Why does God let the evil people live and have great things? Why do the wicked prosper?
Job 21:1 - 34
ESV - 1 Then Job answered and said: 2 Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.
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I believe Revelation 4:11 gives the best answer: " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." As with Pharoah in Romans 9:17 " For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." Although living under almost unbearable circumstances with no hope of freedom for hundreds of years, our Lord delivered Israel defeating Pharaoh as an example of his awesome power. " The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." (Proverbs 16:4) God gets the glory.
In my opinion, God does not recognize the distinction that we often draw between degrees of evil. As James said, anyone who breaks even the smallest of God's commandments (which we have all done) is as guilty in God's eyes as if he had broken all of them (James 2:10), including the most heinous acts that we can imagine. If God, in His holiness and omnipotence, were to repay humans as they deserve for their actions, we would all be temporally dead, and eternally separated from Him. God allows sin and evil to exist (and will continue to allow it to exist until Christ returns) so that humans (as beings of free will) will be able to love and obey Him by choice rather than as the result of compulsion, and so that, in God's mercy, even the people who are (in our view) the most wicked will have a chance to repent, to avail themselves of the means of salvation that God has provided, and to be saved, since He does not desire that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).
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