I am a Christian and I can answer the question unto why God would create a soul that he knows will end up in hell. Let me first give you a disclaimer to say that I do not speak for all Christians, in fact, I am a very small minority in my current church that believes in predestination. However, I believe the answer to why God would create a soul that he knows will go to hell is in the Romans 9:14 - 23
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory
So I believe what Paul is saying here is that you can't know how great it is to get an A unless there are also people getting F's. You don't know how great it is to be free of pain unless you've been in pain. And you can't truly worship and appreciate God's grace unless you know there was an alternative.
All I can say is that I think that we don't have the full picture living here in our finite life on earth. We define good and bad from the perspective of what is good and bad from our point of view. Instead, what is truly good and bad is from God's point of view. Things are good because God says they are good and things are evil because God says they are evil despite of our personal definitions of the two. We look at death, rape and murder as the worst things that could possibly happen to someone when the reality is that according to the Bible the worst thing that could possibly happen to someone is to forfeit their soul by refusing God's sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We see things through our own eyes instead of through God's eyes. Even the story you shared was all about what happened "to" someone instead of focussing on the things of God. Was I rapped? Then thank God that is wasn't I that rapped. Was I murdered? Then thank God that it wasn't I that murdered. The sermons of Jesus were all about taking our focus off of what is done to us and putting our focus on what we do to and for others. Let God be the judge of others while we focus on ourselves. God even talks about slavery and lays out instructions on how to be a "good slave". Is he condoning slavery? No! He's saying, "lets stop focusing on how other people are acting and start working on you in the situation you find yourself in." I think that is the whole purpose of his parable of the workers in the field. I don't think his message is that we'll all get the same reward, I think instead his message is to stop looking over our shoulders at what others are doing and focus on ourselves. Of course, I'm just a human and could be wrong. Listen to what God says to you and decide for yourself. :) Here's the parable I referenced:
Matt 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
I am a Christian and I can answer the question unto why God would create a soul that he knows will end up in hell. Let me first give you a disclaimer to say that I do not speak for all Christians, in fact, I am a very small minority in my current church that believes in predestination. However, I believe the answer to why God would create a soul that he knows will go to hell is in the Romans 9:14 - 23
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory
So I believe what Paul is saying here is that you can't know how great it is to get an A unless there are also people getting F's. You don't know how great it is to be free of pain unless you've been in pain. And you can't truly worship and appreciate God's grace unless you know there was an alternative.
7
All I can say is that I think that we don't have the full picture living here in our finite life on earth. We define good and bad from the perspective of what is good and bad from our point of view. Instead, what is truly good and bad is from God's point of view. Things are good because God says they are good and things are evil because God says they are evil despite of our personal definitions of the two. We look at death, rape and murder as the worst things that could possibly happen to someone when the reality is that according to the Bible the worst thing that could possibly happen to someone is to forfeit their soul by refusing God's sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We see things through our own eyes instead of through God's eyes. Even the story you shared was all about what happened "to" someone instead of focussing on the things of God. Was I rapped? Then thank God that is wasn't I that rapped. Was I murdered? Then thank God that it wasn't I that murdered. The sermons of Jesus were all about taking our focus off of what is done to us and putting our focus on what we do to and for others. Let God be the judge of others while we focus on ourselves. God even talks about slavery and lays out instructions on how to be a "good slave". Is he condoning slavery? No! He's saying, "lets stop focusing on how other people are acting and start working on you in the situation you find yourself in." I think that is the whole purpose of his parable of the workers in the field. I don't think his message is that we'll all get the same reward, I think instead his message is to stop looking over our shoulders at what others are doing and focus on ourselves. Of course, I'm just a human and could be wrong. Listen to what God says to you and decide for yourself. :) Here's the parable I referenced:
Matt 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”