UNDERSTANDING GOD (Part 1: Why Create a Condemned World?)
Why man? The mysteries of human creation and purpose have been answered by insurmountable imaginings of theorists. As a result, God often becomes the target of criticism and ridicule in such discussions. Despite the vain philosophies and mythologies of man that have polluted the original design of human beings, God communicated the duty and purpose of humanity through the manifestation of His power (Ecc. 12:13;2 Peter 1:3). Every time the mind of God in verbal or written form revealed itself to the carnal and limited mind of humans, people begin to comprehend how little they know in comparison with the mind of God (1 Cor. 1:19-21).
Nevertheless, with such a mind as God, skeptics ask, “Why would an all-knowing God create mankind knowing that the majority would be condemned?” Christ states, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14). “Few” implies less than half. On more than one occasion God implies that He knew that most people would be lost to the sinfulness of the world (Matthew 7:13-14; Ps. 14:2-3). Some compare this question to the illustration of a plane engineer. No plane engineer would create a plane knowing the majority of people who would get on the plane would die a terrible death, so why would God? The question implies that God shows no love or mercy for His creation, depicting God as a malicious Creator, a mean kid with a magnifying glass on an ant hill. Why create a world just to watch it burn?
Mankind exists as the manifestation of God’s love. God’s loving nature is not incomplete without man, but God is pleased to express His love in the creation of humanity (Ps. 115:3; John 3:16; Rom. 8:35-39). God didn’t need to create humanity from a place of boredom, curiosity, or loneliness, implying a God that lacked something. God has never existed incomplete (Matt. 5:48). Why would it please God to bestow an endless supply of grace, mercy, and compassion on a creation that He foreknew would reject Him, yielding ceaseless rivers of rushing sin, inconceivable misery, and sacrificing His Son to the death of the cross? Because love triumphs over grief! If God cares more about the numbers than the individual, the world would never have been created. Is a person thinking right about God when he/she stands on a mountain of self-made adversity, misery, and trial and then blames the love of God for his/her wretched life? Such an attitude is a pathetic attempt to escape human accountability (James 1:13-16). Man’s continual existence is evidence for the love of God (1 John 4:9,10). God gives people the chance to redeem themselves and save themselves (1 Tim. 2:3,4; Acts 2:40). The fault of the sinful majority does not rest in the love of God!
God cares more about quality than quantity. Quantity does not dictate the quality of righteousness! Religious groups change their doctrine with each passing generation and new ideas of morality immerge, but God’s law and doctrine has remained unchanged (Heb. 13:8; James 1:17). Churches often measure success by how many people follow their leadership or how many members listed in the directory. Quantity does not reflect success. If all God wants is everyone in heaven on their personal terms, then He would have to change right and wrong daily, perhaps more than that. However, God cannot arbitrarily decide right and wrong any more than He can change His nature. God’s nature is right and wrong. To ask God to change right and wrong to accommodate the modern, moral climate so more people could go to heaven would be like asking a person to stop being a person.
Righteousness is the nature and being of God and cannot be changed. For God, making the whole world to save just one was enough reason to create mankind, because God loves the one (Matt. 18:12,13). The idea isn’t that God doesn’t love the lost, but rather the lost have rejected the love of God and condemned themselves (2 Cor. 5:18,19; James 1:13-15). God gave mankind the ability to choose His love and unfortunately, the majority have not, but God created the world because He foresaw the ones who would choose Him in selfless love! Love will always triumph over the grief of loss (1 Cor. 15:55-57).