Why, despite knowing it beforehand, did God create those people who were to sin and not repent, and apparently to suffer eternal damnation?
If God did not create these people, even though He knew before their creation, as The One who knows everything, their obsession with sin and impenitence, then the evil intent of these people, their wickedness, would prevail and prevail over the goodness and love of God, and the good plan He has for every human being. That is, to come to existence and to have the possibility through his will to reach perfection, holiness, “in his own likeness”, to become a god by grace, to live eternally united with God. God therefore creates even those whom He foreknows will unrepentantly choose wickedness, without depriving them – because of His great love – of the possibility of becoming saints; but their own complete negligence render God’s beneficence useless and ineffective.
Saint John Damascene
Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou
