It's no secret that we live in a horrible world. It is still filled with enough beauty that it's obvious that it was created by God, and yet it is also horrific enough that many ask "was it though?" David Attenborough is an excellent example of this. When asked why he doesn't credit God for the amazing things he describes in his documentaries, he replies by saying "But I always have to think, too, of a little boy sitting on the banks of a river in West Africa who has a worm boring through his eyeball, turning him blind before he's 5 years old." (1)
It's undeniably a nasty world out there, and so people could legitimately ask, if there is a God, why? Why are there parasites that do grievous bodily harm to the host? Why are there deadly viruses? Why are there poisonous mushrooms or berries, why are there venomous stings and bites, why do so many animals need to brutally kill other animals to survive? Lumping it all together, why would a truly good God create a world that is so full of death and suffering?
The correct answer is that He actually didn't. The book of Genesis describes how God created this world, and what it was originally like. He created in 6 days, and as He looked back on that world, He called it "very good". Everything was as it should have been. No pain, no death, no suffering. We see that even all the animals ate plants (Genesis 1:30). That is the world God created.
But that doesn't explain why we see the world we do today. This world is not the world we see at the end of Genesis 1. That's because history didn't end when God rested from His creative acts. On day 6, God created 2 people, a man and his wife. He gave them a home in a beautiful garden, which abundantly cared for all their needs. They were naked, yet felt no shame. They had direct communication with God Himself, and walked with Him regularly. They had enough food to last them an eternity, because the plants they tended produced food for them, and they were allowed to eat from any tree they wanted. Except one.
See, there was one tree that God utterly forbade our ancestors to eat from. Neither Adam, nor Eve, were allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and to really drive this point home, God told them that if they ate from the tree, they would die. Yet, Satan fooled Eve. In the form of a serpent, he tricked her, telling her that the real reason she was forbidden from eating the fruit was because if she did, she would become like God. So she ate it, and shared it with Adam, who also ate. The first command of God was broken, and as promised, punishment followed. Man was cursed, and the entire creation along with it. Genesis 3 tells us a few of the immediate results. Man was cursed to get food by the sweat of his brow, working the ground that would produce thorns and thistles. Woman would produce children through hard labour, and there would be strife between spouses. The serpent was cursed "above all livestock", meaning he would be forced to crawl, and eat dust, and there would be enmity between him and women, until one day, the seed of a woman would crush his head, as he bruised His heel.
Genesis goes on to describe the horrible effects of this curse. The first born man killed his brother in cold blood. Violence continued to increase. Eventually, sin got so bad that it distressed God, causing Him to regret creating the Earth, and tempting Him to destroy it. Which He did. With the exception of a righteous man, and 7 members of his household, whom He preserved along with 2 representatives of all the land animals upon an ark, God sent a flood to destroy all land-dwelling life on the Earth. Man and beast alike. After this, He landed the ark, dispersed all the animals, and commanded man to fill and subdue the Earth (promising to never destroy the Earth with another flood, and also allowing us to eat meat, whereas we were previously only allowed to eat plants, as in Eden). Yet, initially, man refused. They gathered in a large group, and conspired to build a giant tower. God, furious with this rebellion, confused man's languages, forcing them to split and fill the Earth as He commanded.
This is an extremely compacted explanation of the history of the world as described in Genesis. I cannot stress this enough, please go and study for yourself. But notice what you see. At first, God did not create such a terrible world. Rather, the world was initially "very good" (even by God's standards, and Deuteronomy 32:4 actually tells us all His works are perfect, so for Him to call it very good is quite high praise), but we messed it up. Our forefather rebelled against God and brought a curse upon creation, our species made Him so angry He flooded them out, our ancestors conspired to build a whole city just to defy Him. The horrors we see throughout this world are not a failure on God's part, nor a reflection of His character, but rather, it's all on us.
You see, my friends, we are no better than Adam. We eat from the forbidden tree, so to speak, every day. Like Adam and Eve, we want to be as God. We want to be masters of our own fates. We want to obey our own rules. We don't see God as our Lord, but as a hindrance. A burden. At best, a slave. We want the blessings He brings, but not the responsibilities He brings with them. We use His inventions our way. We claim His property as our property. He creates, we abuse and destroy. In simple terms, we disobey. And for that, we die. We die spiritually, being separated from Him because God cannot tolerate evil (Psalm 5:4), and thus, in our evil, we will be destroyed if He comes too close (Exodus 33:20). We die physically, the theological equivalent of a mandatory court summons, when our spirit is separated from our body, and we are called into judgement before God.
And that is when it gets scary, because of what the Bible calls "the second death" (Revelation 20:14). Eternal separation from God in a lake of fire. This is the final punishment due to sinners for our crimes. And it is owed to all of us. But this is where the true glory of God shines through. See, as sinners, God would be 100% just in destroying us without mercy. And yet, He is merciful enough not to. Rather, He extends grace to those deserving of punishment, giving us an opportunity to be saved from Hell. How? Through the one man who ever lived that never sinned.
