yet the act itself is classified as "sinful" because its pleasurable (
Many already replied rightfully, but I also say it again: That is not the reason. Otherwise the act of eating would also be sinful.
It is that you will become "one flesh" with your sexual partner. A strong spiritual bond. Studies show that pair-bonding capacities decrease with numbers of sexual partners.
So, having the free will to commit adultery destroys this relationship and the ability for possible next relationships. That is not how it was intended.
By the way, therefor sex before marriage is not as bad as adultery when it leads to marriage. But there are studies, that marriages, who do have sex before the wedding are more prone to divorce.
Don't forget that sex normally leads to children in all of this and there were no common US divorce laws, which took all of the man's possessions and wealth.
I would interpret your example with the program differently: For applying evil, you don't have to use a forbidden evil program but execute the existing good program with the wrong parameters and conditions.
Everything here is a shadow of spiritual truths. Therefore Jesus used many pictorial examples from the fields of agriculture, marriage or fishing to illustrate this. "Being faithful" has not unfoundedly two meanings.
Sex has to be joyful because marriage is the feast of coming together full of joy and with the highlight of sexual intercourse. It is a shadow of our reunion with God. Then it is the act of creating new flesh. To need a spiritual action like prayer would not be an appropriate "program" to do this.
You have to see into the whole testimony of God from Genesis to Revelation to accept or reject it.
But now you are like many atheists: You make yourself an image of God, to deny it afterward.
When you don't know or accept, that there was a breakdown of a "very good creation", Christendom calls "fall of man" (the German term Sündenfall fits more because it doesn't only affected the human nature), then this whole world makes no sense and a God linked to this creation neither - other than the interpretation, that he is stupid or likes torture.
He needed to create a son, to get killed so that he could forgive his creation for having the gall to seek out knowledge?
Could he just....... you know........ SIMPLY FORGIVE THEM
Jesus was already there. He created the world.
And God shares attributes, which he cannot let put off. In this sense, he is technically not all-mighty. He cannot make himself Not-God (ok, not fully true because of Jesus) the same like he cannot make himself Non-Love and Non-Life and Non-Righteousness and Non-Holyness.
He couldn't just say: "I forgive you." without violation of his attributes of righteousness and holiness. This would be the same as he would have said: "My announcement of punishment which I made before for this action is not valid."
Then there is the argument of learning: The relationship was destroyed. They have to acknowledge that this is a big thing.
And: Humans were stained with the dirt of sin. That blood is the only thing, which can take away sins is the principle that we don't have anything other, what we can give. God announced that "you will die" when we sin. So either we die or anybody other in replacement - but he has to be without sin on its own.
He could just be so powerful that the "elements of the universe" respond to his commands, that doesn't make him intelligent, don't falsely conflate power with intelligence
Even if, he had to create this superintelligent, responding elements in the first place, which makes him more intelligent than these elements.
If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good.
He allows evil in this amount, that the people, who live far from him (every single human being) become aware, that they need God. That they become aware that there is something wrong. That they ask for God. For finding him here and finally in eternity, how it was thought. A world without evil would indicate that there is nothing wrong with this world. Everything good what we have despite of this is the grace of God. We turned away from God. He is the life-source. Currently, there is a division because of sin, which would end in the second death, but he draws people to him, as long as is the time of grace - even when this drawing to him is often marked by pain.
But no, I cannot explain how every suffering will serve the good in the end or even sure that every single one does serve this purpose. But there are enough examples in the bible and the life of people how God changed the apparently evil to good, peaking in the example of the cross, that I am sure the big part of pain and suffering we will see in retrospective as needed.
Don't forget that we have free will. Most evil things are done by people to other people. Even when the external variables out of control, to use the words of
@IncelKing, make it more or less prone to sin depending on the circumstances, they are the ones who act and are guilty. Also, those who rob, rape, and murder in desperation.
JFL @ God even saying in his own book that he is a jealous God, how the hell can you be jealous and the creator of anything?
The only thing that makes me think is that other God's exist and he doesn't want anyone worshiping God's other than him
No, but he is jealous that we turn to idols. Imagine being a father of a son and you want a good relationship with this son, but he goes permanently to the neighbors who give him every day big chocolate ice and a pizza. Or better: You want to give your son also these things, but he prefers a worse version from your neighbor. Or also: You give you son good this, but he claims it comes from the neighbors.
Exodus 9:12
"But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses."
It is dishonest or lack of knowledge, when you don't mention, that the Pharao hardened his heart on his own multiple times before.
It shows that we have free will, but sometimes there is a point of no return crossed. When God showed so often, that he IS and we reject him willfully. This seems not to be an automatism, but possible. I hope that is not the case with you.
WHY CREATE A TREE WITH FRUIT THAT IF EATEN RESULTS IN THE "FALL OF MAN"?
I already said last time:
God defines what is good and evil. When he said, that this creation was "very good", which includes a free will and the possibility to turn away from him and rebel, I accept it. And I can understand somewhat because otherwise, we were robots, but we are indeed made in his image.
To make free will a reality it has not only implemented in our nature, but we had to get into a situation, where free will has to be executed in a decision.
