HisStory

A Perfect Creation Every story has a beginning. And the beginning is always a good place to start. God’s story has a most spectacular beginning. The very first verse of the Bible starts with a heavenly bang: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1). Imagine being on the heavenly stage as God creates everything you see today: The Sun, Stars, Moons, and Earth, with all the teaming life within, and a night sky with trillions of Suns and millions of galaxies, all to testify to the greatness of God. And yet, God did all of this for a very specific purpose that involves you. Think on that for a minute: God created everything, but while doing so, had you in mind. God’s story is about God’s love for each of us, one that is everlasting, faithful, and pure, and all we need to do to experience this eternal, perfect love, is to come to know God, not on our merit, but as something that is freely given. For you see, a gift is not earned but given. All one needs to do to enjoy the gift is to accept what is given through repentance in faith that what is given is true, is pure, is prosperous, and loving. Imagine living in a perfect world where there is no evil. A world where your every need is taken care of and you could lead a life without want, hunger, or need. The person who created all of this for you, who has taken care of your every need and has given you the simple task of caring for His creation, has commanded of you only one simple requirement to enjoy this perfect paradise. Suppose you choose to do the very thing you were instructed not to do. Would that be an act of love or an act of rebellion? We live in a world beset by evil throughout all of its history, which is the direct result of what Adam and Eve wrought by their failure to obey God. And yet, God was not taken by surprise, and despite man’s rebellion, God had a plan in mind that was for our eternal benefit. You might ask how God allowing all this evil to remain in the world throughout time immemorial is for our benefit. Well, that is the question that this book hopes to answer, as provided to us by God in his word. Often the problem of evil is put in the form of a complex question, “If God is good, then he must not be powerful enough to deal with all the evil and injustice in the world since it is still going on. If he is powerful enough to stop wrongdoing, then He must be an evil God since He’s not doing anything about it even though He has the capability. So which is it? Is he a bad God or a God that’s not all-powerful?” The answer to such a question is important to understanding God. If God created the world like it is today, then yes, God would not be good. But we know that God is good all the time and that His creation was far different than what we see around us now. The Bible makes it plain that God did not create the world in the state in which it is now. Evil came as a result of the selfishness of man. So to understand why evil exists, and why it is allowed to exist, we need to go to the very beginning of God’s Story. The Book of Genesis introduces us to the two main characters in the Bible: God and man. Note the use of the words “very good” in the verse above at the beginning of this chapter. Each day, for six days, God created something that God described as good, but after he creates Adam and then Eve on the sixth day, he describes the entirety of his creation as “very good”. God was very pleased with his creation. God created us in His likeness. This is a great time to remind ourselves that we are part of God's creation. Even when you don't feel worthy of his pleasure, remember that God made you and is pleased with you. You are of great worth to him. Note in Genesis Chapter 1, verse 26, God says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ..." This is the only instance in the creation account that God uses the plural form to refer to himself. It's interesting to note that this happens just as God begins to create man. God thereafter creates Eve from Adam and sets both in the Garden of Eden. In the middle of the garden was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was of this tree that God forbid Adam and Eve from eating. Although Adam was given dominion over the Garden of Eden, God was still sovereign over His creation, and the Tree of Knowledge represented that sovereignty, placed prominently in the middle of the garden. The choice to comply with God’s command was a choice that both Adam and Eve possessed. A question one might ask at this point is whether this paradise in which Adam and Eve lived was perfect. The short answer is yes. But how then in this perfect paradise did Adam and Eve rebel against God, allowing sin and thereafter, death, to enter into God’s perfect creation? How can that which is evil, invade that which was created as perfect? The answer is complicated but understandable.