If we decide to be completely honest with ourselves, any question about God’s creation is a complete mystery. This, I believe, is a good thing, but for the sake of the blog I would like to take a shot at one of these mysteries. Did God create evil? This is one of those questions that can never be wholly answered by our humanly weak minds. However, I am going to attempt to come a little further in my understanding of the matter.
The way I see it is, when God created us he chose to give us free will. Everyone is given this free will, even though God understood what could happen when we, as imperfect beings, are given a choice. We immediately see the effect free will has on us if we look at Genesis 3, which in my Bible is titled, “The Fall of Man.” Both Adam and Eve fell for the temptation the serpent offered them, showing the first signs of Evil in the Bible.
From this, I begin to ask, “Was the creation of evil intentional?” For instance did God just decide to blatantly put evil in the world. The answer I have come to is, no! I don’t believe that God just one day decided that world could use a little evil. I believe that evil was formed through our own free will. God fully understood that when he gave us a choice there was a chance that we would make the wrong one, but he still decided that we needed to have the choice.
Now we can ask, well why would God give us the choice if he thought we would make the wrong one? The answer is not a simple one for us to swallow, but God has done all of this for His glory. We cannot understand how this will ultimately bring Him glory, but who are we to understand this? If you have the chance I would recommend reading Job 38-42. It is five chapters of God speaking to Job through a storm and just asking him basically, who do you think you are to question what I am doing? That is what I needed to hear as I was sitting here writing this. Who am I to question whether or not God did put evil in the world? It is in the world therefore it has a purpose, and ultimately that purpose will bring glory to God.
I'd have to agree with you, Kimberly. We exist for the glory of God our Father. Yes, he gives us the gift of thought and the understanding of many things of this world. But we have been, and will always be limited by what our tiny minds can comprehend and even fathom. So when we do reach that point, we simply must trust God and rely on Him because we know that everything is under control and is in His mighty hands, even when we don't understand.
ReplyDeleteI commented on Stephanie's post, "7 days vs....?"
ReplyDeleteI completely agree Kim. I think the question of the foundation of evil is one that doesn't necessarily need to be answered. I am perfectly comfortable just knowing that because it exists, evil apparently has some kind of purpose that God will in some way use to glorify Him. As humans, we long for answers for every question we can come up with. It's just who we are. However, I'm comfortable not knowing EXACTLY where evil originated.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%. The God of the universe is so beyond our comprehension that to even try to understand all of His methods would be pointless. It doesn't even make sense. I love the illustration of Job. We talk about Job's great faith and then refuse to follow his example. Yes, he fell into the temptation and did eventually question God but still always understood that there was something much greater coming of it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in regards to God creating evil, I believe if he wanted to create another Heaven, He would have. As it is, He gave us a choice. We can make whichever choice we want but personally, I believe that God finds greater joy in a song that is sung by a lost sheep who was found than those who would have no choice.
Again, just my opinion