And God Cried...

Introduction

The question of why God permits evil first requires a definition. Webster defines evil as "that which produces unhappiness; anything which either directly or remotely causes suffering of any kind." Evil can be divided into two categories. There are moral wrongs or evils of individuals that inflict suffering upon others. Also the disasters of nature have wrought much suffering.

This treatise adds another dimension to the question. Evil not only results in human suffering but also in God’s suffering. Isa 63:9 states, "In all their afflictions, He [God] was afflicted." Yes, when man suffers God suffers. God’s suffering is basic to any discussion of-Why God permits evil.

Many aspects of church theology concerning God’s character have been Hellenized by Grecian philosophy. Some Christians accepted the Greek idea of Divine impassibility, the notion that God cannot suffer since God stands outside the realm of human pain and sorrow. Catholic theology early declared 1 as "vain babblings" the idea that the Divine nature could suffer. Calvin broke with Luther and fostered this Hellenistic concept on his wing of the Protestant Reformation. Calvin and the Reform theology he founded taught Divine impassibility. The Westminster Confession of Faith teaches that God is "without body, parts or passions, immutable."

We strongly take exception to "without passions." No wonder Calvinists have neither a reasonable nor compassionate answer to why God permits evil. They assert that no one dare question the sovereignty of God. If God has ordained a plan for the human race that requires evil-so be it. Who is man to question God’s sovereignty? No wonder such a doctrinal concept of God teaches that the vast majority of mankind are predestinated- before they were even born—to eternal torment. Such an answer to the question of evil is totally unacceptable..Many have responded-Can an unfeeling God love? A concept that embraces the idea that God cannot suffer has to answer the question-Can God love? The prophet Jeremiah’s reference to the "tears" of God (Jer 14:17) confirms the beautiful insight into God’s love penned by Pastor Russell.2 The principle taught in the divine Word, that true love weeps with those that weep and rejoices with those that rejoice, is one which is also exemplified in the Divine character.

But God is not man. He is not bound by man’s limitations. God’s ability to suffer does not disturb His peace of mind. His fatherly love that shares the sorrows of His human family contains no anxiety over their eternal welfare. With Divine serenity His wisdom has planned for the eternal welfare of all, and in His serenity He knows His Divine love and power will attain that end.

The title of this booklet-And God Cried-is based on Jer 14:17 where God speaks of shedding "tears day and night" for the "daughter of my people" (KJV).

Calvinists insist that it is Jeremiah, not God, who is crying. However, it was God who told Jeremiah to tell Judah that He, God, was crying for their plight.

Only God could say the "daughter of my people." The generation of Jews living in Jeremiah’s day were the "daughter" or descendants of God’s people, Israel who came out of Egypt. In verses 17 and 18 God, as a loving father, deeply feels the chastisement inflicted on His wayward people.

In Jer 14:19, Jeremiah is speaking. He asks God, "Hast thou utterly rejected Judah?"...Why has thou smitten us?" Notice the us. Jeremiah includes himself as a part of Judah, God’s people, or the "My people" of Jer 14:17. Yes, God says He was crying over the plight of His people. Jeremiah includes himself in the "My people" for whom God was crying.

First, this treatise will consider the Scriptures that reveal the tenderness of God’s fatherly love as He shares the sufferings of His children. Then the question-Why does god permit evil?-is Scripturally answered against the backdrop of both man’s suffering and God’s suffering

..Bible translations are abbreviated as follows: JPS KJV NAS NIV NRSV Jewish Publication Society King James Version New American Standard New International Version New Revised Standard Version.

Chapter 1

And God Cried

"Let my eyes run with tears, day and night let them not cease, for my hapless people have suffered a grievous injury, a very painful wound." Jer 14:17 (JPS)

PRE-FLOOD (2850-2270 BC). "The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth... and it grieved Him to His heart" (Gen. 6:5,6 NRSV). Yes, God cried.

EUROPE (1096-1100). During the crusades, Christian soldiers enroute to the Holy Land slaughtered Jews on the way. Some were herded into their synagogues. Cries of anguish shrilled unto heaven as the wooden structures were torched. And God cried.

EUROPE (1204-1799). Protestant blood flowed freely in Roman Catholic countries. The victims of the so-called "Holy Inquisition totaled in the millions. And God cried.

CHRISTIAN WORLD (1490-1850). Over 20 million Black Africans killed in Middle Passage on way to slave markets for purchase by white Christians. And God Cried.

EUROPE (1941-1945). Six million Jews were hunted, hounded, driven, butchered, gassed and burned in the Holocaust. And God cried.

HIROSHIMA (August 6, 1945). A single atomic bomb claimed 129,558 victims and terrified the world. And God cried.

THE WORLD (1914-1996). Over 175 million were killed as a result of the insane policies of governments like Germany, Communist Russia, Cambodia, etc. And God cried.

THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES (1990s). Each day 40,000 babies die of starvation. And God cries.

Then there are the personal tragedies of loved ones endured daily by hundreds of thousands-senseless death or mutilation on the highways, babies born physically deformed or mentally deficient and victims of senseless crime. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other disasters steal the lives of millions in their onslaughts of destruction and deprivation. Psychological tragedies of dysfunctional families, drug addiction and the multitudes of lonely, neurotic, homeless people in turn have left tens of thousands of families emotionally scarred. And God cries.

Yes, these statistics fill the daily news, but only when they strike us or our loved ones are we overwhelmed with the pain of tragedy. Everyday these statistics have faces-millions of faces of real people shattered emotionally and mentally. The cries of sickness, sorrow, suffering and death encircle the globe. Not one of us can comprehend the enormity of the total sufferings of all humankind. Only God can and does see this humongous picture of human miseries. And God continues to cry.

