Providence and Evil
Permission of Sin
Providence · 6 verses
God's providence includes the permission of sin and evil, wherein He allows moral agents to act contrary to His revealed will while ensuring that such actions ultimately serve His sovereign purposes. This permission demonstrates both divine respect for creaturely freedom and sovereign control over evil's extent and outcome.
Scripture References
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”
“For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
“O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.”
“Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.”
“So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.”