It is not difficult to believe that God created man in His own image. God gave man His own intelligence, desires, and free will. Consider all the miraculous accomplishments in art, science, and culture over the millennia.
However, the gift of free will enabled newly created man to make a bad choice, one that was in disobedience to God. Ever since then, mankind has made choices that have had horrible consequences; consider war, famine, and disease. And God entrusted mankind with the nurture and care of the original, perfect world. But building structures on tectonic plates, deforestation, and pollution have all tested the balance of nature, and the results are man-made, natural disasters.
Consider that God wouldn’t hesitate to press buttons and controls or turn off the master switch to prevent evil and natural disasters, thereby saving the world from pain and suffering. But who would want to live as a robot or in a robotic world with buttons and controls? Would such a world truly be free? I say no. And so man has chosen to live with pain in a free world than to live in a painless but unfree world.
If you were offered the opportunity to be attached to a machine that kept you happy all the time by manipulating your nerves without your control, would you accept it? Probably not. To live like that would not be rational.
And, so, God wants us to be rational in our faith and in our relationship with Him. Do we truly believe the universe created itself? This is not a rational view (and there are many scientists who agree). Do we truly believe life is pointless? Life is pointless if there is no God.
Belief in God is like an ointment that treats the pain and scars we all suffer from living in an imperfect world. Anyone who truly knows God knows He wouldn’t take pleasure in allowing pain and suffering. God is kind, faithful and just; kind in His forgiveness of sin, faithful in preserving free will, and just in providing a way of escape from the evil that has groped the world. And He is just in punishing those that bring and that have brought evil into the world.
Praise be to God!
Note: Adapted from the writings of
John Lennox and Prager University
.