This week, Nate Emory, one of the residents of Cultor House, answers an anonymous question.
The Bible teaches everything in the Universe has its ultimate beginning in God. Nothing in this Universe happens without His command or permission; so why is it so wrong to say God either created sin or allowed sin to be created? How could God create a race, knowing they would fall into sin, and that most would eventually be punished in Hell?
Every day the casual newspaper subscriber will glance over story after story containing evidence that something is wrong in the world. Disease outbreaks, mass murders, child abuse, natural disasters, and war are just a few examples of headlines that no one is really that surprised to read about. The shock factor still comes into play, but in reality people have come to see these evils as semi-normative. We try to prevent all evils, but it is a never ending battle. For any person who subscribes to a certain “faith” or “religion,” they may attribute these occurrences to the influence of higher powers. There may be gods, spirits, or nature’s unbridled forces at work amongst humanity. For the Christian, or anyone who understands what the Bible would teach, the problem of evil, sin, and death stems from a God who created everything and is said to be sovereign or superintending over all creation. This creates a bigger question about God – How can He allow the creation and existence of sin? And by the Biblical effects of sin, how can He create a race that will, in its majority at least, succumb to eternal punishment for the consequences of that sin?
As believers we must first accept that we are finite, broken human beings, and if we were able to cram God into our primitive brains then God would not really be God at all.
A paradox is defined as something that is seemingly contradictory, but something that ultimately leads to possible truth. One of the Bible’s most glaring paradoxical ideas is that a God with attributes that are absolute and constant can simultaneously be a God of love and a God of judgment. As believers we must first accept that we are finite, broken human beings, and if we were able to cram God into our primitive brains then God would not really be God at all. It is beyond our comprehension to presume to know every complexity that describes God. His perfect harmony of persons and attributes is a partial mystery to us. It is hard for us to come to grips with God being brought glory by some people accepting salvation and others rejecting Him. But it is not our place or within our ability to discern all of God’s way. That being said, there are varying aspects of each of God’s persons and characteristics that are indicative of His interaction with sin and evil.
First of all, the Bible says that sin is in God’s control, but He is not the source of that sin (James 1:13). Even though evils exist in this world, God did not create them. He created a world consistent with his nature, stating that everything He made was “good” (Genesis 1). When man broke the only rule on the planet, the one rule existing to remind them that they were still subject to God’s authority, sin entered the world. With this came shame, murder, theft, immorality, and every other corruption of God’s good creation. A part of our understanding of God’s allowance of sin and its penalty must be putting out faith in God’s good nature. We must rest in the character of God’s loving goodness – in a God who was filled with so much love for us that He came to live among us, only to be nailed to a cross as the payment for the sins of all mankind.
God can use evil for His own purposes... within God’s control, evil can exist to bring about a greater purpose or good.
God came to earth for one reason, and that was to restore something that was broken. He came to eradicate the power of sin, and thereby reclaim, redeem, and restore His people. (Matthew 20:28) God’s very nature is anti-sin. Sin and evil put Jesus on the cross. Sin is what will ultimately condemn people to Hell. God hates sin and will not let it go unpunished. On the flipside, God can use evil for His own purposes. That is, within God’s control, evil can exist to bring about a greater purpose or good. The book of Job can be used as a case study for this. A man of God is subjected to evils and pains to prove that loyalty to God goes beyond worldly blessings, and God has the right to work as He sees fit. James 1 tells us that temptations and challenges are thrown into a believer’s path in order to make him more complete in his faith and relationship with Jesus.
The bottom line is that God is anti-sin and anti-evil. The perfect world that He created was wrecked by the pride of humanity. The horrors of our culture are all self-inflicted wounds. Any chance we have of being rescued from what we deserve for violating His righteous standard is a testament to God’s true, gracious nature. The mercy of God outweighs the sinfulness of man. The true miracle is that any human would be saved at all. God literally put on flesh, lived above all blame, was murdered without true conviction, and was resurrected in order that a universal curse of sin would be broken (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s goodness, mercy, and love are what he offers through the cross.
Every day the casual newspaper subscriber will glance over story after story containing evidence that something is wrong in the world. Disease outbreaks, mass murders, child abuse, natural disasters, and war are just a few examples of headlines that no one is really that surprised to read about. The shock factor still comes into play, but in reality people have come to see these evils as semi-normative. We try to prevent all evils, but it is a never ending battle. For any person who subscribes to a certain “faith” or “religion,” they may attribute these occurrences to the influence of higher powers. There may be gods, spirits, or nature’s unbridled forces at work amongst humanity. For the Christian, or anyone who understands what the Bible would teach, the problem of evil, sin, and death stems from a God who created everything and is said to be sovereign or superintending over all creation. This creates a bigger question about God – How can He allow the creation and existence of sin? And by the Biblical effects of sin, how can He create a race that will, in its majority at least, succumb to eternal punishment for the consequences of that sin?
As believers we must first accept that we are finite, broken human beings, and if we were able to cram God into our primitive brains then God would not really be God at all.
A paradox is defined as something that is seemingly contradictory, but something that ultimately leads to possible truth. One of the Bible’s most glaring paradoxical ideas is that a God with attributes that are absolute and constant can simultaneously be a God of love and a God of judgment. As believers we must first accept that we are finite, broken human beings, and if we were able to cram God into our primitive brains then God would not really be God at all. It is beyond our comprehension to presume to know every complexity that describes God. His perfect harmony of persons and attributes is a partial mystery to us. It is hard for us to come to grips with God being brought glory by some people accepting salvation and others rejecting Him. But it is not our place or within our ability to discern all of God’s way. That being said, there are varying aspects of each of God’s persons and characteristics that are indicative of His interaction with sin and evil.
First of all, the Bible says that sin is in God’s control, but He is not the source of that sin (James 1:13). Even though evils exist in this world, God did not create them. He created a world consistent with his nature, stating that everything He made was “good” (Genesis 1). When man broke the only rule on the planet, the one rule existing to remind them that they were still subject to God’s authority, sin entered the world. With this came shame, murder, theft, immorality, and every other corruption of God’s good creation. A part of our understanding of God’s allowance of sin and its penalty must be putting out faith in God’s good nature. We must rest in the character of God’s loving goodness – in a God who was filled with so much love for us that He came to live among us, only to be nailed to a cross as the payment for the sins of all mankind.
God can use evil for His own purposes... within God’s control, evil can exist to bring about a greater purpose or good.
God came to earth for one reason, and that was to restore something that was broken. He came to eradicate the power of sin, and thereby reclaim, redeem, and restore His people. (Matthew 20:28) God’s very nature is anti-sin. Sin and evil put Jesus on the cross. Sin is what will ultimately condemn people to Hell. God hates sin and will not let it go unpunished. On the flipside, God can use evil for His own purposes. That is, within God’s control, evil can exist to bring about a greater purpose or good. The book of Job can be used as a case study for this. A man of God is subjected to evils and pains to prove that loyalty to God goes beyond worldly blessings, and God has the right to work as He sees fit. James 1 tells us that temptations and challenges are thrown into a believer’s path in order to make him more complete in his faith and relationship with Jesus.
The bottom line is that God is anti-sin and anti-evil. The perfect world that He created was wrecked by the pride of humanity. The horrors of our culture are all self-inflicted wounds. Any chance we have of being rescued from what we deserve for violating His righteous standard is a testament to God’s true, gracious nature. The mercy of God outweighs the sinfulness of man. The true miracle is that any human would be saved at all. God literally put on flesh, lived above all blame, was murdered without true conviction, and was resurrected in order that a universal curse of sin would be broken (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s goodness, mercy, and love are what he offers through the cross.