The Problem of Evil
Now that we have talked about the narrow war between the Holy Spirit and the flesh that everyone, who believes is conscripted into, it’s time to talk about the wider war that everyone is conscripted into by virtue of their birth and their inheritance from Adam and Eve.
The narrow war that God tells us about in Galatians, the war between the Holy Spirit and the believer’s flesh, gives us insight into the wider, more general war that everyone, who has been born, has to fight in. In this wider war, the god of the world system, along with his army of demons work through unbelievers to cause as much sorrow, pain, and death as they can, and they also try to get believers to cause others sorrow, pain, and death too. Christians have to fight against these agents of evil, and do good to those, who revile them, and seek to harm them, and as much as it is possible, pursue peace with all men. (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:18)
Christians must also fight to resist the temptations that flow from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and pursue righteousness and holiness. We must also think on the things that are good, pure and holy, and manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit to a lost and dying world, as we fight to keep our peace, in the war against the reality of sickness, disease, the deaths of our friends and family, and our knowledge of our own impending death.
Evil is a deceitful foe. And Christians are in a war against this foe. This war is merely a widening of the conflict that is between the Spirit and a Christian’s flesh, and it causes him just as much pain, sorrow and suffering, as the more narrow conflict does. As a Christian fights in this war, using the “tactics” that the Scriptures teach, the suffering that this war generates teaches him obedience and perfects his soul, just as the more narrow conflict does. On the other hand, when the Christian fights, in this war, using the tactics of the world, like the unbeliever does, his suffering steals his peace and discourages and disillusions him.
Christians must not succumb to fear, or murmur and complain about trials and sufferings. As a Christian murmurs and complains about the trials and sufferings that God has allowed into his life, what he is saying is that God’s provisions are not enough, and He doesn’t know what is best for him. This lifts God’s hand of protection and opens a believer up to attacks from the Devil. (Numbers 21:6) As a Christian lives in fear, he is saying that he does not trust God, he trusts the Devil and his ability to implement his evil plan. In the Scriptures, God tells us that He has not given us a spirit of fear and 365 times He tells us to “fear not”, so it is important that we do not fear and allow that which we fear to come upon us. (2 Timothy 1:7; Job 3:25)
God tells Christians to rejoice in trials and sufferings. (Acts 5:41; Philippians 1:29; James 1:2; 1 Peter 4:12-13) Why does God tell Christians to rejoice in trials and sufferings? It is because, as we rejoice in the trials and sufferings that God allows into our lives, the trials and sufferings change our character, and our character follows us into eternity, where its works are either affirmed or burnt up in the purifying flames of Christ’s judgement. (Romans 5:3-5; Romans 14:10) As we rejoice in trials and sufferings, we learn obedience and perfect our soul, so that we can enter the New Jerusalem and live with God forever and never rebel. (Hebrews 5:8-9)
The choice is ours, we can fight evil (or the problem of evil), the way that the Scriptures tell us to fight it, and learn obedience and perfect our soul, or we can fight the problem of evil the way the world fights it, and surrender our peace and become discouraged and disillusioned.
Christians have a distinct advantage in the wider conflict, because they have fought in the more narrow conflict and the Holy Spirit has taught them “combat skills” that equip him to fight in the wider war. For the unbeliever, the wider war with evil (the problem of evil) is meant to get him to search for a way out of all the sorrow, pain and suffering that sin has caused him. So, the pain that sin has caused the unbeliever should help open his ears so he can hear the Gospel and cooperate with the Spirit’s efforts to draw him unto salvation. The choice is his, however, he can embrace the grace that God extends to him and believe, or he can reject that grace and refuse to believe and let the deceitfulness of sin harden his heart towards God.
A Faulty Assumption
I have always assumed that the Garden of Eden was the perfect place for God to fellowship with the perfect human beings that He created. When I examined this assumption closely, I discovered that, all these years, I have been operating under a faulty assumption. God never said that Adam and Eve were perfect human beings, He simply said that they, and everything else that He created was very good. The Garden of Eden was merely a place of testing, and Adam and Eve were very good human beings, they were not perfect human beings.
God can not create a perfect free will creature, who will never rebel against Him. The free will of a human being can not be constrained ontologically without destroying his free will. And, the free will of a human being can not be constrained with conditional blessings or threats of punishment, because that would undermine free will and produce an insincere relationship. No, the only way God can build a perfect free will being, who will never rebel against Him, is to immerse this free will being into the fires of intense suffering for a previous rebellion. As the free will being suffers for a past rebellion, the suffering strengthens his resolve (his will) to be obedient, and increases the probability that he will never rebel again. Or as the Bible says, “For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. That he no longer should live the rest of time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2)
God knew that His free will creatures would rebel against Him, which is why He put together His plan of salvation and committed Himself to die on the execution stake, before He even laid the foundations of the earth. ( 1 Peter 1:20) The Garden of Eden was simply the place of testing that proved to man that which God already knew, in order to get the party started.
Twelve Steps to the New Jerusalem
God’s goal has always been to live with perfect humans in the New Jerusalem. God never intended to live in the Garden of Eden with humans. The Garden of Eden was a place of testing, where God showed humans what He already knew, and kicked off the process of humans being made perfect through suffering, so they could live in the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem is twelve steps away, and this is how we get there:
Step One: Hear the Gospel, and accept the grace that God extends to you, and choose to believe the Gospel, and place your trust in it. As you take this step, God rebirths your human spirit and makes it perfect and transforms you into a new creature, who will live forever.
