[Author's Note: Philosophers have waxed eloquent over the centuries seeking to explain the apparent incongruity of the reality of evil and natural calamities on the one hand, and a presumably good God on the other. (Interestingly, it was Darwin's admitted basis for postulating the theory of evolution.) Unfortunately, if the premise is wrong or misguided, the conclusion will be amiss. The premise of the following explanation is simple: (i) as to evil, that originated not with God but with Satan, and then was imported to earth by Adam of his own free will; (ii) as to natural calamities, God takes full responsibility, even where Satan is the intermediary (Job 42:11; Amos 3:6). And why? Well, according to Christ, there can be nothing worse than an eternity in hell. (Mt. 5:28-30) Once that premise is accepted, I respectfully suggest that the incongruity is resolved and the ubiquity of calamity has a satisfactory explanation.]
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Our Assumptions About God
A.W. Tozer once said: “The most portentous thing about a man is what in his deep heart he thinks about God.”
How true. If we think God doesn’t see, we will act like it. If we know that God is wholly good, all-powerful, caring intimately for us, and always has our best interests in mind, then we will live a life relatively free of anxiety and fear.
Consider: does your 3-year-old worry about what he’s going to wear or eat today, or tomorrow? Of course not. Daddy’s home, and he loves me.
But people say they are most troubled by the fact that evil and suffering are everywhere. Why doesn’t God do something about it?
Rabbi Kushner adopted the view in his best seller, “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People”, that God was not outside the system, but instead a product of the system and therefore incapable of doing much about it. In other words, God may be a super-hero, like maybe Spiderman, but he's not a real god.
Fortunately, that was only Rabbi Kushner's view, reasoning from himself. It is not the view of Scripture.
I would suggest that, in reality, the problem to these folks, and to many of us, is not that God is not omnipotent. It is that, in our minds, He is cruel. Uncaring. Distant. Cold. A kill-joy. Nit-picky and niggardly. He's holding out on us, holding us down, preventing us from breaking out of our constraints and exploring ourselves and becoming what we want to be.
And you know why we like to think that?
Because that means that We Are Right to live independently of Him!
And do you know why God is concerned about our breaking out of our constraints? Because our constraints are moral ones and He knows exactly what we really are deep down as sons of Adam. (John 2:21)
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We act so mystified by the presence and occurrence of evil because it is the logical reaction when we conveniently begin with the premise that evil is something outside of ourselves. It is a fact of the universe but, we reason, the fault is not in ourselves. We are not evil, so why should we be plagued by it? We never asked for it! Where did it come from?
We’re “victims!”
Just turn on the weekday morning talk shows when a calamity occurs. Inevitably, the host interviews some representative of the faith and piously intones: “Where was God when [fill in the blank] happened?”
In other words, we’re all down here trying to do the best we can, and God, fickle and arbitrary as He is, flings a thunderbolt out of nowhere, which waylays us. What could justify that? The evidence is quite clear, don’t you think?
The great rebellion against God, begun in the Garden, is fully justified, we have decided, because God, demonstrably, is cold, cruel, and uncaring.
Don’t be fooled. This is what it is all about - the self-justification of the rebellion by the rebels. Most men prefer eternal death in a state of self-justification given the price of eternal life - their pride.
But are men really “victims?” What if it is men who are responsible for the presence of evil in the world? What if men had even “chosen” to be evil? What if evil on this earth is our fault?
In fact, that is what the Scriptures say. In the Book of Romans Paul announced that “by one man death and sin entered into the world.” (Rom. 5:12) That one man was Adam. Therefore, God didn’t introduce death and sin to the earth; we did. We had the choice whether to rebel or not, and we chose to do so.
The stock response to the view expressed above is “Why blame me for Adam choosing evil?”
The answer is simple. God doesn’t blame us for Adam choosing evil.
He blames us for our choosing evil.
Are we innocent of the charge?
If we don’t prefer evil to good, each of us has the option of swearing off evil for the rest of your days. Or do we prefer to keep our options open?
