingdom of heaven” Jesus said. When we accept Jesus as personal savior, we are re-born or He activates our spirit. Then we escape Hell.

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   celafoeposted 8 years ago

   your question seems to miss a very important fact.   Scripture says that God WANTS ALL MEN TO BE SAVED.   He does not control what men think and contrary to what the majority of the "churches" teach He does NOT control which ones come to Him His way (through His Son Jesus Christ).    He gives man the free will, each man DECIDES FOR HIMSELF whether or not to come to Christ.   God would be creating robots if He chose not to allow those that He knows will not submit to Him to be born.   But, the loving God that He IS He has made provision for them too and His desire is that they may be able to understand and decide to follow Him. (take advantage of the grace and mercy He offers to whosoeverwill.

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   peter565posted 8 years ago

   
   
   There are many historians researching origin of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, god, known as Yahweh, but there is very little record, in pre Christian mythology.
   
   All religion origin from Africa, before the first human left, when human left Africa, they bring their religion with them and then the myth evolved independently and change. After research we realized the main gods and demons of all religion, to be the same, whether it is Christianity, Hindu, Native Americans etc. These gods are likely to be inspire by real people, that lived before human left Africa. Oldest record of Christian god Yahweh, is around 2500~3000 years ago.
   
   Evidence prove, Yahweh to be same as Hindu god Asura, who is turned evil by his tragic life. After combine all culture's myth, it shows in original story Yahweh's birth mother tried to kill and eat him, when he was a toddler, he was rescued by the god of the rain. Since then Yahweh is an orphan that fend for himself, he become more like a beast, to survive he would even to kill people, everybody hated Yahweh and wanted to kill him. After been driven off the cliff and left for dead, Yahweh was rescued by teen goddess Ishtar. who raised and protected the boy. Teen Ishtar was like the hot cheerleader that slept with the whole football team in teen movies. One day Yahweh accidentally saw Ishtar having sex, thinking Ishtar was been assaulted, Yahweh killed the boy, shocked and angry, Ishtar drove Yahweh away. People started hunting Yahweh again. So, when a drought come the King of the gods Elyon show him mercy, chopping of his arm and turned it into a horse to feed him. Yahweh killed the horse, he brought Ishtar horse meat, but thinking its human flesh, Ishtar angrily drove Yahweh away. Elyon made Yahweh is apprentice and Yahweh become a warrior god. But in Yahweh's eyes the world is still a cruel place, leading him to belief of all those not subject to him, independent from him, contradict him and not of his will is evil and is his enemy, eventually he even think the gods are demonic and rebel against Elyon, but was defeated Yahweh kill anyone human who refuse to worship him as one and only true god, accusing them of been evil. Yahweh proposed to Ishtar, who married Tammauz, but angry at Yahweh's killings, Ishtar sealed him away. Yahweh seen sex as evil, as this is why, he lost his adopted mother, he think all other gods are demonic and the cruelty that faced his life, let him develop a radical view of belief that all that not subject to him, independent from him, contradict him or not from him is evil and must be destroy. Seen sex as evil, not worshiping Yahweh as evil, worshiping other gods as evil and not subject to the way of Yahweh, as evil, has traditionally been the corner stone of Christian value, which leads to the inquisition of the dark ages, those teachings, of Christian value, reflects Yahweh's hate to anything that is not of him, due to his own past.

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      celafoeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      peter the antichrist-still polluting the Christian section with your garbage I see.   Take your foolish beliefs elswhere they are not welcome here

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      peter565posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hail Satan

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   Ben716posted 8 years ago

   It is a difficult question however if God didn't create people with free will, we would be better off robots than human beings. Consider the main reason of God creating man is so that He can have someone to talk to and have a joke. In Genesis it is obvious God always used to visit Adam and Eve and have a convo with them. You know how it feels seeing a father just watching his wife and children from a distance playing. It feels good (though at tge moment i am not married). He didn't want people to do what he wanted, it would have created fear and you can agree if someone fears you it won't create a healthy relationship. He wanted people out of their free will to choose to obey or have a convo or a relationship with him. If you have workers who fear you when working, you won't feel good about it because there won't be closeness.
   As to God knowing which people will sin and not, will perish and not perish shouldn't be something we need to tgink about. Like it was prophesied Judas would betray Jesus. Thinking about this is the same as thinking the exustence of God. It is a difficult question of which it has no answer. It might drive yoy insane. It is beyond our human knowledge.

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      celafoeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      AMEN

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