If God Is So Powerful, Why Does Evil Exist?
The answer to why evil exists is older than mankind and possibly planet earth. The scriptures teach of a situation in heaven that very few have understood and the answer isn’t simple to explain or understand.
This question has been asked since the dawn of time. Keys to understanding why God Almighty allows evil to exist is removing yourself from your point of view, stepping out of the box so to speak, and entering the realm of heaven, for what happened in heaven eventually would bring human suffering to a planet before mankind’s existence.
Although the Bible doesn’t speak clearly on what we would consider a dilemma, God gives us enough information to formulate and draw conclusions.
So we must step back through time and enter heaven, look at things from God’s point of view and the picture formulates and begins to become clearer.
In the beginning, God.
God is a creator and from the scriptures one of the very first things God created were angels. We are told that when God created the universe,-
” The sons of God shouted for joy”.( Job 38)
Obviously, all is well in heaven at this point. It is apparent from this passage of scripture in Job that angels are in awe and wonder of their Creator, who brought the universe into existence with a word, God spoke and it happened.
This staggers the imagination that an All-powerful Being spoke the universe into existence, and angels were present when he performed this amazing feat. We are not given a time table between this amazing event and the fall of Lucifer.
Freewill has always been a part of God’s creation. Angels were given free-will.
Only in free-will can you be free to choose. Loving God is a choice, and not loving him is also a choice.
God is not interested in robots that have no freedom to choose.
To understand why an All-powerful God allows evil, you have to understand where it was first found.
To make a statement that God created evil, would not be the truth.
God created free will, and he knew in creating unique individuals with the ability of choice, that sin would become a possible problem, throughout creation.
It is obviously apparent, God decided that to create free will beings was worth the risk in the long run. Creating unique beings, with the possibility of freewill running amok could or would cause the existence of evil.
Evil began in a heart of an angel. Lucifer who was in the holy places of God was in charge of the music and praise of the ONE true God. The Bible states that Lucifer was beautiful above all the angels the Lord had made. Apparently, God felt it was worth mentioning this in the scriptures, so it is probable the angels were affected by this charismatic figure.
Lucifer had a mass following. We are told in scripture that one-third of the angels turned away from their Creator and decided to follow Lucifer in his rebellion.
I don’t believe that happened overnight, but gradually he became puffed up with pride, and to put it bluntly, Lucifer fell in love with himself.
“You were perfect in all of your ways until sin was found in you”. ( Ezekiel 28)
These words have echoed down through the ages before mankind was but a breath.
Lucifer an angel of God turned from his Creator and wanted to be God. In his heart was found rebellion and the desire to remove God from his throne, full-blown pride, to say in the least, unimaginable to comprehend.
Like a child rebelling against his parent, defying the very people who brought him into the world and gave him existence, only on a much grander scale.
To put the situation into perspective Lucifer basically was saying –
” Move over God, allow me to remove you from your rightful place so I may be worshiped”
This situation puts a whole new perspective on Christ being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. Satan’s words must have echoed through the Lord’s ears as he said to Jesus,
“Fall down and worship me and I will give you the kingdoms of the earth”
Those words were an echo from ages past that Jesus had heard before.
It was Lucifer, yet again (who was renamed Satan) desiring God to worship him.
The situation in the wilderness was not a surprise to Christ. After all, this was the very reason Jesus had come to planet earth in the first place and once again Satan was desiring his Creator to fall down and worship him and Christ refused.
In heaven, God could have squashed the rebellion in an instant and ended it forever at that moment. ” Boom”, rebellion destroyed and vanquished in a twinkling of an eye.
But fear would rule heaven for all eternity. Could you imagine?
Angels would have trembled, fearful of God for eternity.
Talk about walking on eggshells forever!
Rather than loving God freely, it would become a chore while trembling in fear.
God truly is a gentleman and he isn’t just called good because the Bible states it.
God truly is GOOD, through and through and Holy.
God is good ALL THE TIME! and has a keen sense of Justice, Goodness, and Holiness.
He cannot act against his character at any point, so if God could ever be caught in a dilemma, this would be a major one.
God is omniscient, angels are not. Only God could completely and thoroughly understand the full ramifications of sin, and the angels caught in this disturbance have no perception at all of what is about to transpire. All they know is one moment it was awe-inspiring, the next upheaval.
Guilty
God is a just God and he judges rightly and to truly judge rightly, don’t you have to have evidence against the guilty?
Angels would have no comprehension of the guilt of their fallen comrades, how would one even begin to educate them?
It could not be done unless it was shown to them. God could not sit them down at a table over dinner and discuss this… He is HOLY.
How could God even begin to judge this rebellion rightly? Only God himself could understand the true implications of the horrors of sin. How could an angel without omniscience understand this? There was nothing in heaven to compare this situation to, and angels that remained faithful to God could not grasp the implications of the rebellion in heaven.
God has a loving relationship with his angels and it would seem perfectly normal and logical to expect that Angels have relationships with one another, otherwise why would a third of them follow Satan in rebellion?
To reflect and ponder what happened in the heavens the day rebellion broke out and relationships ended, is anyone’s guess. I suspect that the best of friends became sworn enemies.
Hearts may have broken and plenty of tears shed, certainly God’s comfort wrapped them in his wings as he grieved himself.
All The World’s A Stage.
God had little choice, but to allow the spectacle to play to full fruition.
When sin has it’s final death throes, there will be no question in anyone’s mind the justice it so deserves.
