I have read literally hundreds of bible writers on various topics mostly online and out of the hundreds there are probably less than ten that I would bother returning to.
If you want to learn something new about doctrine then google Dr. Ernest L. Martin and The Doctrine of the Ages.
Only a handful of people are even aware of this doctrine.
It is very enlightening.
I don’t think we’re exactly on the same page, Jeff. (Not that I mind you’re disagreeing; I don’t at all.) I really think that the void is just part of the process, not that God did this to display some aspect of His character or anything. I don’t think He really needs to do that. The thing I was trying to say is hard to communicate.
God wants children who are real; not simulacrums created by His direct agency. For that He has to distance Himself at least somewhat from His creation; let the EARTH bring forth life, for example, as stated in Genesis. Yes I do think that when homo sapiens came to the point of being capable of sustaining full consciousness and sentience, He breathed His spirit into Adam. I suspect that He didn’t much care what shape of body Adam ended up with, so long as it met the requirements of at least an adequate “interface” through which Adam could experience and relate to God.
I’m a potter. Any potter can tell you that the very best pots are those over which the potter has succeeded in relinquishing a degree of control, letting the pots (or at least the glaze) “create themselves” to some extent. Painting is a lot like this too. If you exercise too much control, the product ends up over-worked, wooden, and lacking life. Not that God would have that problem, but even if He created the perfect offspring, unless He allowed them to develop on their own and, well, learn things the hard way (by groping around, as Paul said, to see whether we could find Him), we would be nothing but automatons. We HAD to come to the kingdom THIS way. I’m not good at explaining things in developmental psychology terms, alas. I’ll try, though. An infant has no way to tell where s/he ends and the rest of the world begins. If everything she desires is provided for her, she is somewhat justified in thinking that the world revolves around her and that she has control over all things in her little cosmos. Unless there are things that oppose her, she cannot gain any sense of self. This is the environment we live in; the earth and the universe and other people. The disorganization and the unlove and the darkness are evidences of death/chaos/void. The void does show us things about God, but I don’t think this is the reason God created this way–or at least, not the most important reason. I think He could have shown us these things in some other way.
We cannot become persons without going through this process. Not real persons. This leads me to wonder how people who don’t live long; still-born infants, etc., ever do develop this individuality. I have a couple of speculations on this. (Just speculations, mind.) First, we are created in the image of God, and God is One. I do believe that humanity is intended to be (or become) one as God is one. If this is the case, than I don’t see how it could be avoided that we will share intimate understanding of one another’s experiences and all the things they and we have learned by living this life. Second, scripture isn’t really all that weighted against reincarnation. I know that’s WAY out there, and like it said, it’s just a wild hare. But it would work. There’s only one verse that I know of that would forbid it: “It’s appointed to men once to die and after this the judgment.” Clearly this verse isn’t carved in stone. Elijah resurrected a child; Elisha too. Jesus raised several people from physical death. Peter raised one that we know of, and one hears of such things in modern times as well. Physically, all these people died (or probably will die) twice. I’m not sure that verse means precisely what we think it means. Maybe it means something other than physical death. Just putting that thought out there. I don’t have a big commitment to the idea, but it’s a possibility, I think.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I believe that evil is a necessary artifact of the creation process. My dad was a builder. In order to create a beautiful house, you have to make a LOT of mess. It really can’t be helped. Yeah, you clean it up as you go, but there’s definitely an “ugly kid” phase for any building. All this is necessary. It isn’t something you directly create. You don’t set out to make a mess; the mess comes of its own. When the house is finished, you do forget about the mess, but without that mess, the house would never have been possible.
Hopefully, this clarifies. 
Cindy, yes thanks for clarifying and yes after that explanation we are on quite different pages regarding the nature of God and grace. Well in no more than 40 to 60 years we will both know much much more. 
Can’t wait! 
I want to respond to a previous poster. If someone makes a statement like “the moon is made of green cheese”, we would all probably think this is wrong. But how do we disprove it?
