The Control of God – Part III

The disenchantment of many is aimed at the Lord for the purported apathy to contain the evil and untoward incidents spanning the globe. The argument put forth is that if God is in control, then why do these happenings occur? These apparent happenings are in the control of someone whom God cannot control and contain, and whose power He cannot negate. This shallow view can at best be pitied. One needs to look at the deeper aspects of things. God created this planet Earth pure and perfect, without any deformities and aberrations. After all, God is perfect and cannot create anything short of perfection. When God created, He examined everything to His satisfaction. After which, as given in the book of Genesis, He pronounced it as good. “And God saw that it was good.” If this is the case, how did things sour?

God created mankind with free will – with the ability to choose of his own accord. Further, God gave dominion over the creation to Adam and Eve. Genesis1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:  and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” God warned Adam and Eve, and they disobeyed God; consequently, sin came in and its resultant effects. The moment Adam and Eve believed satan over God, the dominion that God had given to Adam was passed on to satan. In John 14:30 Jesus describes satan as the prince of the world: “Hereafter I will not talk much with you:  for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” 

Thus, satan and his evil angels have caught the world in a tight vice grip. Hatred, war, sickness, tragedies, natural disasters, etc are our own doings when we fall into the hands of the devil. God has been warning mankind since creation and gave us the 10 commandments (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) as a blueprint for healthy living and societal order, but we continuously reap the consequences of our actions.

There are some fundamental things we need to understand about evil. First, the Bible tells us that evil does not come from God, nor can we blame God for all the evils in the world. Evil comes instead from Satan. Satan, who was created by God as Lucifer, was perfect in all respects and was above the angels. He became evil when inequity was found in him, and he wanted to make his throne above God. Ezekiel 28:15 states: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee" This is how evil came into being, and it entered this world when Satan was cast down and deceived Adam and Eve and caused them to turn against God. Both evil and Satan are real, and the two go hand-in-hand.

 

Second, the Bible tells us that after His saints are rescued for eternal life, someday all evil will be banished. The vast spiritual conflict between Satan and God, between truth and error, between evil and righteousness that has raged from the beginning of time will be over, and God will be triumphant. Satan, his evil angels, and all who choose to follow him will be cast “into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41, KJV). Third, the Bible tells us that God can give us victory over evil. James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God.   Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. “God is with us, and He will give us strength to stand against evil. 

 

Dr Ashwin Drummond

laddertoheaven.co.in