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You see the Bible says that just over 6,000 years ago God created the heavens and the earth (click here for answers to a young earth creation) and everything in them (including Adam & Eve)...and He saw that what He created was "Very Good" (Genesis 1:31). When the first two people were created, they were perfect. It was a perfect world. It was a beautiful place, full of life, without death, disease, pain or suffering. Adam and Eve were created perfectly and to be in communion with God to live forever with Him. |
| He created all of this for His Glory (Isaiah 43:6-7), and even though God was in control (sustaining) of everything, He gave man free will. He created mankind in the image (moral character called the "conscience") of Himself (Genesis 1:27), and put mankind in charge of the world-- to rule it, to care for it, to be responsible for it, (Genesis 1:28) and to enjoy all its beauty and goodness. He appointed mankind to look after the world, but always under His own authority, glorifying Him (1 Corn. 10:31) and obeying His directions. |
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God warned Adam in Genesis 2:17 that if he ate of the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" he would "die." (Romans 6:23) Before this, man would live forever. Now the word "die" means to physically die and also means to "spiritually die" (which is a separation from God). Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and to eat of the tree of life, and sin entered the world (Gen 3:6). |
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"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin' and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) |
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God cursed the world and that perfect creation began to degenerate, that is suffer death and decay (Romans 8:22) entered the picture. Death and suffering on our earth is due to sin entering into creation (Click here to learn more about death and suffering). The death penalty, which Adam received as judgment for his sin of rebellion, has also been passed on to all his descendants (Romans 6:23). So from this point on in creation every human being on earth is born in sin (Ps. 51:5). By this vary nature we are now all dead in sin and are objects of God's wrath (Eph.2:1-5). Now the crux of the matter is this: iif one accepts there is a God (the God who has revealed Himself to mankind) who created us, then that God also owns us. If this God is the God of the Bible, He owns us and thus has a right to set the rules by which we must live. More importantly, He also tells us in the Bible that we are in rebellion (sinners) against Him, our Creator. Sin is a transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4). In the Greek language of the Bible it literally means to "miss the mark." Because of this rebellion (called sin), our physical bodies are sentenced to death; but we will live on forever, either with God or without Him in a place of judgment, called Hell. But the good news is that our Creator provided a means of deliverance for our sin of rebellion, so that those who come to Him in faith and repentance for their sin can receive forgiveness of a holy God and spend eternity with Him. (Click here to learn the 7 C's of the Biblical History) |
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God Has Removed His Sustaining Power- Temporarily
| At the same time that God judged sin with death. He withdrew some of His sustaining power. Romans 8:22 tells us that the whole of creation is groaning and travailing in pain. Everything is running down because of sin. God has given us a taste of life without Him - a world full of violence, death, suffering and disease. If God withdrew all of His sustaining power, the creation would cease to exist. Colossians 1:16-17 tells us that all things are held together, right now, by the power of the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, in one sense he is not holding it together perfectly, as He is deliberately letting things fall apart to give us a taste of what life is like without God. In other words, God is allowing us to experience what we wanted - life without God (cf. Romans 1:18-32).
In the Old Testament, we get a glimpse of what the world is like when God upholds things one-hundred percent. In Deuteronomy 29:5 and Nehemiah 9:21, we are told that the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, and yet their cloths didn't wear out, their shoes didn't wear out and their feet didn't swell. Obviously God miraculously upheld their clothing, shoes and feet so that they would not wear out or fall apart as the rest of creation is doing. One can only imagine what the world would be like if God upheld every detail of it like this.
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| The book of Daniel, chapter 3, gives us another glimpse, when we read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking into an intensely blazing furnace yet coming out without even the smell of smoke on their cloths. When the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe, upheld their bodies and clothing in the midst of the fire (vs. 25), nothing could be hurt or destroyed These examples help us to understand a little of what it would be like if God upheld every aspect of the creation - nothing would fall apart...EVER! At the present, we are living in a universe where things are decaying. Around us we see death, suffering and disease -- all is a result of God's judgment against sin and His withdrawal of some of His sustaining power to give us what we asked for - a taste of life without God. | |
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Thus, looking through "Biblical lenses," we see our sin in Adam as the 'big picture' perspective on tragic events, such as the actions of terrorists, disease, natural catastrophes, murder, sickness, and death. Of course, some of the such specific evil acts were also a result of the individuals sin (ie murder, terrorists, etc). The Bible makes it clear that death is the penalty for our sin, not just the sin of Adam. If you accept the Bible's account of history, then our sins -- not just the sins of 'the other guy' -- are responsible for all the death and suffering in the world! In other words, it is really our fault that the world is the way it is. No-one is really 'innocent.' We are all bad in God eyes. So if we are all bad, how 'good' does someone have to be to get to heaven? |
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