“He set another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also. The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘<\/em>” (Matthew 13:24-30).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou are so focused on the evil choices people make that you forget that there are also people who choose the good.<\/p>\n
God wanted people to serve Him of their own free will. He could have made it so that people had no choice, but to follow a predetermined script. God did do that with the animals. They follow their instinct. For any given situation, their choices are already made. But then people would not be like God — we would not truly be children of God. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them<\/em>” (Genesis 1:27).<\/p>\nFreedom to choose does not exist unless there is a choice to be made. Thus, God created a large garden. “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil<\/em>” (Genesis 2:9). God made a law saying that man could eat of any tree in the garden but one tree — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There would be no need to eat of the tree, there was plenty of alternatives available. You would have to pass the alternatives just to get to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So the choice existed with no incentives to make the wrong choice.<\/p>\nYet, once a choice exists, it is not hard to predict that someone will make the wrong choice. God, before the world began, made provisions for handling the situation of people making the wrong choice. He wanted people who freely chose to do right so much that He was willing to sacrifice His own Son for the many who would make bad choices. You wish to blame God for the fact that choice existed and that as a person you have freedom of choice.<\/p>\n
The parable of the wheat and tares explains why God doesn’t immediately remove the bad as soon as it appears. Darnel (tares) is a weed that looks almost exactly like wheat when it is young. It is not until the seeds form that you realize that darnel is not a wheat plant. Though the farmer knew that darnel was sowed in with his wheat, he told the servants to leave it alone because if they tried to remove the bad, they would lose some of the good.<\/p>\n
Is God sentencing people such that He is purposely loosing most to sin? “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it<\/em>” (Matthew 7:13-14). Or has He designed life that will bring the maximum number of people to righteousness, few though they are?<\/p>\nPerhaps one more illustration will help. Those who apply for jobs have run into these psychological exams which are supposed to tell who will make a good or bad employee. They might weed out many of the really bad ones, but everyone knows that they also remove some of the possibly good employees also. Employers are willing to put up with the loss because they don’t want to deal with bad employees. God is the opposite. He doesn’t want to lose any possible good person, so He willing to put up with the bad so that all the possible good will shine through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: So, God controls everything that will ultimately happen, but not the choices we make in order to get to that final event, correct? I’m almost positive that that’s what all of those articles were pointing to. So then, does that mean that He meant for humans to ultimately be sentenced to live in a world of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[302,90,562,941,179],"class_list":["post-20121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-creation","tag-god","tag-predestination","tag-purpose","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46671,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-gods-original-plan-to-have-humans-live-on-the-earth-forever\/","url_meta":{"origin":20121,"position":0},"title":"Was God’s original plan to have humans live on the earth forever?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Question: Thank you, sir, for using the word of God in answering questions. God bless you for that. Sir, I was studying the Bible with two Jehovah's Witnesses members. I was told most of the righteous will be in the big crowd and enjoy paradise on earth. I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10547,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-and-why-did-humans-start-eating-meats\/","url_meta":{"origin":20121,"position":1},"title":"When and why did humans start eating meats?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When and why did humans start eating meat? Answer: When the world was first created, mankind was given vegetables to eat. \"And God said, \"See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29595,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-god-kill-so-many-humans\/","url_meta":{"origin":20121,"position":2},"title":"Why does God kill so many humans?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why does God kill so many humans? And why does this website try and make excuses for killing those humans? Surely such an amazing supernatural Creator could come up with a better plan than that. When I read about your God I find it hilarious. I really can believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94020,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-god-be-charged-with-murder\/","url_meta":{"origin":20121,"position":3},"title":"Can God Be Charged with Murder?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton with the help of Copilot The biblical answer is \"No,\" and Scripture gives multiple reasons why. The Bible consistently teaches that God cannot be guilty of murder, because murder is the unlawful taking of life, and God, as the Creator and Judge of all life, has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94753,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-humans-superior-to-angels\/","url_meta":{"origin":20121,"position":4},"title":"Are humans superior to angels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please, I need your assistance with a clarification of I Corinthians 6:3. Are we humans superior to angels? Answer: It appears that the Corinthians were taking their personal disputes before government courts (I Corinthians 6:1-6). He had just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-without-natural-affection-mean\/","url_meta":{"origin":20121,"position":5},"title":"What does “without natural affection” mean?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful\" (Romans 1:31 KJV). What is natural affection? Answer: \"Without natural affection\" (astrogous) means \"Being without the natural love between parents and their children.\" Seneca, a Roman philosopher, used the word in \"justifying\" for killing unwanted children. It is a person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}