Evil is a problem that mankind is forced to deal with on a daily basis. From the creation of Adam and Eve until the return of our Lord, mankind will always have to deal with it. But what exactly is this so called evil? Why is it in God’s great universe, and how does it fit in to His perfect plan? There is no way to reconcile the existence of corporeal evil with the existence of God. Instead, evil should be addressed in a spiritual sense.
In the book of Genesis it tells us that in the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the Earth and all that inhabited it. When He was finished, God looked over it all and said that it was very good. God’s original creation was good, perfect, and blameless. This proves that God did not create evil Himself. And since God created everything, and he did not create evil, evil therefore can not be a “thing”. Since the beginning of human history, the existence of evil has shown to result from choices that aim to gratify the self.
Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals God had made. He questioned the woman, “Did God really say, You must not eat from the tree in the center of the garden?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat from any tree but that tree in the middle, and the Lord said we must not even touch it, or we will die.” “You will surely not die”, said the serpent to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1-4.
This event that took place in the Garden of Eden marks the entrance of evil and sin into God’s once perfect world. But as seen here, the evil was not something that was created by God to be put on the Earth. Rather, it was the result of the selfish desires of man. These selfish desires came from our freewill, which God allowed us to have. Roy Battenhouse states, “Sinning takes place only by exercise of the will… no one compelling… Sin is the will to retain and follow after what justice forbids, and from which it is free to abstain.”
I'm very aware that I could be looking at all this in the wrong way. But for now, this is my opinion. What's yours?
Could Gods creation be perfect and blameless if the devil himself was in the garden the same time as Adam and Eve? Therefore we would have to say evil existed even in the beginning. Or was the devil not there until later, and what does that imply?
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of good points man though. Just a question. Check out what I wrote, I held the opposite view....I think.....