Is God all good?
That question is concerning God as described in the Bible. A few biblical affirmations are:
• Psalm 145:9 -- "The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made."
• 1 John 1:5 - "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."
• Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19, "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good -- except God alone."
So, God is good to everyone! He has compassion on everyone he has made, not just a select few, as these passages imply. If God is that good, He would not want dreadful things to happen to anyone, isn't that true?
Another question: Is God all powerful? The NIV lists 286 variations of "Lord God Almighty" e.g., "I am God Almighty." Genesis 17:1. Rev. 19:6, "For our Lord God Almighty reigns."
Matthew 19:26, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" Jeremiah 32:27.
God could prevent all the evil that has ever existed, but he does not. He must have wanted evil to happen. In fact, he claims he created evil (Isaiah 45:7 KJV or "disaster" NIV). Either way, he made sure terrible things happen to every human he created!
I know that Jonathan Michael Marks and other Christians will claim "God wanted people to have free will!" But "free will" is not in the Bible, only limited choices. "A man's steps are decided by the Lord." Proverbs 20:24, NIV. "The Lord decides ·what a person will do." EXB.
God predestined everything before he created anything, Ephesians 1:4 and many others. The Israelites' choices, obey or else, "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters." Jeremiah 19:9. Their ultimate choices were between life and death, Deuteronomy 30:19.
Christian ultimate choices are between Heaven and Hell. There is no free will, either love God or else.
Jonathan Marks wrote in his LTE October 13, "It is false that all congregations claim to be the only true church."
This is a false inference to my explicit statement, "it is impossible to know the exact number of congregations who claim to be 'The only true Church' in the U.S. but it must be a few thousand or more." in my LTE, Sept. 29.
God hates lying tongues!
Oren Piper
Siloam Springs