A Perfect God

"The Bible says God saw the Earth was corrupt and filled with violence and he decided to destroy what he created. If God never makes a mistake (God is perfect), then why did God need to destroy what he created. Did he not know the future of mankind? You will probably say it wasn't God that made a mistake, it was Adam and Eve that led to the sins of mankind. 

So, a perfect God created an imperfect being. Wouldn't that mean God is not perfect because he created an imperfect human? Did God regret his creation so he destroyed what he created to start over? To start over means a mistake was made. Apparently, God desired a sinless man or he would not have restarted the world. If God had regret then why would he knowingly create an imperfect man if he could see in the future that he would regret his creation and start over."

The statement above was directed to me by my friend Gene, he makes the inquiry because he is an atheist and is trying to help me understand the fallacy of the Christian faith. It seemed it would make a good blog topic.  It is obvious, it was well thought out and his application of logic makes a response compelling. I am impressed he begins his argument with what the Bible says. Even though he does not believe in the Bible, he knows that is the only position from which I can argue. 

Anytime you hear a Christian begin a response with, "Well, I just believe" he is going nowhere. A Christian is bound within the context of Scripture, therefore, all his arguments and theology must be developed from the text. All that is known about God is contained within the text of Scripture, that is where God has chosen to reveal himself in redemption. If it is not in the text, then God has chosen not to reveal that about himself. God is not a being sitting at the top of the chart with angels and men at the bottom. God is not on the chart at all, there is no comparison to such a being. There is the creation and everything in it, and then there is God. He is what the old reformers call "other", they refer to His "otherness." 

It is sometimes asked, which is more like God, an angel or a maggot? The answer must be neither, He is outside the category of created beings. That is why there is so much anthropomorphic language in the Bible.   It is the only way we can understand God's beings, to speak of Him in some kind of human term. We will need to keep this in mind as we press into the issues above.    

Gene is correct, the Bible does say God saw that the Earth was corrupt and filled with violence and as a result, he was going to destroy all living things. That account is found in Genesis 6. Gene suggests my answer will be because of Adam and Eve, and he is correct again. I have to give that answer because of Genesis 3 and the account of the fall of man. Gene then logically reasons about God's perfection (never making a mistake) that it appears that God now finds himself in recovery mode, having made a mistake? 

We must first establish the fact the Bible does indeed infer that God is perfect. 

Psalms 18:30 ESV

(30)  This God his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

Matthew 5:48 ESV

(48)  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (This establishes our need for a savior, for this we can never be.)

Those will suffice to establish that both the Old and New Testament view Him as perfect. Now we need to establish that God knows everything. 

Psalms 139:1-6 ESV

(1)  To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, you have searched me and known me!       

(2)  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

(3)  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

(4)  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

(5)  You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

(6)  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

1 John 3:19-20 ESV

(19)  By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

(20)  for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

As before, the Old and New Testaments both state that God knows everything. (That would include Adam and Eve's decisions) There is one more thing we need to establish before we continue, it is that God is truly able to do whatever He pleases and nothing can interfere. 

Daniel 4:35 ESV

(35)  all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Luke 1:37 ESV

(37)  For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Now that we understand that God is perfect, that He knows everything, and that none can stay His hand or in other words stop Him from doing what He pleases, we can pursue the issue of the fall and man's corruption. 

Genesis 1:31 ESV

(31)  And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

From Genesis, we can conclude that the finished work was perfect, just as God intended, angels and men, everything was good. We also know from Daniel that whatever he plans to do, nothing can stay his hand or interfere. Gene's inquiry supposes, why then do we have a fall? It seems God had a plan and it failed.

The plan however was going to involve not just the creation of a man, but the glorification of Christ through a plan of redemption. To have redemption you must have a fall. 

Ephesians 1:3-6 ESV

(3)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

(4)  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

(5)  he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

(6)  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

God has no difficulty creating a man who cannot sin, but his purpose was to create in Christ a perfect race of men out of men who could do nothing but sin, and this redemptive process was to be to the glory of Christ. This was accomplished in Adam, though created in a state of innocence, yet possessing an autonomous will to obey God's law or establish his own. Adam chose to establish his own will. The verse Genesis 3:5 ERV (5)  God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree you will learn about good and evil, and then you will be like God!" can be understood a couple of different ways, most likely both are encompassed in the world "learn" (yâda‛). It could mean learning good and evil experientially, for as yet, they knew what it was by instruction, but had never experienced it. It could also imply being able to establish for themselves what is good or evil without depending on God. That seems to be the abiding passion of men throughout history, to set their own rules and be autonomous from the law of God. 

This of course brings up Gene's question concerning God and his knowledge of Adams's fall. How can Adam be at fault when God created him to fall? This is difficult for our understanding for we can only view the world from our finite perspective. Remember, there is the creation category and then there is the otherness of God of which there is no category. Adam was created in time, God is outside of time, and time and space are a part of creation.  