Jer 14:17 assures us God even cries over the tragic loss befalling those who have rebelled against Him. Yes, God does care when we suffer. He is concerned when tragedy strikes. God knows our frame that we are but dust (Ps 103:14). He realizes the enormity of human suffering could and would cause some to doubt His love and others to doubt He even exists.

The infinite Creator and God of the universe wants to convey to mere earthlings-frail humanity-His compassion and love for us. How can one so omnipotent communicate His capacity to suffer with finite man? He uses an imagery we can understand-"tears."

Far from being an indication of weakness, God’s imagery of shedding "tears" assures us of a profound fatherly care and concern. Just how deep is God’s fatherly love?

God’s dealing with Israel past, present and future is a microcosm of His relationship with all humankind (Isa 43, 44; Ro 11). A parent might discipline a child by remanding the child to his room for the evening. A loving parent feels the pain of the child’s punishment and often recalls the many wonderful times they shared together. Likewise it hurts God when he chastens His people. Listen to the parental sorrow of God in Jer 6:26. "Thus says the Lord... Oh my poor people, put on sackcloth, ... for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us (NRSV). This is incredible. The "us" class is God and Israel.

God puts Himself in the picture of sharing Israel’s suffering. This assures us that God chastens in love. He chastens to heal (Isa 19:22). Listen to a loving father’s thoughts of nostalgia while He is chastening Israel, a disobedient son.

Like [as pleasing as] grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel, Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your ancestors... When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Hos 9:10; 11:1 (NRSV) Yet the more God called Israel the more they disobeyed.

The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.

I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.

I bent down to them and fed them. Hos 11:2-4 (NRSV) Israel continued to pervert the laws of God and neglect the "fatherless and widows."

Severe punishment was inflicted, but not without its toll on God. God’s heart sank to the.depths of sorrow, as he withdrew his loving protection. God exclaimed," I have given the dearly beloved of my heart into the hand of her enemies." (Jer 12:7) When the punishment came Israel cried, but the Creator and God of the whole Universe cried with them.

Thus saith the Lord of host... Call for the mourning women.

And let them...take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may run down with tears, And our eyelids gush out with waters. Jer 9:17,18 (KJV) They were scattered to the ends of the earth. God’s punishment was most severe upon Ephraim the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. But the Creator and God of the Universe was suffering with Ephraim (Jer 14:17) in this severe chastening of dispersion as noted in His further expressions of nostalgia: Truly, Ephraim is a dear son to Me, A child that is dandled! Whenever I have turned against him, My thoughts would dwell on him still.

That is why My heart yearns for him; I will receive him back in love.

Declares the LORD. Jer 31:20,21 (JPS) Even while Ephraim (Israel) was cast off from favor, God in His tender nostalgia spoke of him prophetically as a son who would be received back in love.

How do we know that God’s expressions of fatherly love-a love that felt Israel’s sufferings during her chastening-were true? How do we know God’s nostalgic longings to restore Israel back to His favor were true? The rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 is the proof. It is a miracle of history. Never before had the polity of a nation been destroyed, its people scattered to the ends of the earth and then regathered nearly 2,000 years later to their ancient homeland to be reborn as a nation. God’s fatherly chastening of love will continue to restore the Jewish people to full favor and belief. Yes, God chastens to heal. Israel’s gradual restoration is the precursor of all mankind’s restoration to God’s full love and favor in His Kingdom. In fact, Ro 11:15 states Israel’s restoration to Divine favor will mean life from the dead for the whole world.

Oh, what a marvelous God we have! "In our affliction He is afflicted (suffers)" and we are assured God’s chastenings are rehabilitative so that His beloved wayward children might be restored to the bosom of His favor. Yes, God chastens to heal (Isa 63:9; 19:22)...

YADA

God’s symbolic tears convey the imagery of a profound fatherly love and concern. God’s capacity to experience the sufferings of another is also conveyed in the Hebrew verb yada which is sometimes translated "to know" or "knew." Yada denotes both an intellectual and emotional act. It is frequently used to note a deep emotional experience between two persons. Therefore, it also means the ability to have a deep sympathetic love-the ability to feel the emotions of another.

In Ex 3:7, "The Lord said, I have seen the afflictions of my people, who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know (yada) their sufferings." Here God expresses His ability to feel Israel’s sufferings when they were slaves in Egypt. Ps 31:7 contains a precious promise all Christians should cherish: "I will rejoice and be glad in Thy lovingkindness, Because Thou hast seen my affliction; Thou hast known (yada) the troubles of my soul."

Yes, God’s sympathy runs so deep that He actually knows, in the sense of feeling, our troubles, sorrows and tragedies. A suffering God puts the question of the permission of evil in a practical perspective. It is no longer an academic question or an abstract philosophy. If God suffers when man suffers, why does God permit suffering? Why does God permit the evil that causes the suffering of humankind? God knows the end from the beginning (Isa 46:9,10). The foreknowledge of God adds another dimension to the scope of God’s suffering.

If God shares our suffering why would He conceive a plan that would result in His own suffering? The question is no longer-why do good people suffer or why do innocent children suffer? Rather, why has God permitted a horrific human history of blood, tragedy, pain and mental anguish that would just tear away at His Fatherly emotions of love?

Some believe in God and His tender care for His people but in their own situation feel God has been too severe-seemingly unjust..

Chapter 2

Many Feel God Is Unjust

Perhaps you feel like a modern-day Job-God is unjust, the tragedies of life are too harsh. Although the prophet Job lived nearly 3000 years ago, he echoed the cry of every generation since. Job was blessed with a loving family of seven sons and three daughters, possessed immense wealth and enjoyed a high rank. Job was considered "the greatest of all men in the East" (Job 1:2, 3).

