This Isn’t the Way It’s Supposed to Be
It breaks my heart to see and hear so many who don’t understand why the world is the way it is.
Because God has set eternity on every human heart
Because this desire is so strong, those who don’t fully understand God’s nature either blame him for the way the world is (because he’s not a good god and he’s not fixing it), or feel that this imperfect world is simply evidence against his authorship.
A most common complaint the world over is “Why?” “Why did that happen?” “Why is this happening?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?” These are all variations of the same question, and expose a great lack of understanding of God’s power, grace, and love. Surprisingly, it’s the same question even the most devout Christian may ask during their own personal trials.
Those who believe in God may attempt to comfort others during hardship with words like, “It’s all part of God’s plan.” But this does not help to console, because it fails to answer the question, mostly because the one saying this doesn’t really believe it themselves. In fact, this statement stands in stark contradiction to God’s nature. And by declaring that it’s God’s plan for mankind, wildlife, and the environment to suffer and endure such pain and hardship, one sets God against Creation. And this couldn’t be further from the truth.
It is, most certainly, neither his plan nor his will that the world is broken the way it is, or that anyone suffer and die as a result. But Satan’s distortion of the truth, combined with Adam & Eve’s lack of understanding of God’s love and purpose for them, transformed Creation into Destruction. This distortion about who God is has been handed down through the generations, bringing us to this time in history when mankind, despite its ability to see God even more clearly than before—through science and philosophy—still blinds itself to the truth.
But since the days of Eden, God has put into place a Plan to bring everything into Restoration by means of Redemption. Simply put, God is not working to undo what has been done, but rather to overcome the effects of what was done.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Romans 8:18-22
But if this is not God’s plan, why does he allow it to persist? Why doesn’t he put an end to all the evil, pain and suffering in the world?
Great questions. But what do we mean by evil? Are we suggesting that rapists, murderers and child molesters are evil? Can we create a list of evil people? By what standard do we consider something evil? Are we using God’s standard of morality, or our own? When we use our own standard, we compare others to ourselves. And in this way, one person’s sins (or “evil” actions) appear greater or less than our own. By this, we can point to the murderer and say, “Be cursed to hell!” And yet, we may joyfully hold the hands of those encouraging and participating in abortion and say, “It’s okay. You have the right.” The irony, of course, is that the very standard we use when judging others against ourselves is still in extreme contrast to a higher moral standard, authored by someone beyond our society or human convention.
So what is evil? Well, if we check the dictionary, we may find all kinds of synonyms to describe what evil is. Words like: wicked, bad, wrong, wrongful, immoral, sinful, ungodly, unholy, foul, vile, base, ignoble, dishonorable, corrupt, iniquitous, depraved, degenerate, villainous, nefarious, sinister, vicious, malicious, malevolent, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, dark, and black-hearted.
But can evil exist without God? Can someone be evil without the specific moral standard of God’s Moral Law? The adjectives above only describe the character traits of someone who lives in opposition to God’s Law. But if we take away God and his Law, we would no longer have anything against which to compare; and every definition of evil vanishes. Without God, there can be no evil. As a result, one cannot use the idea of evil as evidence against God’s existence; as it is actually undeniable proof that he exists.
So now, understanding that God’s Law must be the real standard against which we measure everything (whether we like it or not), we must take a step back to see that the very fingers we point at all of the evildoers in this world could just as easily be pointed right back at us. Because, according to God’s standard of righteousness, his Moral Law, we are evil too.
Could you have ever been found guilty of any of the following?
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.
Galatians 5:19-21 MSG
These things are in opposition to God’s Moral Law, and anyone acting or living this way lives in opposition to God. As a result, God considers such people to be evil too. But don’t we sometimes do these things?
But the moment we point at another and say, “Sinner!” or “Evildoer!”, we simply show that God’s laws are written on our hearts, though we may choose to suppress them so that we can indulge our own way of thinking and lifestyles. We have accepted the distorted truth about who God is, and therefore lack the understanding of his love and grace. We reject that truth because the truth of who God is has a significant impact on who we are and how we live our lives.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:18-21
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-32
In this sense, they are anyone who denies God’s existence and truth, and lives by their own false standard, and for themselves. They live to be gods, and esteem themselves as God, just as Satan did in the beginning, and continues to do today.
