Modern Science argues that there is no intelligence behind the universe. There is no God, no intelligent agent causing the appearance of the universe, nothing like that. The universe simply evolved through a very slow progression of chance events occurring over billions of years gradually changing the properties of matter, causing slight variations until we have what is present today.
I have been wrestling with this presumption for years. It contradicts the Biblical training I had as a youth. There is no middle ground with these two presumptions: if one is correct, the other has to be wrong. So, now that I’m once again considering if God really created the universe, what might have been his reason in doing so? The only way I could know is if God made a revelation, so I am right back to my Biblical training.
God's revelation shows that he is, indeed, intelligent. For me, that is a good start. He existed forever before he created the universe. He was already happy with himself. He was always comfortable with himself; he never did anything that contradicted himself. There was absolutely no conflict at all within him. He is intelligent and he is supremely happy.
Then why did he create me and the universe? My childhood training told me that he wanted to share his happiness with individuals that he created out of nothing. And he wanted to give them some special status that one would not expect for someone who never existed before they were created. He created me in his image, being an autonomous sovereign person like he is. That would make me like God in a way. I choose my own way, and no one, not even God, will be empowered to force me to choose against my free will.
That's a nice position to be in. If I gravitate toward God, it will be because I freely chose to do so. But there is a downside to it: I am perfectly capable of choosing against God. That would be disastrous for me, and, actually, God has commanded me to choose him: to love him, to serve him and obey him. I would think no one would choose not to comply with that. But God revealed that he already created many angels, purely spiritual beings and far more intelligent than me. Fully one-third of them refused to choose God. He exiled them out of his presence and into the physical world. It sounds like a fairy tale, but I have no doubt that God is perfectly capable of doing this. He is God. He is capable of doing anything he desires.
The rest is well known to everybody: he created the first two human beings; he gave them the same option he gave the angels. The first human beings chose against God (under the influence of a fallen angel), and the whole entire human race went into the same exile. They disobeyed God under the temptation that if they did disobey, they would become like God, having knowledge of evil and good, like God has. And so I am (actually all of us are) living the experience of evil and good in our lives.
We all expect to lead blissful lives where there is no sickness, no villains stalking us to subdue or otherwise harm us, where we live forever, never having any expectation of perishing. The more I think of it, the more I become convinced that God is perfectly capable of doing this. After all, he created the entire universe with all its complexity and interdependence of one object upon the other objects. So why is there so much grief in our world?
I have to turn again to God's revelation to see if God already provided the answer. I think the answer is that God gave me and every other intelligent creature the ability to love him and serve him of my own free will, which is what God desires. But I also have the ability to turn away from God and choose what I want, even if what I want is against God’s will. My refusal to follow God will disrupt the harmony in the world. If I take what belongs to someone else, that person suffers, unless that person is strong enough to retaliate, then I suffer. This disruption of peace and harmony in the world will eventually cause chaos. That’s why there is grief in the world. I think this is why God fashioned plants and animals the way they are. They display the very traits that my selfishness will bring into the world if I reject God and try to forge my own way in life.
I think conditions in this life are temporary, as God revealed. They will come to an end. All opposition to God will sooner or later cease. Then only those, who of their own free will, have chosen to love and serve God will inherit God’s kingdom where there will be no grief, no opposition to God’s will, where everyone will experience the same peace, joy and happiness that existed from all eternity within God.
I’m not going to give up on that hope!
Maurice A. Williams
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