Christian
Community Church
of
Franklin, Indiana
God’s Foreknowledge and the Origin of Evil
NOTE: All Scriptures used here are from The New International Version of the Bible.
Also see A Study in Predestination and Election: A Work of God
Foreknowledge Defined: Because God knows everything, He has the ability to know what will happen in the future long before it occurs.
Difficulty: Some people incorrectly assume that because God knows something will happen He therefore causes it to happen.
Example: For example a person might say: "Before God created Lucifer, God knew that Lucifer would choose to be evil. God created man knowing man would be evil, born into sin, and suffer." The conclusion that is then drawn is: "Therefore God is responsible for (or "created") evil, sin, and suffering."
This conclusion is both illogical and not Biblical.
Testing the Premise: Is God Guilty Because He Created Humans?
Consider a mother who gives birth to a child. It might be said she "created" that child. The mother knows for certain that someday her child will die. Should the mother be tried for murder because she "created" a child she knew would die? No. Her foreknowledge did not cause the child to die. External causes brought death to the child, thus the mother has no responsibility in either her foreknowledge or in her act of "creation."
In the same way, why would we suggest God caused ("created") evil, sin, and suffering simply because He "created" beings who would later rebel against Him, do evil, and suffer for what they and others have chosen to do?
Testing the Premise: Is God Guilty Because He Foreknew His Creatures Would Sin?
Like God, human beings also have foreknowledge, although ours is not as complete as God's. Are we guilty because of we know something will happen? For example, I see you holding a glass of water in your hand four feet above a concrete floor. You tell me that in exactly 1 minute you are going to let go of the glass. We both know the law of gravity will cause the glass of water to fall to the floor and shatter.
Because I know beforehand what you have chosen to do, and what the law of gravity will do, did I personally force the glass to fall and break? No. You are the one who dropped the glass, therefore you are responsible for what you did.
In the same way, we cannot blame God for what His creatures choose to do, or for knowing beforehand what His creatures will choose to do.
God’s “knowledge of
the future is not itself causative.
Free actions do not take place because they are foreseen, but they are
foreseen because they will take place.
Just because something morally evil has been predicted this prediction
does not remove human responsibility from the perpetrator (see Matthew 18:7;
John 13:27; Acts 2:23 and compare with the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, Exodus
4:21).” – Lectures in Systematic Theology, Henry C. Thiessen, Eerdmans,
pages 81-82
Consider what the Bible tells us about God's dealings with humans:
God
Has Foreknowledge
"This
man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and
you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the
cross." -- Acts 2:23 (NIV)
God
Has No Evil in Him
"He
is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A
faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he." -- Deuteronomy 32:4
"The LORD is
upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."-- Psalm 92:15
NOTE: The Bible is
very clear that there is no evil or wickedness in God. Thus God could not
create evil or wickedness.
God
Did Not Create Evil, for Lucifer Was Created Perfectly Flawless and Sinless
"You
were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness
was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with
violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and
I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones." -- Ezekiel 28:15-16
Humans
Were Created Perfectly Flawless and Sinless
"So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them." --
Genesis 1:27
NOTE: This means that human beings were created just as morally perfect as God is.
Humans
Chose to Sin, Thus God Cannot be Blamed
"This
only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search
of many schemes." -- Ecclesiastes 7:29
NOTE: Instead of
remaining morally perfect, human beings have chosen to jump deeply into sin and
disobedience.
God
Only Gives What is Good and Perfect to His Creatures
"Every
good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." -- James 1:17
NOTE: If God created evil then He gave us a wicked and diabolical gift. The Bible states God only gives "good and perfect" gifts.
God Created
the Moral Law Before There Was Sin
"Everyone
who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness (Greek 'anomia' meaning
'violating/transgressing the Law')." --
1 John 3:4
NOTE: Where there is
no law there can be no sin. The very definition of sin requires the existence
of God's Law. Thus the Moral Law was in effect prior to God convicting Lucifer
of sin and expelling him from heaven.
God
Placed the Requirements of His Law Within Each Person's Heart/Conscience
"Indeed,
when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the
law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since
they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts,
their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now
even defending them." -- Romans 2:14-15
(NIV)
NOTE: No one can claim
to be ignorant of God's will.
Every
Person has Sinned
"For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -- Romans 3:23 (NIV)
NOTE: No one can claim
to be "perfect" by never sinning.
God
Does Not Even Tempt People to Sin
"When
tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted
by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own
evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to
death." -- James 1:13-15
NOTE: Everyone is
personally responsible for their own sins. God did not create sin, neither did
God tempt anyone to sin.
No
Created Being has any Excuse for Sin
"For
since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and
divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,
so that men are without excuse."
-- Romans 1:20 (NIV)
Jesus'
Death on the Cross is the Sacrificial Payment for Sin
"God
presented him as a Sacrifice of Atonement, through faith in his blood. He did
this to demonstrate His justice, because in his forbearance he had left the
sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at
the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus." -- Romans 3:25-26 (NIV)
NOTE: Not only did God
give people time to repent by not immediately punishing their sin, but
He also provided a way out of sin.
The Missing Piece to the
Puzzle
God's foreknowledge enabled Him to know even before He created a perfect Lucifer, that Lucifer would eventually make wrong choices resulting in sin. And God's foreknowledge enabled Him to know even before He created perfect humans in His own image, we humans would all eventually make wrong choices and sin. So because of God's foreknowledge, God took two actions before any created being ever sinned:
- God created the Moral Law in which He defined the
basic obligations all created beings have towards their Creator. Then,
God taught His creatures what was required of them. More than this, God
placed these basic moral requirements into every created being's
conscience and warned what the penalty for sin is. Because God did this,
every created being clearly knows what God requires of him and is
therefore without any excuse.
Thus God cannot be blamed for the conscious,
knowledgeable, choices His created beings freely make.
- God chose Jesus Christ to be the sacrificial
payment for every sin. Before any sin had ever been committed God
provided a way out for every sinner. Anyone who ever sins can confess
that sin, repent of that sin, receive God's forgiveness for that sin, and
be reinstated with God as if he had never sinned. All of that is possible
because of God's foreknowledge, and because Jesus carried out His choice
to die on the cross. All of that was set in motion before anyone ever
sinned.
Thus God cannot be blamed for giving created
beings free choice but not providing a way out when wrong choices were made.
The responsibility for sin does not lie with God, it lies squarely on every
sinner.
Conclusion
All of this demonstrates God is loving and
merciful, and deserves our worship and praise. And it also means we
are personally responsible for all our choices and all our actions,
including our choice to rebel against God, reject His mercy, and go to hell --
or our choice to lovingly obey God, accept His mercy, and go to heaven.
© 1998 Sydney Cleveland