But the above passage also indicates that God leaves evildoers alone. God’s plan of redemption will continue until the end, at which time he will bring everything to completion. When God gives them over to a depraved mind, he is simply letting them go to be free to pursue their own endeavors. Rebellion has its own reward, and there is nothing else for him to do.
You see, no punishment for the wicked is necessary right now. While the evildoer may appear to “get away with it,” in the end, he will not. But God is patient. God is kind. Having established that we are all, by nature, evildoers (or enemies of God), we then can see God’s great mercy and grace:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17
So we see that God is not systematically wiping the ungodly from the face of the earth, for nothing is gained, and for him, everything would be lost.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
We all demand justice, and get angry at God when he doesn’t act on our behalf or on behalf of the weak and innocent. But again, in what way should he act? Seeing ourselves now as evildoers, who exactly should he target in his efforts to rid the world of evil?
The murderer, the rapist, the child-molester? The Islamic terrorist or deranged character with a gun who shoots up a school? Should there be any consideration of the people or circumstances that brought to bear such behaviors? For the Middle-Eastern child who has been brainwashed by others to believe things that aren’t true, and grow in a hatred and certainty to a lie? Are they evil? Or was it his evil parents who were slaughtered when he was stolen from them in the village? How many generations back do we carry the blame? 3, 10, 100, 1000? And so, instead:
This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous.
Matthew 13:48
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Matthew 25:32
Instead of God destroying all of humanity like he did in the days of Noah, in his great wisdom, he allows the good and evil to coexist. Our beloved gift of freewill is not stripped from us, but rather he continues to give us that freedom to either accept or reject him and his mercy.
We will make our own choices, each in conflict with others, often in conflict with him, with the tragic consequences of death and destruction left in our wakes. And he waits…
Ultimately, each and every one of us is both a victim and a survivor of the generation before us. And everything that’s ever happened in this world is carried over into the next one. The first splash, that occurred over 6,000 years ago in a place called Eden, has rippled through time to this very age. And that Adam is as very much to blame as the people and events in our own lives that have formed who we think we are and what we think about ourselves.
It’s all a lie, of course. How can we trust all the broken people and systems we’ve ever known to properly tell us who we are? How can they know our identity when we don’t even know who we are?
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
But God knows you. He knows who you are. He knows your identity. Because he created you, and purposed you to be more than just a survivor.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
Ephesians 1:11
There is an assumption by many that if God made the universe, he made it the way we now know it. If God created man, then he created every evil person too! And, understandably, that’s not a god anyone wants to believe in, right? Who should believe in a god who invented hatred, war, famine, rape, child molestation, abuse, and murder?
But the very first chapters of Genesis tell us plainly that the way the world is is not at all as God designed it. He created it with a purpose against which mankind has worked since the beginning. The very design and purpose of mankind and all of Creation has been distorted from the first day Satan corrupted our thinking.
Everyone wants a better world, but mostly so that it doesn’t interfere with their own selfish pursuits. That’s why everyone’s idea of Eden is different. Everyone has their own agenda, regardless of how honorable they think it is.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Proverbs 16:25
Because we are each doing what we think is right for us, we collide with others daily when their “right” is in conflict with ours. And we see this conflict played out in every single aspect of our lives and the lives of others.
So, when we recognize that everyone is doing what seems right to them, but not what is right to God, we would see that we, too, by God’s definition, are evil.
For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Romans 3:23
So where does that leave God? If everyone is evil, by definition, what method could he use for cherry-picking who he should save?
Might it make sense to allow those who acknowledge that they themselves are evil and need help, be the first to receive the opportunity at redemption? Or should those that think their way is right and don’t need any help from above be rescued first?
The trouble with freewill is that every choice demands the sacrifice of what wasn’t chosen. Too often, we choose what’s right in front of us because we haven’t counted the cost of what’s being sacrificed.
But God has. He gave his son to die in our place so that we could choose to step into his grace and no longer be seen by him as evil. He looked at all his options and considered what was best for the entire world in all of history, and then he sacrificed the one thing that was most precious to him, so that he could get back everything that was most precious to him.
“For the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the One.”
—Spock
