But my question really is why didn't God just let the world be perfect as He created it?
It would be like someone building a perfect invention, let's say a robot. It's absolutely perfect, never needs batteries, never makes mistakes, etc... Now why would the inventor put a virus in the robot's software that can come close (but not too close) to completely ruining it? That's what I'm talking about..
Hi Zero,
I personally think you're asking questions almost all of us ask, at least I know I'VE asked these things hundreds of times, too.
It seems in your analogy, perhaps the "virus" would be free will. Which is something I've wondered about since I was a kid. At my Christian school, they always told me how wonderful God was for not making us mindless robots and giving us the beautiful gift of free will... That allowed us to sin and completely mess up the world!!! UGH!!! At least that's how I saw it.
But no, they said, God is so loving that He gave us a CHOICE. AND THEN they told me... that when we get to heaven, God makes it so "we won't sin anymore, or even want to sin." Hmm. That sounds an awful lot like... Finally taking away that "beautiful gift" of the choice of free will???!!! So then aren't we then just back to square one!!??? ARGH. It drove me crazy as a kid because to me, it was all circular reasoning that didn't make any sense and I thought it was just downright ridiculous!!!
I don't know why God allowed choice, and therefore, sin, into His perfect creation. After all, He's God... He KNEW what was going to happen from the start, and even before He made the creation. I've read many debates about this... that maybe God was interested in creatures that would love Him because they CHOSE to and not just because He made them that way. After all, you would want a woman to love you for you, not because she was made to do so. (Which makes the thought of humans creating things such as robot companions for sex, like in Japan, especially interesting to me... )
I have always also been intrigued by the fact that we, as human beings, have a chance for salvation, but ANGEL DO NOT. Jesus died for human beings, not angels--why? Why would angels not receive a second chance as well? I've read speculations that part of the reason why may be that angels saw and knew God from the beginning, whereas we humans must rely on faith.
I've also read that maybe part of why God allowed sin into the world is because it was the only way He could show certain parts of Himself to His creation. For instance, I've often wondered, what would we all talk about if Jesus had never died for us? Sure, we'd see God as Holy and amazing and magnificent, but we would have no idea that we could fall to the bottom of the pit of wretchedness... and that God would STILL love us, and even DIE for us at the cost of His own life. We'd never know that God would LEAVE perfection ON PURPOSE just to seek us out and have a chance to be with us once more.
I can relate to this in just a small way because many years ago, despair took over my entire thought process and I attempted suicide. I will never forget the anxious, heaving, heart-bleeding sighs coming from my father (even though there was so much going on, I couldn't SEE him but I could HEAR him) in the ER. About a decade later, God prompted me to call my parents and apologize to them, and when I did, my father, choking back tears, said, "Well honey, that's water under the bridge. We are just... so glad... that you're still with us."
I was always "the good kid"--never really got into trouble, always tried to do the right thing (with a little sass here and there, of course!
) And of course, I'm not justifying my actions at all. But what I do know is that without this event happening in my life, I would have NEVER known that angle of the depth of my parents' love for me. It wasn't enough that they rescued me by adopting me. It wasn't enough that they provided love, support, correction, a Christian background, and the best medical care they could afford. What I found out is that even when I was willing to THROW ALL THAT LOVE AWAY, my parents reached out... and loved me all the more.
I sometimes wonder if THIS is what God wanted to show us by allowing a side we would not otherwise know into the world.
Now, I know many people (as I just read one poster say today in the Bible Forum) will say, what kind of being is God to do this just to show Himself off... at the cost of the horrendous things that happen here on earth and the eternal suffering of billions of other creations?
For my own self, that is the million dollar question, and I'm sure I won't have an answer to it until I get to heaven, and maybe even then, I won't understand, but will have to go by faith, just was we have to do here. God tells us His ways and thinking are higher than our own... I know it doesn't make sense... to us... right now...
All I know is, God says He loves me and wants me to be with Him forever someday, and I have to trust in that.
BIG HUGS to you, Zero. You are certainly not alone. Many of us have the exact same questions... I say this to you in Christian love: keep asking, seeking, and knocking. *hugs*