Then a series of disasters struck. All his children were killed in a storm. His wealth was lost, his possessions destroyed, his devoted employees and servants killed. Physically he was afflicted with painful sores from head to toe. There is an indication that he was suffering from a form of leprosy. When his close friends saw him, they cried aloud at his pitiful condition and excruciating pain. With the heart piercing words, "curse God and die," his wife deserted him. What else could happen? Job cursed the day he was born (Job 3:1-3). Yet he maintained his faith and trust in God. Even under the onslaught of his supposed comforters, Job asserted: Though He slay me, Yet will I trust Him. Job 13:15 But time and continued opposition take its toll. Job’s distress mounted with intensity as his comforters continued to distress him with wild incriminations. Now prostrated physically by total pain, mentally by opposition of friends and emotionally by total bereavement over his children, Job turned to God in passionate protest against God’s unjust dealing with him.

I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me.

You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.

You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

I know that you will bring me to death. Job 30:20-24 (NRSV) He pleaded with God not to ignore his cry for help.

Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help. Job 30:24(NRSV).Then he reminded God that he (Job) did not ignore the needs of the poor and those in distress. He spent much of his life caring for the poor and distraught. Would God do less for him?

Did I not weep for those whose day was hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the poor? Job 30:25 Although Job didn’t ignore the needs of others, he implied that God forsook him to evil and darkness and then ignored his cries for help.

But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.

My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me.

I go about in sunless gloom; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. Job 30:26-28 Yes, Job stood up as an innocent man pleading for justice in an assembly court, but his cries fell on deaf ears.

My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.

My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. Job 30:30, 31 Many feel the same anguish when tragedies devastate them. Seemingly, God does not heed their prayers for help. Like Job they cry-Oh God, where are you?

Job was not an atheist. He was not an agnostic. He was a man of faith. In essence his plea was, Why, oh why, God, do good people suffer? God didn’t answer Job directly. Rather, God raised questions about the mysteries of His creation (Job 38-40). These questions were designed to remind Job that he really knew very little about God. Job had limited knowledge in all the diversified areas of God’s works. He should not be surprised at failing to comprehend fully why he was permitted to suffer. God’s questions revealed the wisdom, power and concern of God demonstrated in all of His creative works.

God asked Job if he was present when God laid the foundation of the earth, if he understood the laws by which the tides of the sea were controlled. God asked him about the instincts and habits of the various birds and animals, and even of the great monsters of the sea. Then Job was asked if he could explain the wisdom and power represented in these marvels of creation..As the questioning proceeds, Job interrupted to say: Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee?

I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. Job 40:4, 5 (KJV) In Job’s expression, "Behold, I am vile," the meaning of the Hebrew word translated "vile" is, according to Prof. Strong, 3 literally, "swift, small, sharp." Apparently Job acknowledged to the Lord that he had spoken too quickly; that his viewpoint was too limited and voiced too sharply.

The Lord replied to Job: Gird your loins like a man; I will ask, and you will inform Me.

Would you impugn My justice?

Would you condemn Me that you may be right?

Have you an arm like God’s? Job 40:7-9 (JPS) Then the Lord continued to raise questions concerning the wonders of His creation. Three of these questions found in Job 38:31, 32 illustrate the dynamic logic conveyed in God’s questions.

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

Orion

"Canst thou...loose the bands of Orion?" Garrett P. Serviss, the noted astronomer, in his book CURIOSITIES OF THE SKY wrote about the bands of Orion:4 At the present time this band consists of an almost perfect straight line, a row of second-magnitude stars about equally spaced and of the most striking beauty. In the course of time, however, the two right-hand stars, Mintaka and Alnilam, will approach each other and form a naked-eye double; but the third, Alnitak, will drift away eastward so that the band will no longer exist..

In other words, one star is traveling in a certain direction at a certain speed; a second one is traveling in a different direction at a second speed; and the third one is going in a third direction and at a still different speed. Actually every star in Orion is traveling its own course, independent of all the others. Thus these stars that we see forming one of the bands of Orion are like three ships out on the high seas that happen to be in line at the present moment, but in the future will be separated by thousands of miles of ocean. In fact, all the stars constituting the constellation of Orion are bound for different ports, and all are journeying to different corners of the universe, so that the bands are being dissolved.

The Pleiades

"Canst thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades...?" Notice the amazing astronomical contrast with the Pleiades. The seven stars of the Pleiades are in reality a grouping of 250 suns. Photographs now reveal that 250 blazing suns in this group are all traveling together in one common direction. Concerning this cluster, Isabel Lewis of the United States Naval Observatory tells us:5 Astronomers have identified 250 stars as actual members of this group, all sharing in a common motion and drifting through space in the same direction.

Elsewhere Lewis speaks of them as "journeying onward together through the immensity of space."

From Lick Observatory came this statement of Dr. Robert J. Trumpler:6 Over 25,000 individual measures of the Pleiades stars are now available, and their study led to the important discovery that the whole cluster is moving in a southeasterly direction. The Pleiades stars may thus be compared to a swarm of birds, flying together to a distant goal. This leaves no doubt that the Pleiades are not a temporary or accidental agglomeration of stars, but a system in which the stars are bound together by a close kinship.

Dr. Trumpler said that all this led to an important discovery. Without any reference whatsoever to the Book of Job, he announced to the world that these discoveries prove that the stars in the Pleiades are all bound together and are flying together like a flock of birds as they journey to their distant goal. That is exactly what God said. "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" In other words, Canst thou keep them bound together so that they remain as a family of suns?

INCREDIBLE! God’s laws of cosmology are loosing or dissolving the constellation Orion. Sometime in the far distant future, Orion will be no more. Conversely, wonder of wonders, every last one of the 250 blazing suns in the Pleiades are ordained of God to orbit together in their symmetrical beauty throughout eternity.

