In the beginning the heaven and earth God created were so perfect and flawless. He made man to His image, and that includes our free will. He was aware of the danger lurking from giving man freedom to choose his acts, but He has created man so perfect that without giving man His free will God would deny Himself from perfection. But he knew that man will fall into evil having their free will attempted by evil. He can prevent it because He is almighty, but He didn't! He allow evil to exist, He didn't create it. Evil gained its power by the means of how it became possible, the free will, but not by the creation nor commanded by the Holy God. Within God there is no evil. He took full responsibility on why evil exist, but He never created it nor having evil intention within Him on letting evil seduced man to sin.
Why??????
Is He toying with us? He love seeing us struggle and enjoy looking down at us fervently pleading for His deliverance? And in many parts of the Bible he was just telling us to shut up and trust Him, shut up because He is God and He can do whatever best he wants? Most christians would find that answer satisfying, because being His children we were convinced of His kindness and providence. But as our fellow atheists asked us this troubling question, they wouldn't understand our proclamation of faith about letting God do what He wants because He's God, and even worse when in the end we end up doubting His virtues as God! What kind of God would let bad things happens while He can prevent them from happening? Or is He not as almighty as He claimed to be? That there's this good and evil equilibrium that had to happen?
But here is (what the scriptures revealed to me) why :
God have to allow evil exist so He can display the fullness of His glory.
Wait, that's standard biblical answer. So God let evil be so He can let the world see that He's victorious over evil. Nothing new in that. Still we have this tingling feelings at the back of our mind that question the intention of God wanting to look majestic over making us look miserable!
Now here's the thing.
The story goes back to the creation of the world.
Part 1. Evil Emerged
Genesis 1:1-4 (UKJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
In the beginning: GOD.
Only God alone at the very most beginning. So lesson 1: God wasn't accompanied by evil, only God and God alone, no sort of other entity of any kind at the beginning of everything, only God. He is the only being, the entire universe, the source of all things created. And He is Holy, so pure, and filled with so much energy of Love, that He cannot contain Himself from radiating His Love and Glory that He have to create an object for His affection.
God created.
Lesson number 2: God is not in equal power to evil, He is the Only One that is Almighty, the most powerful ultimate entity. The power of creation is in His hands and in Him only, making something out of nothing, that's the signifier of Godly power. Evil can only replicate, move, or transform materials, but only God can bring such materials to exist out of nothingness. Evil power were no match to God's power, not even close.
God created the heaven and the earth.
Now here we see that God starting to allow contrast to exist. What was above and what was below. Lesson 3: God created contrast as means to reveal Himself, and not a contradictive state between good and evil. Contradiction means things that's an opposite to another, but contrast that one object would stand to exist in comparison to other. How can we know we're on earth? Because we can see heaven above us. With this God created the seed of self-consciousness, the ability to know the difference. No contradiction in God because He's whole, but to make Himself known as He is, He have to create contrast to distinguish His being from other being. So at this point we can see that He didn't created evil.
And the earth was without form, and void.
After the creation of materials, God's first focus was on the earth! He didn't go on and beautify His throne in the heavens, or maybe it was already beautiful from the beginning since He created this contrast between heaven and earth, and heaven might already created with heavenly materials radiating His Glory. But He fixed His eyes upon the earth! Which is formless and void in His eyes. Here's lesson number 4: He always look upon us in the most loving way, He will never settle with imperfections. In His eyes, the earth wasn't bad or evil, it just need more loving touches. God looked upon the earth in loving eyes, looking at its shortcomings, and in great desire to furnished the earth to greater condition. Numerous times during the creation He saw that "it was good", and never he said it was bad at the first place. God cannot make those good creations if He hadn't started it with looking at the earth's imperfections with loving eyes! As beautiful as heaven could be, the earth has to be wonderful as well. The earth was good and wasn't evil in His sight, it was just formless (which means it have to be formed) and empty (which means it have to be filled).
Darkness was upon the face of the deep.