We could create philosophical or scientific arguments to disprove it.
We could follow the role of academics and site professional resources questioning or refuting it
We could ask questions about the original statement, in order to understand the how and why.
There might be other methods, but these are all tried and true - and widely accepted among professionals, in the world at large.
It depends on who the Person is making the statement.
When God makes a statement you can take it to the bank.
He always tells the truth and has,the wisdom and the power to back it up.
And so do some of his followers.
Read the spiritual warfare books of Jerry and Carol Robeson…they have personal experience of casting demons out of people and of healing them.
And read Glimpse of the Devil by M. Scott Peck. He is a Harvard educated psychiatrist who performed deliverances and exorcisms on two of his patients. He said he saw a demonic manifestation in one of them.
But the world isn’t publishing this knowledge. You have to be a truth seeker and go to the right sources to get this kind of knowledge and missionaries are the best truth seekers in the world.
That is why I am an online missionary and plan on moving to another country to continue in it soon.
Listen to me, Randy! Now listen!
God has let you have your life of adventure but your mother has prayed for you and now it is time for you to go home and be God’s boy.
I am an INFJ…And a prophet…so I know when God is talking to someone and He is talking to you through me.
I am the Counselor and you have been hanging around too many demonic people in your attempts to help them and now you need some help.
Pick up the scriptures and read them everyday until they make sense…You are too important to God to waste all your God given talents.
So you start sticking closer to God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit then you stick to your own family because God is your true family.
That is all I have to say today…That is all God wants to say to you today.
There are many people who claim to be prophets. But my mom has lived with me for 10 years, until she passed away Oct. 4, 2013. I’ll take her advice and counsel as a prophet over others. And if you are a prophet, can you tell me about the last communicated vision my mom said to me (i.e. that was about me) - before she passed? Or what the Holy Spirit communicated and passed on to me years back, in the rural South, via a Pentecostal “full gospel” minister?
God does speak to us, but I leave it up to the professional theologians, to help me decipher his messages. And I leave it to individuals to determine which theologian (s) they wish to follow.
Before we look for a demonic cause, one must first rule out a scientific one. Hence, the psychiatrists, general practitioners and neurosurgeons should have first crack. Then turn it over to the exorcists.
That’s my stance on these matters. You and others are welcome to agree or disagree.
Randy I am a prophet…I receive messages from God…we don’t communicate with the dead at all…then I would be channeling like a psychic medium and God doesn’t approve of them.
Saul was in trouble for consulting a medium. He was troubled by an evil spirit after consulting with a witch after he lost patience and didn’t wait for God’s response.
I think you have the order backwards…God is all powerful…so you consult God first to receive His answer before going to anyone else…not that doctors aren’t helpful…People,have been healed without going to a doctor…Who do you think gives a doctor his mind, his education and,his gifts?
God is not the bottom of the list. He is the top…anyone with a healing gift gets it from God…everything is done under the authority of Jesus’ name.
God as the scriptures say is the head not the tail.
I didn’t say to communicate with the dead. That is forbidden. But prophets in the Old Testament were asked by others to interpret dreams, etc. Yes, folks get healed without doctors. But Luke was a physician, in the midst of many miracles performed by Paul and the apostles. But he never renounced being a physician.
If you really want to know God, Randy then you should try doing what I did.
Get up every morning and pray and read your bible first thing…asking God to send the Holy Spirit to help. This will put the Spirit in the lead and your day will go smoother.
If you have questions…then start researching the bible for answers…You have a lot of commentaries, bible scholars, bible versions, etc. All online but look out for the false prophets we have a lot of them today.
I think you will find Jesus is leading you just like the 23rd Psalm says He will.
Psalm 23 , Young’s Literal Translation
Well you know I am not an old hand at being a prophet…this is a bit new to me. At this time I don’t interpret dreams…that could be a future talent to be developed.
Read Derek Prince…prophets mainly deliver words of wisdom or words of knowledge but to be able to do that you really need to spend time in the scriptures which I did and I do.