Arcturus

"Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" Garrett P. Serviss wrote:7 Arcturus, one of the greatest suns in the universe, is a runaway whose speed of flight is 257 miles per second. Arcturus, we have every reason to believe, possesses thousands of times the mass of our sun. Think of it! Our sun is traveling only 121/2 miles a second, but Arcturus is traveling 257 miles a second. Think then of the prodigious momentum this motion implies.

A further observation of Arcturus by Serviss:8 It could be turned into a new course by a close approach to a great sun, but it could only be stopped by collision head on with a body of enormous mass.

Barring such accidents, it must, as far as we can see, keep on until it has traversed our stellar system, whence it may escape and pass out into space beyond to join perhaps one of those other island universes of which we have spoken.

Charles Burckhalter, of the Chabot Observatory, added an interesting note regarding this great sun:9 This high velocity places Arcturus in that very small class of stars that apparently are a law unto themselves. He is an outsider, a visitor, a stranger within the gates; to speak plainly, Arcturus is a runaway. Newton gives the velocity of a star under control as not more than 25 miles a second, and Arcturus is going 257 miles a second. Therefore, combined attraction of all the stars we know cannot stop him or even turn him in his path.

When Mr. Burckhalter had his attention called to this text in the book of Job, he studied it in the light of modern discovery and made a statement that has attracted worldwide attention:10 The study of the Book of Job and its comparison with the latest scientific discoveries has brought me to the matured conviction that the Bible is an inspired book and was written by the One who made the stars.

The wonders of God’s universe never cease to amaze us. Arcturus and his sons are individual runaway suns that seem to be out of orbit in our galaxy. Traveling at such immense speeds, why don’t they crash with other suns or planets? Where are they headed? Only God knows. Indeed they are not runaways. They will not crash. Why? God is guiding them.

The Lesson of the Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus

Few have suffered the multiple tragedies of Job. How could God reach through the enormity of Job’s self-pity? (Job thought God just didn’t care.) In these three questions (Job 38:31, 32)

God is in reality saying: Job, you think I am not concerned about your suffering. Well, let Me ask you these questions. Can you loose the bands of Orion? No, you cannot. But My Divine power will-some day Orion will no longer exist. Job, can you bind the 250 stars of the Pleiades together in their symmetry of beauty and not have a single one drift off? Only I have this power and wisdom. Can you prevent the runaways- Arcturus and his sons-from colliding as they go dashing out of the Milky Way?

No, only My Divine power and wisdom can.

Job, if I am caring for the details of the universe, do you doubt that I not only care for the details of your life but I have the ability to solve your problems? Trust that there is a good reason I am permitting these tragedies. Remember, Job, I work from the perspective of your eternal welfare.

What an awesome way God chose to tell Job that He was in full control of human affairs, including Job’s life! When God finished His series of questions, Job exclaimed: I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?

Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not... I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Job 42:2-5

Job finally learned the meaning of his severe trial. He learned that its loving purpose was to give him a clearer understanding of God, that he might serve him more faithfully and with greater appreciation. He speaks of this clearer understanding as "seeing" the Lord, instead of merely having heard about him. Since he had gained such deep insights of God, Job’s brief period of suffering was a most valuable experience.

Besides restoring Job’s health, "the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12-15)..The Lesson of Job for Us Perhaps like Job in utter misery, you have cried out to God-even questioning his justice.

Some write off the history of Job as Old Testament folklore. Whoever heard of God talking to a man! These are hand-me-down tales! However, the account of Job cannot be gainsaid. Whatever the method of communication used by God, the astonishing facts cannot be refuted. These scientific facts recorded in the book of Job concerning the Pleiades, Orion and Arcturus anticipated scientific discovery by nearly 3000 years.

Scientists only discovered these startling facts in our 20th Century, yet they were recorded in the book of Job nearly 3000 years ago. What an awesome confirmation of the Bible! Who can doubt the Bible is the inspired word of God? Yes, the book of Job has a powerful, exclusive lesson for 20th Century man. Twentieth Century science proves God’s Word, the Bible, is true. The Bible does contain the answer to why God permits evil.

Honest Doubt

Job 2:10 states: "In all of this Job sinned not with his lips." How does this harmonize with chapter 42 where Job accused God of being unjust? Where there are facts, there can be no doubts. But our relationship with God is by faith, not facts-"according to your faith be it unto you" (Mt 9:29). Where there is faith, there is room for doubt. Through trials and adversities (1Pe 1:7) the man of God must develop a mature faith, "a full assurance of faith" (Heb 10:22). We watched the drama of Job’s struggles to a mature faith. An immature faith has doubts. Job had doubts, but they were not sins because he didn’t try to inflict his doubts upon others. While doubting he lacked trust but still had belief in God.

So he took his doubts where a man of God must take his doubts-to his God. And God dramatically answered Job’s doubts and developed in him a full assurance of faith.

We will have doubts in our journey to maturity. At such times we must copy the example of Job, Jeremiah, David and John the Baptist, and take our doubts to the Lord in prayer. If our heart is sincere, God will answer our doubts. He will speak to us. And He speaks to 20th Century man through His Word, the Bible. In God’s providence the book of Job was especially written for 20th Century man. Much of the scientific probing of chapters 38 through 41 can only be fully understood in the light of modern scientific discovery. God in his foreknowledge knew the cunning deceptions of human philosophy and sophistry would reach their zenith as a challenge to faith in the "last days" of the Christian Age (2Ti 3:16, 17). In arrogance, modern man dares challenge the very existence of God.