Step Two: Study the Scriptures and renew your mind, so you know how to live righteously and recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit to manifest His good, acceptable and perfect will.
Step Three: Walk in the Spirit, so that you will not fulfill the immoral passions and lusts of the flesh, thereby crucifying the flesh with its immoral passions and lusts.
Step Four: Recognize and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, as He works in your heart to cultivate His fruit, and manifest His fruit for all to see, thereby glorifying God before men.
Step Five: Overcome the devil, his demons and his wicked children, with good. Overcome the temptations that spring from the the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and think on these things: Things that are true, honest, righteous, pure, lovely, good, and praise worthy.
Step Six: Suffer with a good attitude and always rejoice in God, thank God and glorify God.
Step Seven: Die physically, and appear before the Bema Seat to be judged by Christ.
Step Eight: The Holy Spirit resurrects your dead body and dwells in it, in order to glorify it, which gives it righteous passions and lusts that glorify God, and a life without end.
Step Nine: Rejoice as God places your perfect spirit, and your judged and perfected soul in your perfect glorified body.
Step Ten: Rejoice as you enter the New Jerusalem, where there is no more sickness, sorrow, pain, or death. Rejoice because the enemy of your soul, the Devil, his demons and his children are now in prison separated forever from the New Jerusalem and can no longer influence you.
Step Eleven: Do what Adam and Eve should have done: Eat from the Tree of Life.
Step Twelve: Live with God, and love Him, forever and ever.
The changes the twelve steps make in us are not radical ontological changes that change the fundamental make up of a human being. No, the changes that the twelve steps make in us merely restores us to the original condition of Adam and Eve, and hardens our will against rebellion. Adam and Eve fell because their souls had not been tempered and made perfect through suffering. In the New Jerusalem we will not have that problem, because we will have suffered many things, while in a body of death, living in a fallen world, immersed in evil.
When we understand why God designed us in a way that pretty much guaranteed that we would rebel against Him and why He lets us suffer in a fallen world for our rebellion, then it becomes easier to endure suffering without becoming discouraged and disillusioned. Think about the day we will eat of the Tree of Life and enter the New Jerusalem to live forever with God and experience blessings that we can not even imagine. (1 Corinthians 2:9) Truly the sufferings that we now endure pail in comparison to the glory that awaits us! (Romans 8:18)
A Closing Remark
At times, while thinking this through, and typing it out, I got a little uncomfortable. It almost seemed like I was saying that we have the right to eat of the Tree of Life and live with God in the New Jerusalem, because we have suffered in a fallen world. Let me be clear, I am not saying this! God forbid! We will have the right to eat of the Tree of Life, and live with God, in the New Jerusalem, simply because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and His blood cleanses us of all sin. (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 1:7) We will eat of the Tree of Life, because the Father has willed that we would be cleansed of all sin by the blood of Jesus and that the Holy Spirit would raise us and give us a new life, and empower us to overcome the Devil, the world, and the flesh, and learn obedience through the things that we suffer.
Salvation, from beginning to end, is the work of God. (Philippians 1:6) The Father draws us to Christ, through the Gospel, and gives us the faith to believe it. (John 6:44; Romans 10:17; Ephesians 2:8) When we believe, the Holy Spirit seals us, and comes to live in us, and transforms us into a new creature. (John 6:44; Ephesians 1:13; 2 Corinthians 5:17) As this happens, the Holy Spirit begins to conform us unto the image of Jesus, our Big Brother, and as far as God is concerned, this job is finished, because He already sees us as glorified. (Romans 8:29-30) God will not fail, it is a sure thing that will eventually happen when we are glorified.
Nevertheless, God tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) Why does God tell us to work out our salvation, if He sees our salvation as a job that He has already finished, and He considers us to be a little brother of Jesus, who bears His image?
It is because God lives in us, both to will and to do His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) In other words, God lives in us and gives us desires that reflect His will, and He gives us the power to do His will. God, however, doesn’t force us to act on these desires, it is our choice, we can yield to His desires, over our own, and do His will, or ignore His will, and do our own will. The more that we yield to God’s desires and do His will, the more we manifest (prove, or work out) our salvation for all to see. People should see our faith by our works (James 2:18) And we should also see our own faith in our own works, so we can assure ourselves of our own salvation (2 Corinthians 13:5) This is an important task that we should take very seriously.
When we yield to the Holy Spirit and do His will, we are not earning our salvation, we are merely doing what saved people do. Likewise, when we suffer while maintaining faith and a good attitude, thereby learning obedience and purifying our soul, we are not earning the right to eat of the Tree of Life, we are merely doing what saved people do, and saved people will one day get to eat of the Tree of Life, and live in the New Jerusalem with God, forever.
So, what is the purpose of evil, and suffering?
Evil and the suffering that it causes turns our thoughts towards the “ultimate questions” of life, which turns us towards God. After we embrace God’s grace and struggle to obey Him, evil and the suffering that it causes teaches us obedience and purifies our soul. The obedience that we learn equips us to live with God in the New Jerusalem and never rebel against Him.
Does it help to understand why God created you like He did, and why He made you live in a fallen world, where you suffered? Does it help you keep your joy and strength, and not grow bitter and become discouraged and disillusioned? Tell the truth, have you ever struggled to keep your joy and your strength, and not get discouraged and disillusioned? Or is it just me?
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