Thursday 24 March 2022

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If God is perfect, omipresent and all powerful, why is there evil in this world?

 

The war in Ukraine, the plane crash in China once again bring to mind this question:

If God is perfect, omnipresent and all powerful, why is there evil in this world?

Is there a God? Where does evil originate from? 

According to the Bible, Adam and Eve sinned by wanting to be like God and listened to the serpent and ate from the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. This is what is referred to as the original sin.

However, the original sin and evil did not begin from Adam and Eve. 

Long before Adam and Eve sinned, evil existed. The Devil in the guise of the serpent that appeared to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden existed before Adam and Eve, the first human beings, are created.

Why then is the Devil - the root of all evil created? If God is perfect and good, and everything God created is perfect and good, why did He create the Devil - also known as Satan?

According to the Bible, God did not create Satan. Satan was the fallen angel initially the arch angel called Lucifer after Michael. God gave angels and humans he created free will. God gave Lucifer free will. Lucifer chose to rebel against God and became Satan.

Satan was once created a good and perfect angel called Lucifer. But Lucifer wanted to be God and rebelled against God. 

If God is omnipresent and knew that Satan (originally angel Lucifer) would rebel, why did God still create Lucifer?

Because not all the angels would rebel, and this is the risk that God takes, when He chose to create. Lucifer is given free will to choose God or to rebel against God. If God doesn’t give free will, He would be creating robots instead.

Why didn’t God eliminate Satan?

The Bible didn't give us straight answers into the thoughts of God, but some glimpses. Believing in God requires faith. The following reconciles the existence of evil with faith in the existence of a perfect, good and all powerful God:

1. Satan still has free will to repent. Although God is omnipresent and God knows ahead of time that Satan would not repent, God could not go against His own principle and eliminate Satan’s opportunity to repent.

2. Satan challenged God to allow him to rule the world of mankind for a time to prove he could rule better than God and convince all others to accept him as God after comparing the results of the rulerships.

3. If God destroys Satan now, God would need to destroy the present universe along with all the human beings. God is not incompetent, but patient with men, waiting for more to come to repentance before God eliminates Satan, the whole earth and universe. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God is giving humanity the chance to choose between serving Him or serving themselves and Satan. He is patient with His creatures, not wishing that any should perish. 

The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 - "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

4. There is a time for everything. A thousand years is like a day, and a day is like a thousand years to God. God’s perception of time is beyond our understanding and God is sovereign. God exists outside our scope of time or understanding. God’s plan is not as human beings plan. God will eliminate Satan and evil in God’s time, which is much different from the way we experience time. We must trust God and His plan and understand that it is for our good. 

The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:8 - "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

5. God created Satan as an immortal angel, just as we too are created as immortal beings. God never takes back his gift of immortality. But Satan’s destiny is in the eternal lake of burning fire.

After Satan has been eliminated and a new heaven is created, how could it be ensured that another angel or human will not rebel against God and re-introduce evil into the new heaven and the new earth?

Because God gives every angel and man free will and because God is omnipresent, He knows who would repent and who would not. Those who refuse to repent will continue to refuse to repent. God is a patient God, He does not force us to repent as repentance can't be forced, but He waits patiently for the angels and humans who will repent to repent, as God does not want to see anyone perish. And He also waits for those who will rebel to rebel. When the last man or angel repent, and the last man or angel  has rebel, God will destroy evil. Once this process is fully completed, the whole world will come to an end and a new heaven and a new earth will emerge where there is only good and holiness, where evil will no longer exists. Only God knows when that time is. So therefore in the new heaven, we don’t have to worry about a new Satan emerging, as there won’t be the possibility of another angel again choosing to rebel against God.

Only those angels and humans who want to follow God will be in the new heaven and new earth. Thus, in the new heaven and new earth, we live in the present of God and will sin no more.

If God is omnipresent and knew that Satan and humans will rebel against him, why did God still create angels and humans?