Sure, God could have chosen to be a dictator, or a puppet master, and stripped us of all ability to make responsible choices, such as whether we wanted him as our God or not. Would we have preferred that - a world of "I, Robot," and we are the robots?
Instead, He treated us as responsible entities, and we, in turn, unabashedly feign innocence and victimhood and find a way to blame Him for evil.
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
According to Genesis, Adam, the first man, everyone’s great-great-great, etc. grandfather, was placed into an idyllic setting in the Garden of Eden. The Garden was full of fascinating new creations, both plants and animals. Remember: this is before any problems on the earth, any dangerous creatures, any law of entropy, any cursed existence. By all measures things were delightful.
"And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. (2:8-10)
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (2:15)
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." (Gen. 2:25)
Note specifically the last verse. Good and evil were not issues that Adam and Eve dealt with. They weren’t even on the radar screen. The couple lived in a state of conscience-less innocence.
God, His Maker, communicated one-to-one with Adam. They hung out together, trusted each other.
"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name thereof." (2:19)
Neat.
And God then created Eve as a help-mate for Adam. Gen. 1:28-31 states:
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good."
No killing. No competition. No hassles. All good, no evil.
Now God introduces a command.
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (2:16-17)
Why? To test the allegiance of His creatures, the crown of Creation, made in His image, endowed with a free will - the unfettered ability to make choices of substance.
The choice was this:
Shall we continue to have the Lord as God over us?
Or shall we throw Him out as King, take this ship over ourselves, and run it like we really want to run it?
The drama played out in the following situation:
Recall: the Garden is filled with all sorts of trees, every one of which probably has a delicious fruit - perhaps hundreds or thousands of them - who knows. The tree of life was one of those trees which was also, therefore, good for food. It had been freely offered by God. It was theirs for the taking.
There was only one tree in the Garden that was not good for Adam and Eve, and that was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so God warned them specifically about eating from that tree, and He gave the facts to them straight. Eating it would result in death.
I suspect that the trees were strategically placed by God, so that Adam and Eve could not get to the tree of life without passing by the tree of knowlege. I believe that because they would have had to forego temptation and choose obedience before having the opportunity of eating from the tree of life, because the tree of life contained the eternal life of God Himself. It would not be very smart to perpetuate Adam and Eve if they chose rebellion.
What happened next was this:
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" (Gen. 3:1)
There was something lurking in the Garden, around the subject tree - a serpent - and it spoke to Eve as she was about to, presumably, pass by the tree - on the way to the tree of life. Now, evil is present, not in the creation or Adam and Eve, but inhabiting the serpent, and its first words were to call into question what God had said.
In other words, let’s examine for ourselves what God has said, and make a decision ourselves about the validity of what He has said, and its claim on our obedience, rather than merely believe it.
Now, note the incredibly revealing nature of Eve’s response, as to the state of our heart:
The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die." (Gen. 3:2-3)
Obviously, Eve had already been mulling God’s command over in her mind before she even met the serpent, so much so that she was willing to mis-quote Him, to misrepresent the command, for one reason - to justify to herself a decision to disobey it.
First, she didn’t specifically identify the tree which was the subject of the command. She only referred to the tree “in the middle of the garden.” The tree of life was “in the midst of the Garden” as were several other trees, no doubt. Perhaps she was trying on for size the “innocent mistake” defense.
In addition, and more revealing, is Eve’s relating the command as one that included a prohibition against “touching” the tree. Can’t you just hear Eve thinking to herself as she was saying it: “How ridiculous is that? We can’t even touch the tree. Is God being unresonable? Is He holding something back from us? Why issue such a pointless and petty command?”
Of course, God had issued no such prohibition against “touching.”
You can see where this is heading:
The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen. 3:4-5)
The serpent directly contradicted God, but did so knowing it would confirm every thought Eve was already thinking about the character of God. God had lied to us. Of course, He is withholding something good from us. He doesn’t want us to think for ourselves!
"When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." (Gen. 3:6)
Eve inserted herself above God’s word as the authority for what was right for her, and she found plenty of justification (it’s always present, isn’t it?) for her decision. This fruit was beautiful and would make her wise. Let’s roll.
