[aragornreborn]

Eru is a pure Spirit. He is incapable of doing any evil by His very nature. Thus, everything that happens can not be His will because evil happens, and He can do nor will no evil. That does not mean he is powerless over evil and that it happens in spite of Him. Rather, He has given His creations free will. He doesn’t want robots. He wants His creations to choose Him (good) over evil, but He also allows His creations to choose evil over good. He wills them to have free will. He knows that some of them will do evil deeds. He does not want them to, but He has given them free will. Eru knew that Melkor would betray Him, just as He knows all of the future actions for all His creations. He does not will anyone to do evil, but He knows some will. He does, however, turn those evil deeds into good which is what is meant by the quote “And we know that all things work together for good”. Take Gollum (as has already been mentioned). Eru did not will Gollum to do evil. But Eru had given Gollum free will, and so Gollum did what he wanted which was evil. Eru did turn Gollum’s evil for his own purpose, though. He ultimately used Gollum to destroy the Ring, Sauron, and much evil in Middle Earth. That does not mean, however, that Eru needed evil or needed Gollum to do evil. He would have eliminated the Ring, Sauron, and evil some other way if Gollum had not done evil. Eru does not want anyone to do evil. But, since He is all-powerful and pure, He can not allow evil to “win.” So, Eru uses all actions for His plan. He wants good actions, but when evil occurs, He will rob evil of its supposed power by turning that evil into good. In essence, one may disobey Eru and do evil, but one may never go against His plan.

Phew! I hope that makes sense. I am sure I will have to try to re-explain myself. But since I am replying to nearly everything that has been said, I packed a lot into a small space.