Around 2,000 years ago, the Son of God was born to the virgin Mary. He did not sin, but rather, lived a perfect life, pleasing to God. He honoured God in all His ways, deserving only the absolute best of rewards. Yet, He still died. When His time came, He was taken captive by sinful men, beaten half to death, and nailed to a cross, where He spent the next 3 hours dying in unimaginable agony. He finally bowed His head, saying "it is finished". All sin has now been punished, satisfying the wrath of God. At that very moment, the boundary between man and God was removed, allowing sinners to come to Him for forgiveness.
On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. Having paid the penalty for sin, He got up, He walked out of His tomb, and appeared to many witnesses, friend and foe alike. In order to receive not only forgiveness, but actually a place in Heaven, a Kingdom far greater than even Eden, FOREVER, all it takes is faith. Repent of the sin that bought you death, confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you, too, will be raised from the dead on the last day, and brought into permanent fellowship with God. There are no tapeworms in Heaven. There are no earthquakes or hurricanes. There is no coronavirus, not even a common cold. There are no thorns, there are no stings, there are no predators. You will not need to lock your doors, for thieves and murderers will be long forgotten. Hospitals would be redundant, for there will be neither sickness nor injury. There will not even be any religion, because God Himself will be ruling as King. Eden itself would look like Hell compared to the glory the Lord has waiting for us who trust in Him. Therefore, claim that prize! It is a gift, paid for at God's own expense. Take hold of it today, and never let it go, because you do not even know if you will be here to claim it tomorrow. Get saved, know the Lord, you will never regret that decision.
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An attempted response from an atheist
When this article was originally published as a post on the God Squad Apologetics Facebook page, an atheist attempted to respond with the following:
"If God created Adam and Eve, why weren't they perfect? Why wasn't Gods idea of free will perfect? He didn't have to create us with a conception of free will that would lead to our eternal suffering and banishment from perfection, if He made the game and the rules and the players, how is the outcome not a reflection upon Him?"
The question "why weren't Adam and Eve perfect?" is flawed, simply because in their original state, they were. They could not die, nor could they suffer. They enjoyed ideal fellowship with God, and that brought with it many great benefits. It wasn't until they sinned that anything, up to and including themselves, became imperfect.
The atheist asks about free will, saying that God did not have to create us with it. The issue with this statement is that although God did not have to create us with it, it is better that He did. Consider "Sophia", the robot in the image above this paragraph. As a robot, Sophia cannot do anything beyond what she was programmed to do. What's she worth to us, as far as relationships go? Answer: Nowhere near as much as a real human being. As a man, I would not want to marry her, or adopt her as a daughter. As a human, I would not even want to send her a friend request on Facebook. Free will is what separates us from machines. By giving us the freedom to choose between Him and sin, He makes that choice genuine.
And does free will necessarily lead to eternal suffering and banishment from Himself? Of course not. The thing about free will is that He doesn't force us to make a choice either way. Those who ultimately go to Hell go there not because God compelled them to do so, but because they rejected His will that they do not. And yes, God does indeed know not only that people will go to Hell, but also who will go. This, however, is worth it, because He also knows that His children will go to Heaven, and who they are. Now consider this: As humans, we all know that death is an inevitability. Long before we are physically capable of reproduction, we are familiar with the concept of death. And yet, we still reproduce. Every single person who has ever had a child knows that the child will die. And yet, we never blame the parents for this. We never say "you knew your child would die, so why did you create them?" Why, then, is it somehow logical to say to God "you knew your children would live, so why create them?"
The only response I have ever heard to this is that He could have created those who would go to Heaven while ignoring those who would go to Hell. The answer to that is that, first of all, we are way out of our depth here. God is both sovereign (i.e. He has the authority to do what He sees fit) and omniscient (i.e. what He sees fit to do, we're too ignorant to say He's wrong). But you're also missing the so-called "butterfly effect". Every cause has an effect, and every effect has a cause. Without the unsaved, first of all, it is doubtful that Jesus could ever have been crucified. Why would those who trusted Him as their savior nail Him to a cross? "Because He told them to"? God can't tempt anyone to sin (James 1:13), so how can He say "sin by killing me"? So the unsaved may well have been necessary for that. But even if we assume those who crucified Him would later repent, maybe we're looking at the world in which the most possible people are saved? Maybe, if God never created some people, that would result in others not being saved? Which, by this logic, would require them to not be created also. I know for me personally, unbelievers both helped bring me to faith, and refine it afterwards.
Ultimately, there is no one in all of history who couldn't have repented and gained eternal life. The fact that they didn't is entirely reflective upon them. But God has the right to create every soul He desires, and the fact that He saves even one of them after sinning is glory to Him. Thus, this question is moot.
References
1. Attenborough, Sir. David - Sir David Attenborough's View on Science & Religion | Life on Air | BBC Studios (link)