As will be seen in the following chapter, this debate between modern man and God is a part of the many vital lessons humankind is learning during God’s permission of evil..How do we know there is a God? Where do we find the answer to-Why does God permit evil and suffering? In the book of Job God is telling us: Just as I answered Job’s questions and doubts, I can answer your questions and doubts. My answer is found in My Word, the Bible. How do you know the Bible is My inspired Word? Many of the startling scientific facts I caused to be recorded in the book of Job nearly 3000 years ago were only discovered in the 20th Century. This is My assurance to you that the Bible is inspired. Thus it provides a logical faith and hope-inspiring answer to modern man’s question-Why does God permit evil?.

Chapter 3

Why Does God Permit Evil?

A suffering God puts the question of the permission of evil in a practical perspective. If God shares our suffering, why would He conceive a plan that would result in His own suffering? Remember our definition of evil-anything that causes unhappiness or suffering. To fully understand why God permits evil, we must go back in time before man lived on the earth, before the mountains rose majestically over plains, before the millions of galaxies sparkled in orbit around and through each other, before the angels graced the heavens, back, back to when God dwelt alone.

God desired to have a family, to be a parent-a father or life-giver-the Heavenly Father.

All things were created by and for God’s pleasure (Re 4:11). Evidently angelic children and human children were the desire of His heart. Eph 3:14, 15 speaks of God as the Father of "the whole family in heaven and earth."

Raising children entails suffering-both the suffering of the parents and the offspring.

How much suffering does parental love demand? The most loving parents are not overly protective; rather, they are willing to permit hard knocks, realizing it will cost themselves dearly in pain as they watch their children struggle to maturity. Our Heavenly Father, the most loving and wise parent in the universe, is willing to suffer to the ultimate degree for the eternal welfare of His children. How could utopia be attained for His children?

God desires mankind to live in peace, harmony and happiness. He knows this will happen only as each practices the principles of righteousness and love. Otherwise, evil will result with its consequences of suffering and unhappiness. Here we glean an insight into what may be referred to as the "dilemma of God." The planetary systems move in mechanical obedience; the animal creation is driven mainly by instinct; but God desired the human race to have a free will and to "worship him in spirit and in truth" (Joh 4:24). God could have programmed the ideal man-utopia would have been inevitable; but man would be no better than a robot, without true happiness. God knows it is only as man is fully motivated by the principles of righteousness, that he can really attain happiness for himself and be in that attitude of cheerful concern for the happiness of his fellows. This is the true meaning of worshipping God "in spirit and in truth."

Free will has a built-in dilemma. Man can rebel against his Creator. The Lord was willing to bestow free will, fully aware that it would cost Him dearly before man became fully responsible to this freedom. And what an awesome power! Man can stand in stiff-necked rebellion against his Creator. He can refuse to submit to His authority. He can refuse to accept His favor. He can choose to avert the mercy of God and adamantly stand upon his decision against God. For by free will, man is man, created in the image of God and neither an animal nor a machine..

Put yourself in God’s place to appreciate this dilemma. A parent will tell a baby not to touch the stove because it is hot, but what does a baby know about pain? The anxious parent knows the inevitability of the baby touching the stove before learning the consequence of heat. A wise parent will create a controlled experience with heat-lightly and quickly placing the child’s hand where the heat is not too severe. All through life parents will admonish their children, knowing that they will only learn certain lessons the "hard way"-by experience. Likewise, God is giving mankind a controlled experience with sin.

As our Father, God knew man would not comprehend His warning about sin- disobedience-and its dire consequences. So God formulated a plan whereby man, by his own choice, might first experience evil and then righteousness (in God’s kingdom). This contrasting experience will manifest, as no other educational process could, the wholesome influence of God’s law and the dire consequences of its violation.

The process of recovery from sin is called redemption in the Bible. Redemption simply means the release from sin and death through the payment of a price. The thought is similar to the release of a person from prison when a benefactor pays the fine the prisoner couldn’t afford to pay. This release through the death of Jesus is generally considered as an afterthought of God to salvage some of the human race. However, the depth of God’s wisdom is shown in His foresight to devise a plan that provides for man’s free choice and experience with evil, redemption through Christ and ultimate eternal happiness. Thus Isaiah 46:9,10 speaks of God knowing and declaring the end from the beginning.

The Blessings of Eden

God created Adam and Eve and established them in Eden-a perfect paradise. There they enjoyed a perfect home. Eden provided an abundance of food containing all the wholesome nutrients to sustain their perfect life. Adam was given dominion over the whole earth and all the animals therein. The crowning feature of this experience was Adam’s close fellowship with his Creator and God (Ge 1 Ge 2).

The third chapter of Genesis details the history of man’s free will choice. God instructed man that if he practiced righteousness, he would live forever. If he disobeyed, then "dying thou shalt Die"(ge 2:17). Death would be a process of sorrow and suffering culminating with the grave. Note well that death, not eternal torment, is the penalty for sin (Ge 2:17; Eze 18:4). Like the child and the hot stove, Adam did not know what suffering and death would mean. These were mere words to him. By information he knew that his disobedience would lead to his own death. No matter how many times God reiterated "dying thou shalt die," these were only words devoid of meaning. Adam never saw anyone die. The dying scenario was never played out. Adam could not look down through the corridors of time and visualize all the suffering and death that would be brought about by human sin and selfishness, all of which would have their beginnings in his own disobedience..

Let’s set aside his eating of the fruit for a moment and focus on the principle. Something far more weighty was involved here. Adam of his own free will chose not to continue in the fellowship of God. This important detail is recorded in Ge 3:8.

