There is a huge problem facing human life, and it is found in two parts. Part one: there is a separation between us and God. Part two: God is the source of life, significance, and love. This blog is about part one. The bottom line of our life’s problem is this: we are separated from God.
Stating that God seems to be missing engenders little argument. The absence of physical evidence of God’s continued activity in this world is the primary “proof” of those who preach that man is the highest being. However, people who preach otherwise, who believe in God, are often frustrated that He does not do more than He seems to do. Moreover, what about those Christians who seem to claim that God is responsible for everything that happens? Listen to their worship and listen to their testimonies. Are they in their right minds? They say that God is in charge, and some say that whatever happens is God’s will. To an outside mind, it seems a bit too convenient to say that God is doing everything that happens since it would be impossible to know if it would not just happen that way regardless. Are they ignoring the laws of science: cause and effect? What about the free will of people? Can they not do whatever they please? To those outside of Christianity, God is not present in this world. They are right! However, they are right only in a physical sense.
Is it all or nothing? Is it all God or no God? Many think that because God is God and is ultimately in charge that nothing can happen that He does not cause. If this is the case, as Ricky Ricardo of “I Love Lucy” would say, “God has a lot of ‘splain’n’ to do,” because then all evil would be laid at His feet. The view that God is the cause of all events eliminates the possibility that people can make a decision, good or bad, and then act on that decision. If God is the direct cause of every event, we are nothing. This view is ultimately dehumanizing since then all people become a zero or, at best, a puppet. This view eliminates the possibility of real fulfillment. It does not line up with the character of God. Christians should reject it as not Biblical.
The opposite view is that, based on the evidence of a world gone wrong, God does not exist. The irony is that this view leads to the same unacceptable conclusion. If we eliminate God altogether, we only see a world of physical cause and effect. Without God, there can be no spiritual world so everything would have to have evolved from the random movements of atoms and molecules. Mankind would be determined by the laws of motion and again could have no real will to act. If all is cause and effect, there can be no reason to conclude that there is such a thing as evil because there would be no one to will it and cause it. Everything would follow. Everything would be inevitable. Moreover, if we have no reason to know that evil exists, we cannot wonder why God would allow it. The presence of evil requires a real choice. We end in the same place as the first possibility, and that is with all people becoming a zero, totally determined. We also have, again, eliminated the possibility of fulfillment. However, no one feels that he or she is a zero. We are not content to count for nothing. Our struggle is to find fulfillment in this life. So if both views are wrong, what is the answer?
There is a third possibility, one that does not deny reality, and that is that the absentee God is really there, and that man is truly significant. That God is physically absent for now and for a good reason; one that is for our benefit. We begin with an understanding that God made us with a soul, a spiritual component, which is above the physical and is not determined by physical laws of cause and effect. We can learn, choose, create, and love. Fulfillment, then, is a spiritual quality. No animal or machine aspires to fulfillment. It is a human quality just like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
In this third view, God is a person of love and kindness. He wants the best for us. His absence from the physical world is for our benefit. The reason for the separation is this: God’s character is infinitely holy. He is self-existent and is self-sustaining as a perfect and holy infinite being. His holy character is not dependent on an external law or any other thing but remains good no matter what. He is the reason that there is the possibility of goodness, and He created us with that possibility. However, His goodness is so pure that no one in rebellion can exist near Him. It is not that God would strike us dead as a punishment. It is a result of our current state. It is like getting too close to the flame when we are not yet a flame. We would be destroyed. It was out of an abundance of love that God made the physical separation between us and Him. It was done when the first family rebelled against God.
We can understand this because our morality is like God’s. Every relationship requires the goodness of the people entering into the relationship. When a young man courts a young woman, he is on his best terms. He opens doors, brings flowers, compliments her and tries to look as good as he can. We do the same when we interview for a job. No one wants to enter into a relationship with someone who does not care or with a person who disrespects us or a person who openly hurts us. It is no different with God. We can take the concepts of goodness that we already understand and apply them to the absolute holiness of the infinite God.
So, in part, we can understand why God requires holiness of us while we live in a world separated from God where evil exists unencumbered. We now have the groundwork to understand why Jesus is the only way to God. He became the provision to restore us to the image of God. In His infinite love, God put forth a way in Jesus to transform us to His holiness that we might have a relationship with Him.
Evil exists because of man’s fallen will and his inability to rescue himself from this state. The followers of the Bible have an explanation of why there is evil in the world and how God will resolve it. There is no other system of thinking in the world that has a realistic explanation for evil. Some people may continue to think that the evil in this world disproves God, but we can understand that it proves His love toward us.
There is an argument against the existence of God that goes something like this: If God is all-powerful, he could stop evil, and if He is all-loving He would want to stop evil. However, evil exists. Therefore, either God is not all-powerful or He is not all-loving. In either case, He is not God. The analysis is this: God is all powerful, and He can stop evil at any moment and when He does, all those who are currently in a state of rebellion will be eliminated. We may ask those who give this argument if they would be willing to be eliminated along with the great evil that they rightfully condemn. God is also a person of love. He hates to see people suffer because of the evil that man has caused, but He will not eliminate it, yet, in order to give everyone possible a chance to choose Him and be rescued. This explanation is logical, it preserves our understanding of the character of God, it does not deny the terrible evil in the world, and it is consistent with our experience. No other explanation for evil can make these claims.
So, the first part of the huge problem facing every person is that God has separated Himself from the physical world. The next blog explores the second part, and that is that unless we get close to God, we are left in destruction. This two-part problem begs an answer, and it is found in Jesus. Read on.