Q. How did evil appear in the Garden of Eden?
A. There are only three possibilities for how evil appeared in the Garden of Eden. Either 1) God had no intention of evil appearing but it crept in accidentally anyway, 2) God knew that evil might appear but he intentionally took a neutral stance and then came up with a plan depending on what Adam and Eve chose, or 3) God intended evil to appear in the Garden because it served His purpose to glorify His Son.
The first possibility makes God to be a
bungler who could not stop a major catastrophe from interfering with His
design. Such a being could never be trusted to bring about anything He
intends, He might wind up losing everyone and saving no one, and He does
not fit the definition of God (perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing,
present everywhere at all times, and He is love). So, the first
possibility must be rejected.
The second possibility also has very real problems with the definition
of God. If God is all-knowing (omniscient) and present everywhere at all
times (omnipresent), then He would have to have known ahead the choice
that Eve would make, the choice that Adam would make, and the choices
that everyone through the history of all humanity would make. But if God
knows those choices, indeed knew those choices from eternity, then those
choices must be fixed with no possibility of change. If they are fixed,
and have been fixed from eternity, then they are not really free
choices, and the only Being who could have fixed them is God. Thus the
definition of God makes nonsense of possibility number two.
Another problem with possibility two is that it puts man into a position
superior to God. It makes God to be the being who reacts to man’s
choices. Adam and Eve sin, so God reacts to that; all through history,
God is reacting to man’s choices. This makes man the leader and God the
follower. God, in possibility two, does not seem to have a definite plan
from eternity that He is working out in history. He is just reacting to
man. Again, this is not an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God.
Also, possibility two assumes that God takes a neutral stance and gives
people free choice because He loves them and wants them to
choose good for themselves. But is this love? If God loves everyone, why
would He allow them to make a choice that could damn them to hell for
eternity? Suppose I have a little boy. He is standing on the edge of a
cliff. He might step off and he might not. Am I supposed to sit there
and do nothing and say the choice is his? Am I to think that interfering
would not be love? That would be crazy! If I love the child, I will
interfere and prevent him from falling off the edge of the cliff. If
there are people whom God loves, certainly He would make sure they are
not damned to hell; if there are people who are damned to hell, God does
not love them with an eternal love and never intended that they be
saved.
The question of evil is best answered by possibility three. In this
possibility, we understand that God purposed the entire creation, from
beginning to end, before the world began. God’s intent is to glorify
Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ (John 17:1). He intended evil to enter
the world. He intended Adam and Eve to sin. He intended their posterity
to be condemned in sin. He intended to save His people out of their sins
through His Son, Jesus Christ, and He intended to damn others to hell
for eternity.
We can better understand possibility three by seeing that it fulfills
God’s plan from eternity. Let’s look at it from God’s goal and work our
way backwards. God’s intention is to glorify His Son by giving Him a
people. They will be His Son’s people by His Son being their Savior. In
the course of time, Jesus will make atonement on the Cross for the sins
of His people, saving them from their sins, their sinful nature, and the
sinful world (because of this, there must be a people who are not
saved—the sinful world—from which the Son’s people are saved). The Son’s
people will need a Savior because they will be sinful. They will be
sinful by being born in sin and having a sinful nature that causes them
to commit sin. All people, including the Son’s, will be born in sin and
inherit a sinful nature by getting these from the first of their race
and representative, Adam. Adam will sin as representative of the human
race and take on a sinful nature that will be transmitted to his
offspring by falling into sin. He will be tempted into sin by His wife.
His wife will sin by being duped by Satan. Satan will be a sinner by
falling into pride. All of this will happen by God’s decree.
To this intent, then, God had evil and sin enter the world. God Himself
is not evil and does not sin. By the very fact that He is God,
everything He does is right and good. Nevertheless, God says in Isaiah
45:7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create
evil: I the LORD do all these things.” He does this for good that He may
glorify His Son and His Son may glorify Him and that we whom He has
given to His Son may be glorified in them (read all of John 17).
To this end, God created an angelic being called Lucifer. He was perfect
in his ways, yet able to sin (Ezekiel 28:14-15). And sin He did, just as
God intended (Isaiah 14:12). God also created Adam and Eve. They, too,
were sinless, yet able to sin. Lucifer, now called Satan, took the form
of a serpent and deceived Eve into sinning. She then tempted her husband
to deliberately sin against God’s command. None of this surprised God.
It was according to His plan to save His people through His Son. Yet
Satan, Eve, and Adam were all responsible for their sins. God did not
commit the sins, He was not and is not the author of their sins or the
sins of anyone else.
Possibility three is the only possibility that preserves the definition
of God: He is perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, present everywhere at
all times, and He is love. Some will challenge the last by saying that
it is not loving to create some people knowing they will not be saved.
But in possibilities one and two, God’s love is not perfect because
anyone might not be saved. Therefore, He must love no one perfectly.
Only in possibility three is God’s love perfect. He loves His people
and, in perfect love, makes absolutely certain that they are saved. It
is like the difference between wheat and chaff. Just as the people who
are not God’s people in the world (the reprobate) keep the world’s
system going for the benefit of His people (the elect), so the stalk,
leaves, and husks of the wheat plant serve essential purposes to bring
the grains of wheat to maturity. The farmer wants only the grains of
wheat, but to get them, he cares for the wheat plants as a whole. But
once the purpose of this chaff is served, the grains of wheat are
harvested and the chaff is burned (see Matthew 3:12). It is also like
the difference between pets and livestock intended for slaughter. Both
the pets and livestock are diligently cared for, just as God generally
cares for everyone (see Matthew 5:45). But, the pets are to be loved and
the livestock are to be killed (see 2 Peter 2:12). Some people might try
to protest that this is not fair, but the Bible has already answered
them:
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
—Romans 9:11-24
Peter Ditzel
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