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool [breeze] of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

This account indicates that a very familiar routine had developed between the Heavenly Father and our first parents. "They heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool (Heb. breeze) of the day." Evidently, God spoke to Adam frequently, perhaps daily-"in the breeze of the day." A familiar pattern developed by which they knew when God was approaching. Now that he had disobeyed, Adam heard God approaching to fellowship with them and knew the consequences of his actions. By his disobedience, Adam realized he had willfully chosen to withdraw from God’s fellowship; therefore, he hid from the presence of God. Notice that even before God cut off fellowship with him, Adam hid or withdrew from fellowship with his Heavenly Father.

A Fully Responsible Choice

Ponder well Adam’s choice. Just think, Adam enjoyed perfect communion and fellowship with the Heavenly Father. Communion with his Creator was not just a momentary experience. Some teach that from Adam’s creation to his disobedience was a short time- a few minutes or a few hours at the most. No wonder many are repelled by the absurdity that a momentary decision by a minutes-old Adam plunged the human race to long centuries of horrific tragedies. The record in Ge 2:7-9, 15-23 allows for a much longer period of time. It elaborates on the events that occurred between Adam’s creation and Eve’s.

After Adam’s creation, God planted a garden in Eden and put Adam in it. Adam, after receiving instructions from God, worked in the caring of the garden. This took time.

There was extensive communication pertaining to things Adam could and could not do.

Then Adam was instructed to name all the birds and all of the living creatures. This took time. And, during this time of extensive responsibility in caring for all the plants and naming all the animals, Adam enjoyed communion with God. Then Eve was created and became the wife of Adam. Now Adam had time to spend with his wife and enjoy her companionship. All of these events covered a period of time. Other scriptures indicate a period of two years.

In his talks with God in the "cool of the day," Adam should have realized there was something vastly different about his God compared to himself and Eve. He was such a loving Father. God not only practiced benevolence, kindness, love, justice and mercy, but God also loved these qualities. They were the very fiber of His being. He loved them so much that He wanted to exercise them in every relationship with His creatures. This was the "spirit" or "essence" of God’s holy principles which He wanted to crystallize in the human heart. If God had programmed these qualities into man’s heart, man would have been a mere robot, devoid of fulfillment and happiness. But in order for mankind to live eternally in peace, harmony and happiness with each other, they must have these qualities crystallized in their heart. The only way this moral crystallization of God’s likeness could have been developed by Adam, would be by Adam choosing (free will) to maintain close fellowship with his God and daily choosing to learn and practice-obey all of God’s holy principles. God was the epitome of holiness, wholesome benevolence. Due to a lack of experience, Eve chose the way of self-interest, selfishness. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1Ti 2:13,14, Eve was not fully responsible, but Adam was. Adam was faced with a choice between loyalty to God and His benevolent ways or loyalty to Eve and her ways of self-interest.

Over a period of time, Eve evidently had become a rival to God. Adam not only disobeyed God but chose loyalty to Eve before loyalty to his Creator. He loved Eve more than he loved God. Man had to learn this basic principle. It is only as he loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, and with all his mind, that man will be enabled to love his neighbor (fellowman) as himself.

Educational Process Changed

The crystallization of God-likeness in man ended, but only temporarily. Before God pronounced the death sentence, withdrew His fellowship and expelled the first pair from Eden, He did a remarkable thing. God slew an animal and clothed Adam and Eve with its skins. What a ray of hope! This pointed to the shedding of Jesus’ blood that would cover the sins of Adam and all his children who would be born in sin-inherited from father Adam. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1Co 15:22) in God’s Kingdom. Then they will individually be given the opportunity to crystallize God-likeness in their hearts. Meanwhile, the educational process has changed. Adam and his descendants would first learn the bitter consequences of sin-disobedience to God’s law (Ec 1:13; 3:10). Man would reap the dire results of the ways of selfishness which Adam chose when he cast his lot with Eve and her ways.

God’s Foreknowledge

Because of Adam’s lack of experience God knew he would disobey. Therefore, before God even created the earth and man, He planned for man’s redemption. 1Pe 1:19,20 speaks of Jesus as "slain before the foundation of the world." From eternity God lovingly planned the best for His future human children. This meant a plan that would deeply grieve His fatherly heart as He watched man trampled down into death by the machinations of evil while learning the consequences of sin. Further, man’s highest interests required a plan that would cost God’s fatherly love the ultimate in suffering- watching His only begotten son suffer the agony of being vilified and crucified. Only profound love would conceive and pursue such a plan. The foreknowledge of God’s own suffering proves that the permission of evil is a necessary experience for man’s eternal welfare. God’s gift of Jesus was the greatest demonstration of fatherly suffering in history. Pastor Russell caught the degree of this suffering love when he wrote:11 "Ah, did the Father let him go on that errand of mercy without the slightest sensation of sorrowful emotion? Had he no appreciation of the pangs of a father’s love when the arrows of death pierced the heart of his beloved Son? When our dear Lord said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," did it touch no sympathetic chord in the heart of the Eternal? Yea, verily the unfeigned love of the Father sympathetically shared the Lord’s sorrow. The principle taught in the Divine Word, that true love weeps with those that weep and rejoices with those that rejoice, is one which is also exemplified in the divine character. God could and did sacrifice at great cost to his loving, fatherly nature, the dearest treasure of his heart and thus he manifested (1 John 4:9) the great love wherewith he loved his deceived and fallen creatures."

The Consequences of Sin

Sin literally means, "missing the mark"-disobedience to God’s principles. When Adam and Eve disobeyed, God withdrew His fellowship. This was devastating! Alienated from God, man became alienated from his human companions. Rivalry and jealousy raged, and soon murder shattered the first family. Loneliness, stress and depression overwhelmed them rendering both mind and body prone to disease. The latest scientific research confirms the Biblical account of man’s "fall" into sin. Mental distress does disease the body and mind. The dying process had begun and man became alienated from himself.