What is this darkness? God only created the heaven and the earth at the beginning, two major objects (nouns), not in contradiction to one another, but in contrast to each other. And the earth was described with two adjective words, meaning it was formless and totally empty, and then suddenly came the noun "darkness"? Is it another creation we don't know about? Now here comes the lesson number 5: by making contrast to reveal His Glory, God allowed darkness to emerge, not created it but allowing it. Because darkness formed itself as the consequence of making contrast to what is not dark. What is not dark was the heaven, and in contrast to heaven there's this layer of darkness upon the deep waters to define earth. This is the beginning of how evil lurks in every good creations God made. Darkness is not evil itself, because its a creation and God creates no evil. God is Holy and nothing evil comes out of Him, but as the fourth noun emerged in the story of creation, darkness has become the earliest symbol of evil being contrasted to God. Does God not know about this? Or being ignorant about this? Is this so called darkness jeopardising His sovereignty like some future threats He wouldn't know about?No. It's just how God intended it to be, and since God is Holy so He can never have evil intention resides in His doings, including in allowing darkness to emerged.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Darkness was said to reside upon the face of the deep. Darkness is part of the creation, all creations are tools for Him to reveal His glory, and because that He can choose to reveal himself also in darkness. Abraham met Him in trembling darkness: [Genesis 15:12 (UKJV) And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.] Nothing is beyond His control, including darkness. No. He is still the One and Only above all, in charge of everything, and everything in all. The lesson from this is the 6th, that is:
God allows darkness, but still He's above it and controls it. In spite of all the darkness, the Spirit of God moved freely upon the earth, the darkness didn't consume Him, it showed distinction between God and creation and it confirmed God's sovereignty over creations. He never created something He cannot control, because He's above all things, and within His control everything will ends up Good and Perfect.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
After we came across the darkness which was not created but there was due to contrasting nature between heaven and earth, here we witnessed the wisdom of God. Instead of wiping out problems miraculously, He offered a way out! That's your 7th lesson. He's powerful beyond our imaginations, He could've just say the word: Let there be no darkness! And there goes the darkness without ruining His heaven and earth scheme. But He didn't! Instead He provide a worthy opponent to
darkness that can symbolise His goodness while keeping Himself above all as sole creator that none to compare with.
And God saw the light, that it was good.
This is the first time God indicated that there was something other than good. Before the two adjectives used formless and void, weren't the condition of something not good, it just need improvement to be better. But now, God saw something good. This can only be after the full recognition that something evil might have exist. It's no longer only a concept about being in contrast, but already form the contradictive state which opposing to each other. As darkness cannot exist when light is, so is the state of evil and goodness.
But Light was created! God is not the light. Light is creation, material, a tool. Darkness is not evil itself, but as it went further contradicting with Light, God has allowed the two nouns we can use to symbolise what's good and what's evil. So 8th lesson: what is revealed under the light is good, and what's hidden mischievously under darkness is evil.
God divided the light from the darkness.
God went all the way by setting these two conditions apart. Good and evil could never co-exist.
Now that's just the story about how evil emerged. We still have the question asked about why should God allows evil and sufferings to happen? He could've prevent Eve from falling in into temptation, couldn't He? How can He let evil gain power and prevail over man who He had created so dearly?
Part 2. God's Revelation
Genesis 1:27-29,31; 2:1 (UKJV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food.And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
So God created man in his own image.
Man was created in his most esteemed state, in God's own image. Perfect in every way. Man can move, feel, think, just as similar to how God does. No other creation received such honour. But still, a creation. No matter how perfect a creation is, it will never be at the same level of perfection as the Almighty Creator. The Creator, God, was never created, He always was, and is, and will be. He's the Ultimate Being, that's why His Holiness is original, because it came from within. In the other hand, the holiness of man was bestowed upon by the breathing in of His Pneuma. It's something external, it can be taken away or corrupted.
And God blessed them.
Blessings from God means approval. Having blessed by God means God was pleased and had made a covenant to Himself that He will provide all that is necessary for man to live his life in the earth He had created. This blessing includes fertility, health and stamina, protection, food, joy, power over other creation, and every good things one could ever need to feel contentment. God showed His abundant and overflowing love within His blessing.
And God said, Behold, I have given you.
