Who is responsible for evil? Does God know what He is going to do before He does it?

Ted’s Response:

I do not see evil merely as the "lack of goodness," as many do. I believe that God created everything, including evil. Evil (including calamities, pain, suffering, and death) is one of many tools that God uses to attain His eventual goals. I believe that the verses you have included support the idea that God has created evil. After He is completely done with that "tool," it will be eliminated and He will discard it, just as He will discard death and Hades (Revelation 20:14), at the end of the Millennium.

I believe that God has the Power to change anything, including the future. However, I do not believe that He has changed, or will change, anything from the predetermined way He originally intended for all things to occur, ever since the time He created this universe and everything in it. It is similar to how multiple sequences of dominoes are set up to fall in a certain, predictible, pre-established sequence, and then the first domino is pushed over.

I believe that before God created the universe, He predestined all things to happen in a specific, infinitely complex sequence of events. He will not deviate from that pattern until, ultimately, He obtains what He wants. During the six "days" of Creation God, in effect, "set up" virtually infinite sequences of "dominoes"—including a series for every star and galaxy to shine, for every angelic being to exist, and for every person ever to live. This was part of His creative work. Once the time of creating was over, God rested—but only from creating, not from interacting with all of the creatures He had made.

In another sense, God created a "script" for this Creation; and on "day" #7, the "theatrical production" of human history began. It is the greatest "reality play" ever, in which God Himself participates as the Leading Character, but during which nothing more is created, because He has ceased from His creative tasks (until this ragged, depleted Creation ends, and His pristine, new Creation begins—see old and new Creations). Because He predetermined everything to happen a certain way, and wrote everything into the "script," as it were, then He knows the future and all that happens, long before it actually takes place. I believe that predestination and foreknowledge go hand in hand.

At the same time, people (and angels) absolutely do have free choice. However, I embrace the principle that God has "programmed" that free choice into His creatures (see free will). I feel it is an incomprehensibly ingenious process by which God allows us to believe that the choices we make are solely our own (some attribute their choices to the "god" within them), when in reality He planned out everything, including all of our thoughts and decisions, prior to the Creation of the universe.

The degree of one's self-pride seems to be directly related to one's inability to accept the fact that God controls everything including one's own life, even one's choices. If we did not think that all of our choices were our own, we never would be able to understand that choosing good things results in good consequences, while choosing bad things leads to bad consequences. Thus, we never could comprehend the difference between the knowledge of Good and the knowledge of Evil (Genesis 3:22a), and no one ever would be prepared to enter the new Creation to come. To enter that ultimate realm, one must understand and accept that only Goodness is the best state of being in which to exist.

Many people believe that God created Satan as a "good" angel, and that Satan alone chose to disobey, turn away from, and rebel against God. Yet, if Satan chose to usurp God's authority, wouldn't God have known that this was going to happen before He created Satan? And wouldn't the latter imply that, somehow, the idea to rebel against God was implanted (by God) into Satan before He even created Satan? I believe the answer to both of these questions is "YES." If God created Satan as capable of disobedience and rebellion, that means that God had a divine reason for these qualities to be found in Satan. Otherwise, God could have been charged with incompetence and ineptitude—false accusations, because God never makes mistakes. Thus, God must have instilled the ability to sin into Satan, knowing that it was inevitable for him to transgress God's rules—all part of God's plan.

It may be very difficult for most people to believe in a God who created a world in which there is great suffering, pain, and heartache for all people, knowing that such unpleasant things (all of which, I believe, He also produced) would take place. On the contrary, I have no problem believing in, accepting, and embracing such a God. In fact, I find comfort in knowing that this Creator has absolute control over all things, including the future.

I am anything but "fatalistic" in my thinking (that, ultimately, my choices in life are predetermined). Rather, I rejoice that such a good God exists, Who would go to such extremely detailed, fine-tuned measures to get me to understand that goodness and obedience to His will are best, and that having such knowledge is the only thing that will enable me to spend eternity, in a perfect Creation, with Him.

This universe never was intended to be perfect, only "very good" (Genesis 1:31—see "very good" vs. "perfect"), in the sense that it is necessary and sufficient to get God what He wants the most: perfect, pure love and communion between Himself and the creatures He has created, especially human beings. Eventually, this imperfect universe (see an imperfect Creation) and everything in it will be discarded and thrown away like an old, worn-out garment (Psalm 102:25,26; Revelation 20:11b), because it will have served its "very good" purpose in allowing God to obtain His greatest objectives and desires.

Immediately following the Millennium, God—Who has rested from creating on the "seventh day" (which now is transpiring)—will create a brand new universe ("heavens and earth"), which WILL be perfect from the very beginning, and in which no evil nor sin EVER will be present, for all eternity. God did create and allow evil to exist in this present realm; however, there will be no evil in the realm He eventually will create, after this creation is tossed out because it will have served its grand purpose.

I believe, quite simply, that God's ultimate goal is to transfer, out of this Creation, the people whom He predestined to accept Him and to know that His ways are best. Since these are the only ones who, eventually, will enter into the new and perfect Creation, it may seem "bad" and "evil" of God to have created multitudes of people who will not accept Him, who are preordained for destruction (Romans 9:21,22), and who never will enter that new Creation (Hebrews 3:11).

There will be some who will read what I have just stated and will think, "Then who does God think He is, having created a universe with evil, suffering, pain, and bad things being a part of it? What gives Him the right to choose the hopeless, destructive fate of countless members of humankind, along with the joyous, blissful eternal life of countless others?"

In a sense, God is "self-centered"—and rightfully so—by having made everything primarily for His own pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment. But since God is the only one powerful enough to have created the universe, then only He has the right to do whatever He wants to do, no matter what it is, and to accomplish His goals any way that He wishes to do so. We, as His creatures, are not entitled to judge His actions.

HOWEVER, God will not be getting what He wants at "no cost" to Him. In fact, He has paid the ultimate price to be able to obtain what He desires, any way He wants to acquire it, even if it involves the pain and suffering of billions of people and animals on the earth.

Perhaps a broader definition of "sin" is not just disobedience to God but "the causing of pain and suffering to others, for one's own advantage and gain." Strictly speaking, then, might not God Himself fall into this latter category? As it is written, "God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us..." (2 Corinthians 5:21), and "The wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23).

The ultimate price God has paid is death on a cross (see Was Jesus God?). Besides death, God also has paid (and, I believe, continues to pay) the price of inconceivable and unimaginable heartache and pain, due to the eternal loss of untold multitudes of His exquisitely-crafted creatures, created for destruction—wishing that all of them could come to a saving knowledge of Him, but knowing that they cannot.

The bottom line is that God allowed Himself to be humiliated, tortured, and killed, and I believe He continues to endure incomprehensible suffering and pain, at least as long as this "very good" Creation exists. This suffering is not the only thing that God has paid to get what He wants one day. I believe, in a real sense, it also is a "penalty" for having created a universe and a world in which there would be real suffering and death of virtually all of His creatures.

I know of no other way for God to get what He wants—an eternity of unwavering love, devotion, praise, and worship from creatures who have chosen to give Him those things—than to have created everything the way He has done it. And for having done this, He Himself was willing to pay the supreme cost—death and suffering—to get it.