Man is out of harmony with himself and struggles within himself. This adds to his mental anxiety. Fear, hostility and aggression became the norm. Exploitation, crime and violence were the inevitable consequences. Man was learning the dreadful consequences of sin and its resultant evils. Yes, Adam’s children, the human race, were born sinners (Ps 51:5) worthy of death (Ro 6:23). This is "the sore travail God hath given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith" (Ec 1:13; 3:10).

After Adam and Eve disobeyed, they were cast out of their Edenic paradise into the unfinished earth, where the components of nature were yet unbalanced. Man is learning by experience that death is the bitter consequence of sin and evil. Yes, disease, another natural consequence of sin and imperfection, has taken its ravaging toll. Natural disasters, too, take their toll, but frequently selfishness is the cause. Man’s greed for industrial profit created the pollution that burned the hole in the ozone layer. This has accelerated and accentuated the scope of nature’s catastrophes. More vicious than this, man’s inhumanity to man has resulted in the slaughter of billions. Man’s greed enslaved and exploited his fellowman, resulting in hunger, pestilence and human depravity of every form.

Remember the illustration in Chapter 1, of the parent who disciplined his child by sending him to his room for the evening and had loving thoughts of their continual relationship. God has remanded His human children to their room-the unfinished earth..

In their "affliction He is afflicted" and He has wonderful loving thoughts-recorded in the Bible prophecies-concerning their restoration to His favor. Yes, Paul said in 1Co 15:22-"as in Adam all die" but he continues, "so in Christ shall all be made alive." Why? Because Jesus died "a ransom for all" (1Ti 2:6 and Heb 2:9).

Original Sin

Some will say, "Don’t tell me you still believe in original sin! Just because Adam and Eve were disobedient, the whole human race are sinners?" In 1Ti 2:13, 14; 1Co 15:21, 22; Ro 5:14; Joh 8:44, both Jesus and the apostles refer to this event in Eden as an actual historical event. What better proof can we have that the Genesis account of Eden occurred? Unfortunately, the logic of the original sin concept has been obscured by Dark Age superstitions that have been attached to it, such as "hell fire" and a vindictive God who must be placated. Modern man is rightly repelled by the superstitions contained in some church theology, but these superstitions are not taught in the Bible. Shorn of Dark Age theology, there is no better explanation of man’s miserable plight than the Scriptural teaching of original sin and its penalty, death-extinction, not eternal suffering..

Chapter 4.

Another Look at Sin

During the first part of the 20th Century, sin was treated lightly. It was called "ignorance," only a growing pain of the human race. The prevailing theory then was to give man a bit more education, let him become a little more civilized and he will evolve out of his sin, leaving evil behind him. But now we are not so sure. The heinous events of World War II (12 million murdered, leveled cities, gas chambers), followed by the continuing senseless acceleration of war, crime and violence (old people killed for kicks, 80-year-old women molested) and other immoralities have forced man to take a second look at the problem of evil.

A fresh look at sin is pointedly stated in the words of Dr. Cyril E. M. Joad, who was a noted Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of London, and listed by the editor of The American Weekly as one of the world’s great scientists.12 Joad said:13 For years my name regularly appeared with H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, and Aldous Huxley as a derider of religion.... Then came the war, and the existence of evil made its impact upon me as a positive and obtrusive fact. The war opened my eyes to the impossibility of writing off what I had better call man’s ‘sinfulness’ as a mere by-product of circumstance. The evil in man was due, I was taught, either to economic circumstance (because people were poor, their habits were squalid, their tastes undeveloped, their passions untamed) or to psychological circumstances. For were not psycho-analysts telling me that all the regressive, aggressive, or inhibited tendencies of human nature were due to the unfortunate psychological environment of one’s early childhood?

The implications are obvious; remove the circumstances, entrust children to psycho-analyzed nurses and teachers, and virtue would reign.

I have come flatly to disbelieve all this. I see now that evil is endemic in man, and that the Christian doctrine of original sin expresses a deep and essential insight into human nature.

As Dr. Joad, we must take another look at evil. It can no longer be considered a growing pain. It is too deadly a disease to be explained away by environment. Standing at the closing of the 20th Century and looking back, the sad history of this century confirms that Dr. Joad was right..

In his book OUT OF CONTROL, written in 1993, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor and professor of American Foreign Policy at John Hopkins University, notes that the 20th Century began amid great hope and promise, but it became the century of insanity. In elaborating on his observation of 175 million slaughtered in the name of the "politics of organized insanity," he says: Contrary to its promise, the 20th Century became mankind’s most bloody and hateful century of hallucinatory politics and of monstrous killings. Cruelty was institutionalized to an unprecedented degree, lethality was organized on a mass production basis. The contrast between the scientific potential for good and the political evil that was actually unleashed is shocking. Never before in history was killing so globally pervasive, never before did it consume so many lives, never before was human annihilation pursued with such concentration of sustained effort on behalf of such arrogantly irrational goals.

Dr Joad is right, sin is not just ignorance-a temporary experience in man’s evolution.

Evil is a basic flaw in human character that can only be explained by the Biblical account of original sin.

Speaking collectively of the human race, the Psalmist said, "In sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51:5). The Apostle Paul in Ro 5:12 says, "By one man sin entered the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

Since father Adam sinned, justice required that he die. Before he died, Adam had children who were born in sin-they inherited Adam’s imperfections. Thus, the whole human race is born dying. This is how it is learning the consequences of evil. However, the permission of evil is a brief controlled experience when compared with eternity. What are some of the grim lessons? God permits evil to demonstrate that man without God results in: _ possible extinction through the science which created the H-bomb, and chemical and biological warfare; _ affluence that spends one billion dollars a year in the U.S. for pet food while 5 million humans starve to death; _ religious institutions whose assets total billions of dollars while millions live in poverty; _ technology and its deadly tentacles of pollution encircling the globe; _ towering cities that are concrete jungles of crime and violence, filled with faceless people experiencing life without meaning and with terrible loneliness..

