We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Why did God create me to be a pedophile?
Question: Since the first time I experienced a sex drive it’s been directed towards little children. I’ve never acted on this, for I know it’s wrong. But it torments me. Why would God created me with pedophile cravings?
Answer: I’m so sorry for your condition and greatly respect the fact that you have committed yourself to never acting on your pedophiliac cravings.
I don’t doubt that you were born with these tendencies. You certainly didn’t choose them. Yet, I also don’t believe God created you this way.
We are born into a fallen, oppressed world. A great deal about our basic natures is corrupted from the start. Some are born with physical disorders, others with mental or psychological disorders, and all of us to some degree with spiritual disorders. These disorders then interact with our environment (social upbringing) which itself is fallen and oppressed. This isn’t by Gods’ design. It’s due to the fact that humanity is in a state of rebellion and is oppressed by Satan and the fallen Powers. The whole creation is polluted with this diabolic influence. Nothing works exactly the way it’s supposed to.
Fortunately, our genes and environment don’t determine us, though they do strongly influence us. With God’s grace, we are able to choose to pursue a thought life and behavioral life that honors God. This may require tremendous sacrifice. But everything about the Kingdom requires sacrifice, for the Kingdom always looks like Jesus, manifesting the beauty of God’s character by dying on a cross.
I encourage you to seek out counseling if you haven’t done so already. I hope you get completely healed, but I can’t promise that you will. This may simply be a cross you have to carry. But I can promise you that, if you surrender your cravings completely to Christ and pledge to living in his way with passion, his grace will be sufficient to see you through and he’ll make your sacrifice more than worth it.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christian Life, Problem of Evil, Providence, Q&A, Sexuality, Sin
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Sin, The Problem of Evil
Related Reading

How do you respond to Judges 9:23?
“…God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Schechem; and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.” (cf. 1 Sam. 16:14; 1 Kings 22:19–23). Some compatibilists cite this passage to support the view that evil spirits always carry out the Lord’s will (though they contend that God is good for willing…

Making Room for Doubt and Questions in Our Youth Curriculum
This article from a Christianity Today blog was sent to us from a reader (Thanks Laura!) reflecting on the need for making space for doubt and questions in our youth curriculum. From the article: In our Sticky Faith research, geared to help young people develop a Christian faith that lasts, a common narrative emerged: When young people asked…

How do you respond to Deuteronomy 30:16–23?
The Lord tells Moses of his impending death and then prophesies that “this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst…breaking my covenant that I have made with them” (vs. 16). The Lord will have to judge them accordingly (vs. 17–18). He then inspires Joshua to write a song for…

How do you respond to Acts 13:48?
“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers.” If the individual Gentiles who believed were “destined for eternal life” before they “became believers,” some may argue, they obviously were foreknown by God before they became believers.…

Why? The Question That Cannot Be Answered
Yesterday Greg sent out the following flurry of tweets: To provide some background to these tweets, the following illustration will prove helpful: They mystery of evil and an eight-second interval Let’s assume that there is an eight-second interval between two cars. Now let’s try to explain why there is this eight-second interval at this particular…

How do you respond to Ruth 1:13?
Because her husband and two sons had died, Naomi says to her two daughter-in-laws (Ruth and Orpah), “[I]t has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me” (1:13, cf. vs. 20). Some compatibilists cite this passage to support the conclusion that all misfortune is…