Why did God create all of this the way He did it?

Ted’s Response:

Let's assume, for the purpose of discussion, that God exists and that He inhabits the realm of eternity, in which there is no beginning nor ending of time. It's not that there is no time in eternity but, rather, an infinite number of planes and lines of multi-directional time. Imagine God—whoever or whatever He is—choosing to exist alone in all of that time. Seemingly, it would be a "boring," maybe even a "lonely" existence, void of anyone else with whom to communicate and anyone who, truly and fully, could appreciate how great and wonderful He is.

It makes sense to me that God would choose to create beings who would have cognitive abilities, enabling them to understand and recognize His infinite magnificence and majesty. But if He made all of these beings such that they had no choice but to admire, praise, and worship Him each and every moment, so what? What possible appeal could there be for God in receiving acknowledgement in such a way, in essence, by "robotic" creatures programmed only to obey Him, forever and ever? It would be as though God were applauding Himself without end. How dull for Him.

Would not there be more incentive to create if the created beings had a choice in the way they accepted or rejected God? Would not the positive responses to God be of even greater significance and value if accompanied by negative responses, maybe even more of the latter than the former? I think so. If such is the case, it seems to be very reasonable to me that the greatest creation of all would be mankind, who has the ability to choose between accepting God, not only as the unique and sovereign ruler of everything in existence but, also, of one's own life, now and forevermore.

I believe, then, that God created some people to grasp and comprehend the "supreme ideal" that living in the ultimate state of God's "goodness" and "perfection" is the most satisfying and fulfilling existence possible (which I believe it is). These, together with God, will make the transition from the old Creation into a brand new Creation (see old and new Creations), after all of this present existence passes away (which I do believe will be the case, from Revelation 21:1: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away..."). In that coming, pristine existence, nothing bad or unpleasant ever will exist. God will attain His supreme goal of being able to commune forevermore, on every one of the infinite number of time lines, with beings who have chosen Him as the principal focus of their existences and who are willing to give all of their admiration, praise, and worship to Him ceaselessly.

I differ with possibly the majority (probably, at least most) of Christians in that I do not believe this created universe and everything in it were made "perfect"—merely "very good" (according to Genesis 1:31). They are "very good" in the sense that they are sufficient and necessary for God to achieve His chief goal of finding the ones who want to be with Him eternally. Mankind's "sin" (that is, disobedience of God) was not what tainted this world and caused entropy and decay in the universe, as many believe. This cosmos and world were created in an imperfect state; otherwise, Adam and Eve (imperfect humans) would not have been capable of disobedience.

This present existence was created, at its inception, to be FULL of imperfections, leading unavoidably (after mankind was created and sinned) to disasters, pain, anguish, and untold suffering. God's purpose in all of these appallingly horrible things is to demonstrate to mankind that doing things OUR way—that is, putting ourselves in the "position of God" because we think WE know what is best—results only in misery and unhappiness. Left to our own way of doing things, in the due course of time and without God's eventual merciful intervention, I am quite certain that we, inevitably, would destroy ourselves from the face of the earth. There is not even ONE mortal human being, nor group of beings, who can play the role of God successfully and who would be able to stop it from happening—though many have tried (and will try).

I believe that probably the greatest obstacle to people's being able to acknowledge that God exists, and/or to accept Him for Whom He is, is the presence of evil and all of its multitudinous ramifications in the world. I think many feel that God is exceptionally incompetent, at best, in having created evil in the first place and, subsequently, in having been unable to stop it; or else He is extremely cruel, at worst, to have allowed and tolerated evil in this world throughout human history.

I have my own personal view of that issue. Since I believe that God is sovereign over all of Creation, and that without Him nothing else but He Himself would exist, then I feel He alone is entitled to do things any way He chooses, to reach His final goal: deciding and determining all who will be willing to join Him in the perfect, unspoiled realm that He will create after this one has been "trashed" and "discarded" (Revelation 20:11b, 21:1). I accept that if there were another way to accomplish this, it would not be as effective as the way He has chosen, utilizing evil as a vitally important tool to separate those who love goodness and righteousness from those who love malevolence and wickedness.

There is a self-pride within all of us (and, particularly, within Satan) that insists, "If it were left up to me, I could do all of this better than God can!" As such, humankind (and, in fact, all other created beings of equal or higher intelligence) MUST witness the WORST possible consequences of evil and sin to understand that ONLY by submitting to God's rules and regulations—not by creating our own ways of doing things—can goodness, ultimately, be present all the time.

Of course, it can be argued that, if all of this is true, God must be unimaginably self-centered, self-absorbed, self-seeking, and downright selfish to have set into motion circumstances that, in due course, will enable Him to get what He wants. In fact, though, in having taken severely drastic measures to reach His own goal of eternal satisfaction and pleasure, God has paid an infinitely costly price.

The Creator of all things has gone to the extreme measure of humiliating Himself to the point of ridicule, shame, sorrow, and even physical death on a cross. God has accepted His punishment and "done His time," as it were, for "playing" this brutal, ruthless "game" (in the view of many, including the unsaved) with all of Creation. Only the death of Jesus—the physical manifestation of God (see Was Jesus God?)—could have been enough to have paid the infinitely great price, because only God Himself is infinite.

The thing is that God did not HAVE to pay the price, had He not wanted to. But since He is a responsible, fair, loving, and caring Being, He indeed has paid the price. Furthermore, by having done so, He will gain the respect, regard, and reverence of the multitudes He has chosen. Only they will understand that He, alone, is good and that His ways, alone, are best. And they will spend a glorious, satisfying, and fulfilling eternity with Him.