It's beyond me why so many theists even consider omnipotence or omniscience to be essential qualities of God.
For myself, I've just come to accept this as an essential mystery of the faith. I vacillated between Arminianism and Calvinism for quite some time this past year before settling that my understanding has a human limitation. Who is God that His ways can be discerned so as to be predicted by man?
[Psalm 144:3...LORD, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them?]
[Isaiah 55:8-9..."For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts."]
Not sure why God needs to be able to defy logic (human or otherwise) to be considered God.
Well, if you look at Israel emerging from Egypt until now, and if you believe that God has protected Israel (they have nuclear capabilities for one...) God certainly appears to be intent on achieving victory within the parameters of this fallen world.
What I have come to know intimately of Yahweh's character is that He delights in using the weakest vessel deemed utterly worthless by the standards of this world, and in using that vessel to accomplish the mightiest acts of victory. Like a city eroded by the winds of a single day, is God who chooses a man to be the instrument of His will. So that His glory may be seen throughout all peoples and nations!
[2 Corithians 12:9...But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.]
I have come to a rather simple yet complex explanation for the problem of evil, though it skirts the border of blaspheme. I keep it to myself and do not think much of it as there is nothing in the Bible for it.
Suffice to say, evil is the absence of God's will; our rejection of it. Adam and Eve desired to define Good and Evil on their own terms, to become as God.
Which souls truly belong to Him is another question. I believe He allows us into this fallen world to see who will return to him against all odds. If you love something, set it free. If it returns, it truly was of you. If it does not, then it was never yours to begin with. This is more of an Arminian precept, however.
