What would God be like if he exists forever? I think he would be powerful beyond imagination, able to do anything he wants, wherever he wants, any time he wants. There is no constraint on what God can do, no one who outranks him, no one to curb his ambitions. He is quite alone in this regard. He is the only god that exists. What would he be like? The only way to know is to look at what he revealed.
He revealed that he operates on love. He loves himself; he loves everything he created. He wants those he created to be similar to him: sovereign persons like he is, to do only what they choose to do, to love him like he loves himself, to love others like he loves others. If those he created are free to do that, then they must also be free to refuse to do it. Ah ha! This is where evil comes into existence.
Refusing to love and serve the God who created me and insisting on pursuing my own interests (I who know nothing about regulating this vast physical universe that God created) can only lead to trouble. And if others created by God do the same thing, it can only lead to chaos.
I think the reason God created the physical universe as defective as it seems to be is because evil was already operating in his creation before he created the human race. One-third of all the angels he created rebelled against him. One of those rebellious angels tempted the first human beings and enticed them to refuse obedience to a very simple condition God enjoined upon them: Don’t eat the fruit of an individual tree!
I think before God created the first humans, he already knew they would choose against him, so he created the physical world as it is to reflect that disorder. However, when he created the first two humans, he placed them in the Garden of Eden, which was very different than the rest of the world. It probably was similar to what the heavenly paradise would be like.
After the first humans disobeyed, God had them driven out of the Garden of Eden into the harsh world we live in. God’s punishment of the first two humans and the serpent is an important part of God’s revelation. He asked the woman and the man why they disobeyed. He did not ask the serpent why. Instead, he cursed the serpent. God told the serpent he would put enmity between him and the woman. The serpent will strike the woman’s heel; the woman's seed will crush the serpent’s head.
This ongoing enmity has plagued the woman’s offspring ever since. I’m also caught up in it as I’m forced by circumstances to make a choice between God’s influence and Satan’s influence. Even though I am a free agent, I’m obligated to obey God.
This is a very different account of why I exist and what is expected of me than what I hear from the scientific community. Their explanation is that I just simply evolved. There was no rational thought behind my evolution, no guiding intelligence, no god. I just finally appeared in the flesh, so to speak, a product of random evolutionary causes. I will remain alive for a while and then die; all the atoms of my body eventually dissipating back into the environment I arose from. Some scientists make a point that my contribution in life is that I will pass on my genes to the next generation. It’s a very hollow life for me if that’s all I leave behind. Contrast this explanation of why I’m alive to the Biblical account: there’s a purpose to my life, a giant adventure if I really am struggling against rebellious spiritual beings far more powerful than me. And the end of the world for me is not extinction, but passing into a better life of eternal union with the God who created me.
If I have a choice, I would choose that destiny.
Maurice A. Williams
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