[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by davem

So Eru must permit not only the possibility, but also the actuality of Evil. Evil cannot simply be obliterated by Eru (because that would obliterate free will too, & all but guarantee that the Second Music would go the way of the First), but must be rejected (or accepted) by each individual. While the capacity to choose evil exists within any of the Children Eru must permit the existence of evil - until each has made a free choice one way or the other.

Couldn't have said it better. You summed it up.

Eru 'needs' evil to exist as a possibility, an option. Hence, it seems to me, it is too simplistic to say that Eru 'hates' evil, he may do - but he also needs it because without it the Children would not be able to choose the Good/Eru freely, in full knowledge. Evil is necessary in that sense, & hence so is Melkor/Morgoth - not necessary for what he does, but for what he is.

Well, there actually is one possibility - unless, for some unexplicable reason, all decided to choose good from the very beginning, even before knowing evil. This is the theoretical "all-good" state. It's merely theoretical, mind you. But what I want to show on that is, that Eru does not need to create evil himself, or support it, or name it among the possibilities of what can be done - the only thing he has to do is allow it for the free choice. Simply said, he has to allow to be disobeyed. Which is, of course, only natural if he wants to give the beings he created a free will. Eru said: you can play the music in any way you wish, using any way, and here is my theme, play it in C-dur. Melkor decided to play it in C-moll, and it was Melkor who got the idea of playing it in C-moll, Eru didn't propose it as an option.
Yet to Morgoth needing necessarily have to exist - I suppose you take Morgoth here not as person, but as the personification of evil? As the representation of the "other choice", of the "C-moll", right? Well in that case, you are right, obviously. The way I understand it (if I misunderstood you, please correct me) I would better say it like this: there was the need to create the option of choosing Morgoth instead of Eru. (using Morgoth=symbol of the evil) So if you take it like that, yes, of course. There is quite thin line however, of interpretating what we said above the wrong way - like as if it was Eru who proposed Men the choice to choose Morgoth, thus, even choosing Morgoth would go with Eru's will (and we might even completely overlook that we are rejecting Eru!). So yes, I agree with all you said - assuming I understood you correctly - only I thought it's needed to make this clear, for errare humanum est and people tend to wrongly interpretate many things.