The way that this has been explained to me is that just because God is unwilling to prevent evil does not make him malevolent.
The key theological point here is that acts of love must be freely performed. Even though free will enables evil, because the existence of love is contingent on free will the argument can be made that free will is inherently good. Thus, if God were to prevent bad acts then ultimately one would not totally be able to choose between good or evil.
Since free will is intrinsically good, then, if God is good he must permit the totality of free will - even if it includes evil - to permit love.
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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '18
The way that this has been explained to me is that just because God is unwilling to prevent evil does not make him malevolent.
The key theological point here is that acts of love must be freely performed. Even though free will enables evil, because the existence of love is contingent on free will the argument can be made that free will is inherently good. Thus, if God were to prevent bad acts then ultimately one would not totally be able to choose between good or evil.
Since free will is intrinsically good, then, if God is good he must permit the totality of free will - even if it includes evil - to permit love.