Before
the beginning, there was Love. Even before the existence of time with no
beginning or ending, Love existed. Love has always existed and always will. Love
is called God. God is the highest level of reality. God is existence, and God is
Love.
God
created spirits at a lower level of reality than Himself, and He created the
material world at the lowest level of reality. God created time, but God
transcends time. God created everything including Satan. God created humanity,
and established the Law. God saw the end from the beginning. God knew the world
would turn out just as it is; yet even with all the suffering it makes complete
sense that a Loving God would do this.
Proverbs 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isaiah 45:6-7 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
A
Loving God would certainly create other beings separate from Himself so He would have someone to love.
God could have created nothing except loving angels. God could then love the
angels and they would love Him. Surely a God of infinite Love would want more
than this.
Matthew 5:46-48 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
A
Loving God would want to give love unselfishly; God would want to love those who
do not love Him back since this is a more perfect type of love. If God creates a
creature and He gives that creature the ability to love others, that creature will love
God and be loved by God. If God does not give a creature the ability to love
others, that creature will not love God, but such a creature will become evil and
miserable. At some point God will need to destroy such a creature for its own sake.
Evil
is the absence of good just as darkness is the absence of light. A creature cannot
be both good and evil. A creature cannot possess love for others and at the same
time not possess love for others. In order to gain a greater understanding of
love, God needed to find a way for the existence of creatures capable of both good
and evil. They had to be good so that God could love them, and they had to be
evil so that God could forgive them.
Creation
as it now exists is the answer, and it is exactly what we should expect a Loving
God to do. God intentionally did not put any love into Satan, and since God saw
the end from the beginning He foreknew that Satan would become evil. God then
put love into humans, and naturally a powerful egocentric spirit like Satan
would come to hate the humans. Satan would be jealous of humans since God
prefers the weak but loving humans.
God
established a Law to protect the humans from Satan, but God would have foreknown
that Satan would use the Law to destroy the humans. If Satan wanted to destroy
humanity he would have to persuade the humans to sin so the Law would destroy
them. Satan could not destroy humans himself because he would be in violation of
the Law. We know that Satan is subject to the Law because in the end the Law
destroys Satan. The Bible does not portray Satan as a two-horned red devil who
battles God for people's souls. Satan brings his
egocentric spirit in the world and his essence influences our behavior just as
air pollution or climate can influence behavior.
After
inducing humans to sin, Satan then accuses sinners before the throne of God.
Satan, who is said to present himself as an angel of light, demands enforcement
of the Law. God does not delight in the destruction of humanity by the Law;
Satan does. Christ forgave people who violated the Law. The forgiveness of
Christ was not limited to those who came to Him, and no one Christ forgave had
to ask for forgiveness. It is Satan who demands the Law be enforced to the
letter. Satan is said to be before the throne of God day and night accusing the
brethren. Satan thinks he has turned the tables on God. God may have established
a Law to protect the humans, but Satan uses the Law to destroy the humans.
Satan
wants to destroy humanity, not merely because he is jealous of humans, but also
to prove that he is right and God is wrong. According to God, love is the
measure of greatness. This is why God prefers the humans, but Satan claims that
power is the true measure of greatness. The Law of God is based on love, but
Satan manages to avoid condemnation under the Law by his keeping his hatred
hidden within himself through his powerful will. Throughout the Bible there is
no occasion where Satan openly committed a sin of any kind. Even though the Law
is based on love, it is powerful Satan that conforms to the Law while the weak
but loving humans are easily persuaded to hate and kill each other. Satan believes
he has demonstrated that power is the true measure of greatness.
Satan
does precisely what God knew he would do for this is precisely what God had in
mind. Now God has humans who are good creatures, yet they are influenced by
evil. Since we are good, God has great love for us. Since we can be overcome by
evil we do things that make us unworthy of God's love. God
is
able to experience
compassion, and God is able to provide mercy. The love that we do give to God is
precious to God because we have the ability to not love God. God is able to love
us with undeniable unselfishness since we rarely, if ever, truly love God in
return.
With
creation God is also able to experience the sorrow of losing someone He loves.
We know that there is great trauma in witnessing the death of a loved one, but
God has witnessed the deaths of billions of His children. God knows He will
redeem His children, and He cannot, therefore, experience the full measure of
sorrow for those who die since God knows that death is not the end. We, on the
other hand, do not know anything for sure. We do not know if God even exists,
and God is able to experience great sorrow and anguish through us. An infinitely
wise God could reason what it might be like to lose a loved one, but emotions
like sorrow must be felt. Experiencing the loss of a loved one is necessary to
fully understand what love is. A Loving God would want this understanding of
Love.
A
Loving God would want to experience sorrow, compassion and all the other
emotions of love that God could only experience by creating a world that
contains evil and death; but how could a God of Love put His children through
the suffering that many of His children have endured? The answer is that God did
not put us through any suffering. God created the world and put it in motion.
God foreknew, but did not predetermine the events of the world.
Lust
and sex are not high on the list of sins, but they are by-products of evil in
the world. God created us in a way so that the presence of Satan would have this
effect on us. We are products of sex, not of God. God created a world, and this
world He created continually creates new people through the process of sex. God
may have foreseen our births, but we came from the Earth, and we owe our existence to evil in the world.
Satan
does not merely influence us, Satan is part of us, and rightfully so since we
owe our existence to Satan. God is Love that is directed outward, but Satan is
love that is directed inward. Satan has dominion in the world, but all Satan
puts into us is love of self. Satan does not control us, nor does he put sin
into us. Sins, like hatred and greed, develop within us because of love of self
that comes from Satan's presence within us. The sin develops within us, meaning
we are guilty for our sins, not Satan. We make this a world of suffering.
God
allows the suffering to occur. God looks on as wars and disasters kill many of
His children, but God sees these tragedies from a completely different
perspective. God does not hope for the resurrection as we do; God knows with
absolute certainty that He will take care of His children.
God
sees the suffering; He even foresaw it before it occurred, but if I know a
murder is going to take place, and I do not intervene to prevent that murder,
should I be considered more responsible than the murderer? What if I also know
with absolute certainty that the murder victim will not actually be killed, but
in the end the murder victim will be just fine? Knowing this, there would be no
reason for me to intervene.
God
may have foreknown all things; but we are products of Satan's presence, we owe
our existence to evil, and we make this a world of suffering. How could a God of
Love put His children through suffering? God did not put us through any
suffering, but He
did rescue us from it. We cannot begin to understand the
great Love that God has for us...the Great and Infinite Love that God is.