Planet Earth,- is God’s main Exhibit-A and the court case against sin and its tragedy.
When God finally judges sin and rebellion, the evidence compiled against it will be staggering.
Angels have learned astonishing amounts of details, a complete historical record has played out in full dramatic color. Every murder, every theft, every adultery, every betrayal, every evil and manipulative scheme men have devised- all played out on the big screen of Planet Earth.
Surely they are horrified.
The Power Grab
God in his wisdom takes the war between good and evil to a whole new level.
He moves the war to another place taking the battle to a whole new realm- Planet Earth becomes the battleground and God documents the whole story as it unfolds and promises are given to those who believe Him.
In a sense, God created a neutral place for the war of good and evil to play out.
God creates earth and creates a literal paradise. He sets the stage where his adversary has an opportunity.
A lush environment, filled with food and staggering beauty and plops down the main pieces of warfare- Two trees
One tree that brings Life-That will secure his new creation (humanity) for eternity
One tree that brings-Death- That will cause a loss and transference to his enemy. Which will cause God to devise another plan of action.
God then creates mankind to enter this war of wills. He builds a relationship, spending time with his new creation, and becomes a friend to Adam.-With clear instruction NOT to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
There is a second part to this story (in the next article) that gets into further details of what Christ faced to win back those that were lost.
God when dealing with rebellion, decided to take a different approach, rather than swift and final judgment upon his enemy, planet earth would become the final battleground, the place chosen by God in the war between good and evil.
Adam and Eve had the choice to obey God, you would think it would have been a simple choice since God spent time with Adam and built a relationship with him.
But we all know that didn’t end well, and he fell because he chose to listen to his wife, who chose to listen to a stranger.
In God’s omniscience He was well aware of the choices they would make, but knowing what their choices would be, and being responsible for them are two completely separate positions.
It’s like having 51 flavors of ice cream and telling a child they can have 50 different flavors but one flavor is for adults only.
You would think having 50 flavors would satisfy their appetite. Yet the very one you have instructed the child not to eat of, you find they have disobeyed your clear instruction and made a glutton of themselves.
Adam and Eve had the whole garden to satisfy their appetites, this was clear disobedience. God of course was not taken by surprise when Adam fell.
Adam had freedom of choice, for he had the ability in his grasp to live forever, had access to the tree of life, but chose to disobey God and ate from the forbidden tree.
Adam and Eve made a choice that has affected every man, woman, and child for all time.
Adam in a brief moment threw away his relationship with God and everything God had entrusted to him. In Adam’s disobedience, Satan made a power grab, mankind fell under his grip, and planet earth would never be the same.
Adam was given this earth and the moment Adam fell, ownership was transferred from Adam, into the hands of God’s enemy, because he is a thief.
Due to the disobedience of one man, sin entered planet earth. But God was not finished, he had a plan to send his Son and rescue those who would hear his message and accept his death on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.
Character
Although to many contemplating the wisdom of God to strike at the heart of rebellion is complicated at best, when you look at this from his point of view, things begin to take shape. God did not turn away in frustration and leave mankind in this predicament, He loves humanity.
Angels have witnessed things that have taken their breath away with astonishment.
They have a deeper understanding of the character of their Creator and fallen deeply in love more than they could ever imagine.
God also loves his faithful Angels who remained loyal and in light of that, a picture of God unfolds. God in his character is not a tyrant, after all, Christ came and lowered himself and became the servant to mankind, and all of heaven was certainly quiet as Angels stood by and saw their creator humble himself. God showed by his actions to all his creation what love looks like, in the sweet death and sacrifice of himself.
Surely angels wept at the crucifixion of the Lord and
Angels are not trembling in heaven, fearful of their awesome Creators ability to judge them at any moment. They wept as they watched their Creator give His all.
Swift judgment upon those who rebelled would have caused fear in heaven for eternity.
God will judge the fallen angels in the presence of his Holy angels, someday.
There will be no questions in the hearts of the holy angels, no nagging doubts to plague them about the justice of it when the fallen angels are finally judged.
God loves the praises of his people and someday we will be honored to be face to face in giving him our heartfelt gratitude. My personal opinion is, Angel’s have learned volumes about their Creator.
Because of what God has done on planet earth for fallen humanity.
People don’t always realize the full picture- that earth and mankind, are just small parts of the total story. Angels are another part that is rarely discussed or considered.
God is interested in planet Earth, for he bled and died to seek and to save that which was lost.
Mankind has been given a unique opportunity, to be a part of something that is monumental in scope, beyond anything we could possibly imagine.
Yes, there is evil in the world.
Yes an All-Powerful God has allowed it, for the sake of free will.
Yes, God was intimately impacted, placing himself in the grips of it -taking up a cross and pouring his life out and willingly dying for his creation.
God has a great love for his creation and respect, God forces no one. Freewill is a gift and our choices are clearly our own responsibility. Someday the earth will pass away, but until that time his voice cries out to humanity, planet earth is not our final resting place, our lives are but a vapor.
God yearns for each of us to make a choice to accept his Son and renew fellowship.
If we refuse to accept his offer, we are like those that stood in the garden long ago, picking the forbidden fruit.
God will respect the choice we make.
People prepare for college and retirement and a host of important events in life.
This is by far the most important decision you will ever make in your life.
Through the shed blood of the Son of God, God offers us grace.
Jesus made the way for us to fellowship again.
I pray you will make the right decision, and accept his offer.
