So, if God is all powerful, how can He stand by and watch all of the horrors mankind is always, somewhere, actively perpetrating on itself? This is a question which has been asked for ever and ever and it is now my turn to take a stab at it.
I believe the answer lies somewhere in the idea of "freewill". That is to say, He cannot effectively show His love for us, nor we for Him, by His turning us all into robots. While the evidence of our Creator is, in my experience, everywhere to be found, it is still a matter of an intentional act to "believe" in Him. That is to say, if God were to split the sky and make an announcement for all of humankind to see, hear and experience, then our natural tendency would be to believe, of course, and to stand fearful and cowering in His presence. Is this "love"? I would say no. And I believe a relationship of love with His creation is what God most wants. Our decision to follow Him, through His expression of love in the Christ, the messiah, is what He wants. There is sufficient evidence in the sciences to lay a foundation for a very plausible faith. Not a blind, radical, emotional response, but a thoughtful, reasoned response resulting in placing our faith in God's work on earth. While He is holy and just, attributes that we are to strive for but without the realistic expectation of achieving, He still loves us. As we express our love for Him we enter into an eternal relationship which will some day be made perfect through Christ.
Getting a bit off track here. Let me offer an analogy if I may. Back to the question of how a loving God can "allow" so many evil things to occur. As I said, I tie it to "freewill". If you are in a courtroom where your brother has been found guilty of manslaughter because he ventured out on the road after having a few too many drinks and the family of the deceased comes up to you and says, "why did you let him continue drinking and driving after his first 2 DUI's?" What is your defense? After all, you could have handcuffed him and kept him in your basement. You could have had him forcibly taken to a State run facility to live out his days. You could have kept closer tabs on him and driven him home after he got himself drunk. So many things you could have done. But each of them would have violated his "freewill". So you had to stand by and watch him destroy his own life and he has now also taken someone else's life. Are you a murderer? Your efforts to talk some sense into your brother were unsuccessful but you could have taken a more direct, physical approach. But that approach, while potentially saving someone's life, would have infringed on your brothers basic rights as a person. God is constantly calling us to a point of redemption. He has made a way for humankind that would move us to a less violent existence. But He has not yet directly intervened on a worldwide scale, I believe, hoping more of His creation will choose to place their faith in Him void of the feelings of compulsion which would certainly accompany a decision after His second coming or some other worldwide supernatural event.
So I believe we are left with a world inexerably tied to both tragedy and joy. A world capable of evil but a world that offers a loving creators invitation to grace and forgiveness and eternal life with Him.