Here God established His position as their God, their Creator, and Ruler. They might rule over other creations, but God was above them, above everything else, and only God's Words must they listen attentively and obey. These Words were given, not offered. It have to be received, not considered.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
After God created all things, pour out His blessings, and set His boundaries, He saw that it was all very good. There's this one step higher than just being good as it being compared to evil, here God compare this perfected earth to its early state of being formless. It has grow from good to very good!
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
It's all completed. Now God rested and dwell in His Glory, glorified by all creations, on heaven and earth, and pouring out His blessings and love, just as He intended at the beginning of the creation.
But one thing is lacking.
What? One thing is still lacking in this completed creation??? God never make any mistake, nor miscalculated something. He was aware of it since the beginning of creation, and He's the one who planned it since the beginning of everything.
Remember, God is eager to reveal Himself, to make Himself known and praised for His Being, the fullness of His Glory.
Providing a danger-free environment for man can never do the job for that as it's intended to be. Man will only know that He is the Kind God, Holy God, Righteous God, Powerful God, but will never understand Him fully as a Loving God. With the contrast He created, man can differ what's kind and what's not so kind (fellow man can express kindness, animals cannot express it), what's holy and what isn't (everything within God's boundaries holy), what is right and what is wrong (you can see that when Eve argued with the devil), what is powerful and what is weak, but in this wonderful garden of Eden there's love everywhere and there was nothing radiates less love, because less love is not love at all.
This is the one thing that's lacking.
God knew, and He already have a predestined plan for it.
Now do you see where this stories leads you to?
God wants to be worshipped in the fullness of His Glory. And that have to include all of His Divine Virtues. Not only that He's Kind, Righteous, Powerful, Holy, Just, but also He is the God that can Love to the maximum extent without contradicting His other virtues. This kind of love is the one that can only be shown by forgiveness. The ultimate love, the Agape love.
God also want to settle things with evil, once and for all. He cannot allow evil lurking forever by the contrast He has created. He have to make whole what He has intentionally set apart. So He have to momentarily allow evil gain its power, so He can complete his creation finally in ultimate perfection, by overcoming evil with Love.
As painful as it could be, God must be willing to let His beloved creation, us, to taste evil and rejection. It's hard on us, but it's waaayyyy harder for a pure and sinless God to see His beloved creation dipped deeply in unholiness. His loving heart torn apart upon sufferings, and the sight of unholiness despised Him, provoked Him. By allowing evil to work freely among men and entrusted men's conscience to guide their free will, God has shown His great confidence in us, despite of being mere creations, but considered worthy to bear the divine image of God in the way of being wise. But conscience alone is not enough, men's deeds alone cannot atone sin, because the pneuma, the free will He has given, was already corrupted and stained by sin.
Nevertheless, over the centuries He had shown Love by His Patience and Providence, while He wait for the right time to send His Son to display this Ultimate Love of Agape to be openly seen by the whole world over the ages. He cannot miraculously wiped out sin and forgave men, because it will violate His virtue of being Just and Holy. So He has planned the total redemption over sin and deliverance over evil, only by Himself and done only by His Power.
Coming to this world in flesh and blood yet sinless, Christ God has became the perfect sacrifice to receive the full wrath of God's condemnation upon evil. Being risen and ascended to heaven completed it all. Christ's atonement for sin gave way for redemption, the wage has been fully paid for men willing to be purified. God can finally purified His chosen people who have been made new, a new creation in Christ. [2 Corinthians 5:17 (UKJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.]
These newly made men, have the full understanding of God's Divine Virtues, including His Ultimate Love, in which all creations has made perfect.
God is pleased in the worship of His new creature, because the free will has been purified. No longer it became the tool for evil to gain it's power, nor under captivation of sinful intentions, but made free to express gratitude and pure Love. Because once men exposed to the full understanding of Agape, their free will would never want to flee from God anymore, because the Agape Love is just too hard to resist, it is perfect in every way.
Now, should we really questioned or whining over evil and sufferings in this world? Now that we know that God allows it to happen to attain greater virtue within you and me? That is the capability to love to the maximum extent, as He has displayed on the cross thousands of years ago.
Praise God!!!!
-- IR 12042019
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Notes:
I watched this wonderful sermon by Rev. John MacArthur and found this personal revelation about evil and sufferings. Watch the full sermon and be blessed too
https://youtu.be/6LFzk1afiD8