I think I spend more time in them than most ministers I meet.
And we get our anointing from God not some seminary…Diplomas are deceiving…make sure you are consulting upright people when you ask questions or attend a church.
Half the people ministering on television are raking in big sums of money and what are they doing with it?
Some of them can recite the Word backwards and forwards but are they giving those millions of dollars back to God?
I don’t get a dime from a single person for what I do…and I don’t want one…I prefer being free of any monetary influence at all.
When I was small, I was in the boy scouts. We were going to be in some local parade and I was probably about 16. My mom said to take a umbrella for rain. I distinctly remember listening to the weather report. None of the “weather experts” had rain the the forecast. I took the umbrella and got a lot of ridicule from fellow scouts. But I carried the umbrella with me. About half way though the parade, it not only started raining - it started to downpour. And I just opened the umbrella and had a big smile on my face. True story!
That’s a good one.
This nurse that used to hang around my mother for comfort said that God would stop it raining when my elderly mother went outside.
3 months ago we had a downpour and I prayed we wouldn’t flood and a few minutes later it stopped.
About two weeks ago we had another downpour …I really thought we could flood and there is a county drainage ditch behind my house that could over flow so I commanded the rain to stop in Jesus name and it slowed down and stopped shortly thereafter and the flood waters receded quickly.
God can bring good out of evil so why can’t He create it?
Can you be Christlike and not know the difference between good and evil?
He can create evil because in God’s hands evil is a tool for us to learn. In this present evil age if you have good you must have evil, it’s a law in this age. In man’s hands evil is sinful but folks can’t seem to differentiate the use of evil between God vs man.
No, we must learn good and evil to be Christlike and that’s why Adam was going to sin at some point. If it didn’t happen when it did, it would have happened later. All you need to do is look at Eve’s character and know she had Adam’s DNA.
That is a hypothetical, philosophical and theological question. Yes he can create it. But can he create a rock he can’t lift (i.e. see Wiki and Got Questions)? Or can he create evil that is not evil (i.e. A question I’ve created)? All valid, hypothetical questions. But if I put in the keywords “Did God create evil” into Google and sample what comes up on page 1:
Christian Courier
CARM
God and Science
Got Questions
The conventional theological wisdom is that he didn’t create it.
The conventional theological wisdom is that he didn’t create it.
Yes and this wisdom thought the earth was the center of the universe for a long time. The fact is that evil is a big part of life and to think God had nothing to do with it means God had nothing to do with with a big part of life. That’s not the God of the bible IMHO. You can’t say God is omnipresent, omniscient & all powerful yet had nothing to do with a big part of life.
More likely that we have a certain image of God and the concept of God using evil disturbs that image of God we cherish.
I’m always open to new scientific theories, experiments and direction. And I’m always open to new theological and philosophical direction. If it makes you feel better to believe God is responsible for evil - by all means - go ahead. It’s not a show stopper. For now, I’ll run with conventional wisdom. I’ll wait until new evidence unfolds in areas like Biblical archeology or anthropology. Or theologians of either Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant traditions have some new revelations or insights. Otherwise, I’ll run with the football that was thrown to me.
If it makes you feel better to believe God is responsible for evil - by all means - go ahead. It’s not a show stopper.
It doesn’t make me feel better or feel worse Randy. Jesus however does make me feel better.
I believe God allowed the capacity for evil, as an unavoidable consequence of self worship. He Himself did not create evil, but rather restrains its full capacity so that mankind does not destroy itself- as in the decision he made to unleash the flood on the earth. Chaos provides a seed bed for the light of His divine nature and eternal power. “Let there be Light!” is spoken and the separation begins.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
God knew from the beginning that the light would overcome the darkness through the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the Logos of God, Christ crucified. He set all this in motion in order to teach creation to become as HE IS. I AM. Alpha Omega.
When all is consummated the whole creation will be united in a covenant of friendship with God, freely received, freely given.