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Originally Posted by arloiginla
God did not give us sin like a disease. He created us perfect, not fallen creatures. But He gave us a free will, so that we aren't forced to follow him.
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But we are forced to follow him, because if we don't then we're given eternal punishment. That's not free will, that's coercion. Does the girl I'm going to lock in my basement because she doesn't choose to be my wife have free will?
And that's assuming that the decision to follow or not can be made, but there simply isn't enough information to make a well informed decision in that regard.
Adam and Eve lacked the knowledge of good and evil, so they weren't even equipped to understand the consequences of what they did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arloiginla
But Adam and Eve messed up and chose to reject that perfection and God. They separated themselves from God and therefore gave birth to a people that were born fallen from God. Hence the need for a Savior, someone who could make things right again.
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Should you go to jail for the crimes of your grandfather? Is that just?
Quote:
Originally Posted by arloiginla
This is why so many people make the argument of "How can a loving God create so much evil in the world?" Simple. God didn't create evil, he allowed it to happen. It was us humans that created it.
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"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?"
"Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?"
How does one go about creating evil? If it was created back then, can I still create it now?
If it was through an act of disobedience, then when my 6 year old disobeys me is that evil?
And allowing evil to happen when you have the ability to stop it is also evil.
If you are in a room with a mother and her child, and the mother puts the child in the microwave, is it not evil to stand aside? You would violate her free will by intervening. But she's violating the free will of the child already.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arloiginla
Once you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives in you. You are reconciled to God and are no longer a fallen creature. This Spirit guides you in order to live a perfect life worthy of the Lord and doing His work. That being said, we still have a free will and oftentimes this comes into play, when we choose to do what we know is displeasing in the Lord's sight. The Spirit will convict us if that is the case and we can always ask for forgiveness which is freely granted. The Holy Spirit is supernatural and the more time we spend with the Lord in devotions and whatnot, the closer we become to His spirit and the less likely we are to get sucked into the making wrong decisions.
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That's the theory anyway, but if there was actually any validity to this I think you would see it, but rather than being exceptional in every measurable factor, Christians seem to have the same problems and make the same wrong decisions as everyone else. If the US is an example of a society where there are more Christians so should be less likely to get sucked into wrong decisions, then the should be the envy of the world with respect to social and physical health, but it's quite the opposite.