Believers: how would you explain this to satisfaction? "Is he (God) willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent.?

Epicurus' suggestion has been answered time and time again over milennia. Here is one example:

• Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

God is omnipotent. He (or She) is able to prevent evil. But He has given human beings Free Will and the responsibility that goes along with it. So He is willing to let humans use their Free Will to commit actions that are good or actions that are evil. Free Will would be of no value if God did not let us let us do good or evil.

• Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

This conclusion is wrong. Epicurus is claiming that God giving humans Free Will is a malevolent act. I disagree and I hope you do too. It is Free Will that makes us human.

With love in Christ.

God has a role, we have a role. God is impotent to go outside of God's role. God is the universal spirit that maintains our challenging physical reality that can serve our needs very well provided we do the required work to understand it so we can perform well in it .It is up to us to improve the spiritual condition within ourselves and the world we live in. God will not do this for us. God is the spirit behind the challenging physical reality we exist in. Destructive behavior(evil)happens when people are not competent/sensitive enough spiritually to behave in a more positive way. We are not advanced enough in our spiritual knowledge/beliefs at this time on this Earth to perform very competently here, so a lot of negative things happen here as a result. We make a lot of mistakes that bring about bad consequences individually and collectively!

It relies on the false assumptions that 1) God has no purpose for allowing to exist at the moment, and 2) God will not ultimately destroy evil in the future. And I don't really care if that meets your "satisfaction" or not.

Done to death. (sigh) I guess I need to do it again.

Is he (God) willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent.

- logical non sequitur

Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

- logical non sequitur

Is he both willing and able? Whence then evil?

- The question is a logical non sequitur. It has no apparent relevance to the statement immediately preceding it. However, the answer to the question is simple: "Evil comes from people."

Evil exists because of free will. The picture below was created by an atheist and yet it answers this question perfectly. It does not, however, prove that people are better that God because the starving child is not God's fault. It is the fault of people.

Free will.

The cycle repeats btw.

After Christ's second coming, the resurrection, the creation of the new heaven and earth, the Bible says that afree 1000 years, Satan will be released to tempt the nations.

God doesn't want mindless worshippers, He wants genuine followers who choose to do good over evil.

Yes God created Satan & gave him what power he has & his authority to rule the earth for now. But God created him perfect as a cherub who guarded the throne of God. But he became vane of his own accord. No one knows the entire story. God didn't figure it was important to give us all the details. I figure we'll find out when we get to heaven. God is willing to allow mankind time & room enough to decide for ourselves, if we want to live with God or with Satan. You know the saying about a captive love that if you love something set it free & if it comes back to you then it belongs to you ? That\'s sort of what God has done with mankind. He has allowed us to fall so that we have our own choice to make. Adam & Eve only knew God before they fell. Therefore, they belonged to God because that's how he designed it. But after they fell, they returned to God & so the were truly his. When we choose God, we return to him so we truly belong to him of our own free will, not because we were designed that way or we had to. God loves us enough to give us that choice. God is ALL powerful, just & loving. God is neither malevolent or evil. God allows us to experience all things so we have informed information for selection. Meaning, God allows us to experience good & bad here on earth. God never promises to protect or make life here a bed of roses. It can not be since it is run by the devil. Heaven is where Utopia is. Heaven is where there is no pain, no sickness, no sadness, no death, no fear. If we were sheltered here, we wouldn't need God.

Even Satan has a chance to repent before it is to late but his pride can not see that because Christ conquered death which is the wages of sin those that believe on his name (call upon His name) are set free The Blame for sin is not just Satans it also is with those who listen to Him when he repeats his old question DID GOD SAY

sorry, epic failure ! you listen to evil words and crafty sentence structures.

listen... there is a God, no matter how many false gods and idols and false religions there ARE. there is Jesus Christ, despite the former.

there is a bible and there is a book of mormon. with the restoration of the priesthood, there is exaltation which is more than salvation by grace alone. as a witness of jesus christ, as one that stood in the presense of jesus, i tell you the truth that jesus does exist.

it is more powerful to reject sin and overcom the sins of the flesh than it is to declare God impotent. i assure you, he is not impotent. the Lord is conservative in the way he manifests himself, but is liberal to answer all questions when a person lacks wisdom.

blame on satan ? this is false teaching, imo.

yes blame satan but overcome his devices and be wise. no one is saved in ignorance. aiui

you and Epicurus put limitations on God

when we do that, we can define God anyway we want

Only what God has chosen to reveal of Himself can be known.

One of God's attributes or qualities is “light,” meaning that He is self-revealing in information of Himself

from what we do know God is eternally existing,

omnipotent,

all sovereign,

self-existent,

self-sufficient,

immutable,

infinite,

incomparable,

inscrutable,

unfathomable,

unsearchable,

omnipresent,

incorruptible,

righteous,

just,

holy,

gracious.

And God has also revealed to us how he deals with evil and what life will be like when evil is no longer present