Contrast Eve's response with that of Christ when He faced the Serpent. (Mt. 4:1-11) Christ did not engage his human reasoning abilities to gauge the advisability of folowing the Serpent or obeying God. He simply took a stand on what God had said - and it alone. He didn't try first to determine whether He agreed with it. God had said it. What more info does one need before responding?
However, there was one more critical fact about their choice to rebel. Remember above where it was noted that the couple was in a state of innocence? Their spirits were like a newly poured concrete slab, waiting to harden into obedience or rebellion, depending on the choice they themselves made.
The result of their decison was this - rebellion was hard-wired into them, into their very core. Accordingly, the fruit of that nature could ever itself only be evil.
They became spiritually bound to the Chief Rebel, the Enemy of God. They threw their lot in with his.
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The Character Question
When Adam decided to mutiny, God had three choices:
1. Abdicate His job as King, and eradicate justice, and permit evil free reign on earth, without interference or accountability, ever
2. Hang Adam from the nearest yardarm, start over again, and hope for better luck with the next model
3. Take responsibility for His creation, find some way to turn Adam and his brood around, and mount an elaborate rescue mission at great personal cost.
He chose Door Number 3.
Critical to His plan was to get mankind's attention, because the last thing He wanted was for men to breeze through life without considering their precarious predicament and their accountability to a God of Justice, and end up at the Final Judgment with no warning.
And since He wasn’t going to abdicate, an accounting, a Final Judgment, was merely a fulfillment of his responsibility
Accordingly, He cursed the earth - famine, flood, pestilence, the whole shebang.
Understand, that is the reason that things are awry, run down, don’t work. The machine is on “tilt”, intentionally so. Our life is like a “breath” the psalmist says. Here one moment and gone the next.
One moment you are topping off your tan on Phuket Island, and the next moment a tsunami is pulverizing your surgically enhanced features into a bloody pulp on the multi-colored coral 50 feet down in the Andaman Sea.
Why?
Because everything, anything, is worse than appearing at the Final Judgment and meeting your Maker as a mutineer. And He knows it. We don’t.
Therefore, He strives to keep the concept of our fleeting mortality front and center with us at all times.
As an aside, this is the point where men start to think that God is petty, or petulant, in that He won’t let us skate. If that’s what you think, let me ask you this: when was the last time you were wronged, or an injustice committed against you. How about when someone did something you felt deserved the penalty of death? - like breaking in line in front of you.
Did you want to let them skate, or did you want to pinch their head off and hack their torso with a machete into breadcrumb size pieces?
And, of course, we don’t see it like God sees it. Here is how he sees it: The most morally upright among us is indebted to Him for the moral equivalent of roughly FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($450,00,000) in today's money, as is evident from the following:
"For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
"When he had begun to settle {them,} one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
"But since he did not have {the means} to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
"So the slave fell {to the ground} and prostrated himself before him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.'
"And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and {began} to choke {him,} saying, 'Pay back what you owe.' "So his fellow slave fell {to the ground} and {began} to plead with him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.'
"But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.
"So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.
"Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
'Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?'
"And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.
"My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart." (Mt. 18:23-35)
Death is right around the corner for every man, at all times. We are to take nothing for granted. You might encounter death before you finish reading this sente…,…and on this basis men should regularly contemplate their mortality and the prospect of having to account for their lives at any moment.
Because the Final Judgment looms for each of us.
If life were not fragile, man, being evil, would not consider his plight until the appointed time of death, and no doubt, would do his utmost to ply his gruesome trade right up until the last moment. Only at that point would he try to cut a deal with God, as men in foxholes have been doing throughout history.
“OK, God, I am floating on a mahogany table in the middle of the Atlantic after my 72’ Hatteras capsized - you know, the boat I acquired from pillaging, raping, plundering, and arbitraging everybody and everything I ever came into contact with. Now…whaddya say? How about a deal.”
We can understand why buildings fall on the heads of bad people, according to Kushner, because there is apparent justice at work there. But most of us are "good people", we tell ourselves, and that is why the presence of evil and the occurrence of calamities are such conundrums.