Because God is love, and there will be angels and people who would choose God, and thus God chose to create for the sake of these angels and people who would choose Him. It would be sad if because of the possibility of Satan that these people who choose good over evil would not be created.

Why doesn’t God just create those angels and people who would choose God, since he knows who will choose Him and who would choose to rebel?

Sin entered the world when the first man and woman with free will chose to rebel against God and listened to Satan. This sin follows generations after. We don't know why God didn't stop Adam and Eve from sinning. This again comes back to the free will that human beings are given. God does not force anyone to choose God, even though He has the power to do so. He wants us to do so willingly. And because God loves us, He doesn't give up on us. God is a merciful God, but God is also a just God, thus He also cannot condone sin. The only way for God to solve this paradox where God deems for love and justice to exist is by sacrificing His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the sins of human beings. God in Jesus Himself dying on the cross, suffering alongside us for the sin we have committed, even though God in Jesus is without sin, is the only justified way to destroy sin, evil and death once and forever. God is sovereign and His ways are perfect, even though from our human perspective, we could not fully understand it. God’s ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. In faith, we can trust that God is a good. God knows what He is doing.

Did God create evil?

At first it might seem that if God created all things, then evil must have been created by God. However, evil is not a “thing” like a rock or electricity. You cannot have a jar of evil. Evil has no existence of its own; it is really the absence of good. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be separated from the dirt. So when God created, it is true that all He created was good. One of the good things God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So, God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or reject good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a “thing” that required God to create it.

Perhaps a further illustration will help. If a person is asked, “Does cold exist?” the answer would likely be “yes.” However, this is incorrect. Cold does not exist. Cold is the absence of heat. Similarly, darkness does not exist; it is the absence of light. Evil is the absence of good, or better, evil is the absence of God. God did not have to create evil, but rather only allow for the absence of good.

God did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want “robots” that simply did what He wanted them to do because of their “programming.” God allowed for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.

As finite human beings, we can never fully understand an infinite God (Romans 11:33-34). Sometimes we think we understand why God is doing something, only to find out later that it was for a different purpose than we originally thought. God looks at things from a holy, eternal perspective. We look at things from a sinful, earthly, and temporal perspective. Why did God put man on earth knowing that Adam and Eve would sin and therefore bring evil, death, and suffering on all mankind? Why didn’t He just create us all and leave us in heaven where we would be perfect and without suffering? These questions cannot be adequately answered this side of eternity. What we can know is whatever God does is holy and perfect and ultimately will glorify Him. God allowed for the possibility of evil in order to give us a true choice in regards to whether we worship Him. God did not create evil, but He allowed it. If He had not allowed evil, we would be worshiping Him out of obligation, not by a choice of our own will.

Evil is the absence of good. And only in God can we be good. The Bible says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." - John 14:4-5 Pride comes before a fall. Angels and humans are given a choice to choose between good and evil. The highest angel Lucifer, does not want to serve humans as he is in many ways created in power higher than men. Thus, he rebelled and be away from God, away from God the vine. Apart from God, there will be sin and evil. Jesus the Son of God came to earth in humility to serve and to save Man. By that God set an example by Himself to be humble and to serve, thereby by His example, He has set an example for all the angels. 



If God gives us free will, after we die and go to heaven, how is it ensured that we would not turn away from God again and sin?

God the Father created us. God the Son came to die for us. God the Holy Spirit came to give us new hearts. God gave us the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit fill our hearts. The Holy Spirit in us helps us understand and believe in God. The Holy Spirit makes men love, praise God, exalt Christ in our hearts and tell the wonderful story of salvation. This is the reason why when we are in heaven, we would not turn away from God. The Holy Spirit in us convicts us and turn our hearts toward God. Ezekiel 36:27 says, "I will put my spirit within you." The Holy Spirit gives us faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.” - Philippians 2:13

I am jotting these down so that when questions arises, I can come back to refer to them why I believe there is a true and good God exists even in this world full of evil and sufferings.

I am thankful to God, my heart is at rest.

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