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RECONCILIATION.
Also:
"For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all " (Romans, XI, 32).
In Ecclesiastes (VII. 20) we have :
"For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not."
Again, in Isaiah (XLV. 6 & 7):
"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things."
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Job declared (V. 7): " Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
The question is, why is man born into trouble? Why, to use the words of Isaiah, does the Lord create evil? If he creates evil* there is an end of the matter, and man's responsibility ought no longer to be preached. What does this mean? Is the Lord to be blamed for a wanton creation of evil? Can we ascribe to him a design for creating that which we would abhor in the lowest and most degraded being amongst us? And, yet, this is what it comes to! The creator creates evil himself, is good enough to tell us that he has done so, and then turns on us, because we are evil? How absurd! But there is no escape from the dilemma. Either he did not create evil, or he did. If he did not, whence came evil into the world, since, according to theology, he is the creator of all things? But the matter is set at rest by the testimony of no less a person than Isaiah, in the passage already quoted. There remains the difficulty arising out of the mysterious conduct of the creator. He creates evil
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*The Qur'an also has it (chap. XLII): "Whatever misfortune befalleth you, is sent you by God."
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