Isaiah 57:15 ESV

(15)  For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

This is one of those concepts we can only understand by inference. This is similar to the "good and evil" of Genesis, we know the concept, but we have never experienced it. God is said to inhabit eternity, but what is eternity? We stand and view out into eternity it seems when we look at our universe. Some think of heaven when considering eternity, but neither can define eternity. Both the universe and heaven are created and have a beginning in their existence. Before there was a universe, before there was a heaven, before there was time and space, there is eternity and it is inhabited by God. We don't know what this is, if we were told we would not understand or comprehend. It is something other, it is from there God created all that is, and from there we understand all is comprehended of the creation order from beginning to end.

 Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV

(9)  remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,

(10)  declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Yes, God created the world and everything in it. Yes, God created the world knowing the actions that would transpire with both angels and men. By God's very nature, He could not, not know, as God, He must know all things by necessity. Yet knowing everything from eternity placed no necessity upon man or angels to obey or disobey in His creation, with Adam it was a real choice in real-time. It was truly His fall and therefore the consequences belong to Him. As it becomes his nature, it is the nature he passes on to all his posterity. The Creator would give man the choice and the ability to obey or disobey the command. Knowing His creation fully and completely from eternity, God by necessity knew the choice of men and angels, though executed in absolute freedom. It was the best creation possibility as no other creation by any other means could accomplish what this creation has through the great redemption process, and the consummation will accomplish what no other creation could, even to postulate ever how many possible worlds we may.

If God had created man with no possibility to avoid the fall, then God would be at fault. If God created man not to be able to fall and yet he fell, then God indeed failed with him. However, if God created man with the ability to live in perfect peace and joy through obedience, while also possessing the same ability to reason and consider other options, even to rebel against God's command, then it is the man who has failed and rebelled. The fact God knew the outcome of his creation does not infuse the evil that arose in man's reasoning. The creation was to be a creation that failed so that God might display his great mercy upon a rebellious creature. That was the intent of the creation, God creates a real world, in which a real man makes a real choice. This man suffers real consequences for the actual actions that he himself established. God in turn provides a real Salvation to a real man under a real condemnation. The perfect plan was not to create a perfect man in Genesis that must by necessity remain perfect, but an autonomous man created with perfect abilities, one of those perfections being, the capacity to reason and choose loyalty or rebellion.   

Many want to fault God because He created a world knowing it was going to fall into despair, however, any other world would be a world without grace and without mercy, for none would be needed. We would all be standing on our own righteousness. That may sound good, but I'm not quite sure we understand what a world absent of grace and mercy is. 

Many of our institutions speak of honor, yet the value of honor, as costly as it is, gets its value from dishonor. For one to be honored, someone somewhere had to establish a dishonor. Do we really want to live in a world without the value of honor simply to avoid its high cost both in itself and its counterpart? I highly esteem its value because I have seen its counterpart in the act of dishonor. The great loss pictured in the above photo obtains its great value from the sacrifice that purchased it. Would we really want a world without such men and such acts of sacrifice? If not, then we must have the world we have. Do we really want to fault God for creating a world fallen in despair at the cost of not knowing the act of redemption? Can the redeemed truly appreciate their redemption in the absence of judgment upon the rebellious?  

I have heard it said that Heaven will be boring because of that very concept, everybody will be perfect and therefore there are no losers and winners. Sports will be boring because no one wins and no one loses because everyone is perfect. That was another atheist attempting to debunk the concept of heaven. However, he hits upon the very point of the creation as it is. 

The concept of victory is held in high esteem among us, whether it be in war, sports, or business. In sports, the moment of victory is celebrated, and the winner is standing strong with the fans applauding! What a moment for the victor, yet that moment could not be known without a defeat. It would mean nothing without its counterpart. Have you ever heard someone say, "I wish I could live in this moment forever"? In some limited way, you can push that example to a heavenly experience. As this creation gives way to that glorious redemption at the consummation, time stops, and that victory is enjoyed forever.

A creation in perfection by necessity is not the perfection we might think, God's perfect creation is beyond our limited understanding. For the Christian, suffering is a gift, it is given to us that we may truly know the glories of our redemption. Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted (Given) to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, (ESV)  Romans 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. A creation without suffering, I think not.

Romans 8:18-25 ESV

(18)  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

(19)  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

(20)  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

(21)  that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

(22)  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

(23)  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

(24)  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

(25)  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Hebrews 2:10 ESV

(10)  For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Mark 12:9-11 ESV

(9)  What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.

(10)  Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;

(11)  this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

Acts 4:26-28 ESV

(26)  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

(27)  for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

(28)  to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Hebrews 2:3 ESV

(3)  how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,

John 1:1-14 ESV

(1)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

(2)  He was in the beginning with God.

(3)  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

(4)  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

(5)  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

(6)  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

(7)  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

(8)  He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

(9)  The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

(10)  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

(11)  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

(12)  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

(13)  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

(14)  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

David