God permits evil to prove that man’s existence without God can only result in man’s inhumanity to man.

The Problem of Communication

In our era of permissiveness, the justice of God seems to be an offense to the rationalist.

Perhaps the problem is one of communication, which can be shown in the simple illustration of an argument. All of us at some time have been engaged in an argument in which we really never objectively listened to the other party. We were too busy thinking up our answers to hear their logic. Similarly, the rationalist is carrying on a debate with God. If he would only stop and listen to what God has explained in the historic account of Eden (Ge 3), he would catch a glimpse of the wisdom and justice of God that guarantees man’s eternal happiness in due time.

Is God’s Justice Severe?

Some question the severity of God’s justice in the death penalty. Could not a penalty other than death have been a just recompense for Adam’s disobedience? No doubt another penalty would have been just; however, God chose this penalty because it best suited His overall plan for mankind. Once Adam was informed that death was the penalty for disobedience, then the penalty was fair.

A basic fact to always remember is that God in His foreknowledge knew Adam would disobey. Therefore, long before the creation of Adam, God’s wisdom devised a plan of recovery and ultimate happiness for the human race that would require the death of His only begotten Son. Thus 1Pe 1:19,20 and Eph 1:4-7 speak of the blood of Christ as foreordained before the world began for the redemption of mankind. The Creator used man’s experience in Eden to demonstrate the dependability of His justice. It is vital for man to know that "justice and judgment [just decisions] are the habitation of thy [God’s] throne" (Ps 89:14). Justice is the foundation of the government of the universe, the basis of all God’s dealings. Judgment is also spoken of as part of this foundation. The Hebrew here means "a just decision." We can take comfort in the realization that throughout eternity all of God’s decisions will be just.

Man was placed in the Edenic paradise to thoroughly enjoy the love of God. Suppose that after Adam and Eve had lived obediently for a while, God changed His mind and expelled them from the garden condition into the thorns and thistles of the unfinished earth. His love would be worthless, whimsical, because it was not based on justice. It would be changeable.

Another hypothetical situation: If when Adam disobeyed, God said, "Oh, I will overlook your disobedience this time, I will not punish you as I promised to do." Adam might say, "Wonderful! I am surely glad God is more loving than just" Wonderful? No! This, too, would have been whimsical, capricious, arbitrary. The Creator and Ruler of the whole universe could never be trusted throughout eternity. At any time, in any place, with any order of intelligent creatures, God might at the slightest whim change His mind and turn on His creatures. Eden proved the unchangeableness of God’s justice. Thus God declares in Mal 3:6, "I am Jehovah, I change not." And Jas 1:17 states, "The Father of lights in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

How unchangeable is God’s justice? It is so unyielding that God’s court of justice required the payment of the costliest fine ever stipulated in a court of law. What judge has been willing to give up his own innocent son to death in order to cancel the criminal debt of the defendant?

Another Problem of Communication

Our Creator wants us to know the depths of His love, that He is the most loving Being in the universe, but how can God communicate this to our finite minds? In human relationships words of love can be quite meaningless. Actions speak louder than words.

How did God show His love? With tender fatherly emotions of sorrow, God took the dearest treasure of His heart, His only begotten Son, and sent him to earth to suffer and die at the hands of man. At great cost to Himself the wisdom of God formulated a plan which reveals that He is both just (unyielding justice) and the justifier (benefactor) of mankind (Ro 3:25,26).

The simple events of Eden and Calvary tell so much about our God. Calvary is the greatest manifestation of love and mercy in the history of the universe. The combination of Eden and Calvary stand as a pledge throughout eternity that there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning in God’s justice (Jas 1:17).

Natural Clamities

Many natural calamities are not a question of "Where is God?" or "What’s wrong with God?"-rather, "What’s wrong with man?" Take for example, the train of catastrophes around the world spawned by El Ñino. A monster El Ñino could not exist without a large hole in the ozone layer. There would be no hole in the ozone layer without pollution.

From whence came pollution? It came from diverse sources that are all rooted in man’s greed for profit. Many natural disasters before and after the 1997 El Ñino also find their cause in global warming-the mischief of ultra-violet rays escaping through this hole in the ozone layer.

The extreme toll of human life accompanying other natural catastrophes have often been aggravated by man’s selfishness. Over 4,500 lives were devoured in the 1988 Armenian earthquake. Such high casualties were due largely to shoddy construction of high-rise apartments over a well-known fault area, again illustrating human callousness..

Californians dwelling over a huge fault area are hoping it won’t happen in their lifetime.

When the "BIG ONE" does strike, you will hear the cry, "Where is God?", but it will be man’s gamble and loss, not God’s.

Man has long observed and recorded the patterns of natural calamities such as floods, monsoons, hurricanes, etc., yet frequently he chooses not to respect the danger of these killer patterns. It’s well documented that certain rivers will periodically-every 10, 15, 25 or 50 years-swell over their banks into an ocean of destruction. Yet thousands continue to rebuild in the path of the inevitable ruin. Hurricane paths have temporarily obliterated shorelines and coastal isles. Yet the vanity quest for the ultimate in ocean front luxury and prestige continues to provide a path of future victims.

Some disasters could have been eliminated or minimized if the recommendations of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been followed. Yes, the killer force of natural catastrophes spirals numerically thanks to human selfishness and greed. This is one of the many lessons man is learning from the permission of evil.