Monday, November 4, 2019

A "Problem" with God's Plan

Today, I read and discussed a poem that touched on The Problem of Evil, specifically man-made evil. The poem referenced one of many man-made problems and said "This cannot be what You designed." The thing is, though, it is.

God intended mankind to have agency, the ability to choose good or evil, and He designed the Earth to be a testing area, to give us a chance to prove and discover what we would do with the agency God gave us. All of us choose evil occasionally. Some people choose evil more often than not. God accounted for that by giving us a Savior who made it possible for us to repent. God knew that the evil choices of some people would cause suffering for others, and He accounted for that, too. The suffering we experience on Earth is character-building and temporary.

Sure, it stinks that some people misuse their agency and cause others to suffer, but life was bound to involve suffering anyway; that's part of the plan, and agency is essential to the plan as well. The evil caused by mankind is tragic, but it's not an indication that God didn't plan things out. God's plan accounts for all the choices people make, including all the evil choices people make. That's why He gave us the Atonement and encourages us to do good in the face of evil.

True, God doesn't want us to do evil, but the evil that people do is still a part of God's plan.

No comments: