People believe it is UNFAIR, for God to chose... What does the bible show us?
Genesis / The Fall, if you think that was an accident, you have a real problem.
In order for free will to be exercised, God’s children have choices, and each choice has it own consequences.
For example, what choices were placed before satan, Eve and then Adam? What choices could have changed the outcome, but still stayed within God’s purpose? Think about it…..
If the devil had had second thoughts about his rebellious course and had a last minute change of heart, no temptation would have been put before Eve, and hence no division of loyalties for Adam, prompting him to side with his disobedient wife instead of obeying his God.
Or….
If Eve had refused the devil’s offer of becoming “like God, knowing good and evil” for herself….Adam would not have joined her in the rebellion, but satan would have received his punishment alone, perhaps in the privacy of heaven, unknown to humans. There could be no forgiveness for his rebellion.
Or….
If Adam had refused the fruit offered by his wife, then Eve would have suffered a penalty along with the one who deceived her, but Adam would not have died. God would have to have given him another mate to continue the human family, the way things were meant to be….to “fill the earth” with their children.
So God having contingency plans for any and all decisions that his children may have made, would still have preserved free will and in the end, completed his purpose for them here on the earth.
Just because God can know the future, doesn’t mean he always creates it.
God acted only once….everything he did after creation was a “reaction” to the choices his children made of their own free will. He warned them about the penalty and thus all were deserving of the punishment.
The innocent ones caught up in this awful outcome were Adam’s, as yet unborn, children. They inherited the imperfection that was now passed on to all of Adam’s offspring. Sin is what causes death, so if Adam had not sinned, he never would have died. It was never God’s intention to take any humans to heaven…which is why he created us to live here on a very carefully prepared planet….which supplied everything that humans would need to live eternally in mortal flesh. “The tree of life” was the guarantee.
It did not include sickness, aging, suffering or death, just wonderful, everlasting life in paradise, with more than enough to entertain us and keep us happily occupied forever, enjoying God’s creation.
No Fall, no Israel, no law, no grace, no Jesus on the cross, no resurrection, no heavenly supper, no Rev Ch1-21... Satan was in the Garden! Why?
Satan was the covering cherub stationed in the garden of Eden as an overseer….a position of responsibility, (Ezekiel 28:13-17) but it exposed him to the possibility that these lower human creatures could see him as a god. The Bible tells us in that scripture that he was once magnificent, but in his rebellious course he defected from the service of his God and decided that he wanted servants of his own who would give him the worship he had come to envy.
That is why satan was in the garden.
So, no satan would mean no need for Israel or it’s laws…..no need for a savior to rescue Adam’s children and no ceremonial things to remind us of his selfless course in dying for us.
Free will vs sovereignty.
Yes, but it didn’t have to happen that way. If the rebels had simply respected God’s Sovereignty, and obeyed his instructions (which imposed no hardship on them whatsoever) they would never have brought pain, suffering and death on the human race, and a third of the angels would not have joined satan in opposing God’s Sovereignty over them either.
No fall would have meant no death, as disobedience was the only cause. There was no natural cause of death mentioned to Adam (Gen 3:19)……but obedience would have resulted in “living forever” right here where God created us. (Gen 3:22-24)
No fall would have meant no reason for Jesus to come to our rescue since there would have been nothing to rescue us from.
If no one died, then the resurrection of the dead would never have been necessary. And since the Kingdom is the means by which “the restoration of all things” was to come about…….what is to be restored?
Everlasting life in paradise on earth….no need for any human to go to heaven to bring us back into reconciliation with our Maker. Look at what we lost….that is what we get back.
David says "Lord I wish to build you a house" God says "NO!"... For you will have a son. This is a prophetic word (future event). Now God says to you... "Watch me fulfill MY OWN WORDS... One day David is on his rooftop, and sees a woman bathing... (You know the rest of the story).
Now could David have arranged these circumstances? NOPE!
Are you serious? You mean to tell us that God arranged for David to commit adultery and murder just so he could have a son to build him a house? Both of his crimes carried the death penalty in Israel, but since God himself conducted David’s legal case, his complete repentance merited God’s forgiveness. The Messiah was to be a son of David. According to James, David allowed his lust to lead him to disobey his God. (James 1:13-15) Could it be that satan used a beautiful woman to tempt David and ruin God’s prophesy concerning him? God arranged the way out…not the way in.
How about Moses stumbling upon the burning bush, or seeing the man, who he murdered... Freak accident? Just at the right place accidently, in order to fulfill God's will?
Did Moses need to stumble upon anything? Right from his infancy, God had a role for him, just as he did for Jacob. God has a way of re-routing his way in order to thwart the devil’s attempts to derail his purpose and those who will play key roles in its outworking.
How about Jonah... "Jonah I want you to go to Nineveh" What's Jonah say? NOPE, I will not go.... So if FREE WILL IS KING....
How come God doesn't say "Well OK, if that is what you want, then I can't do anything about it, in fact for me to even try, would be to violate my own law of "FREE WILL"... But we know this is not true, God says to himself, "Oh yes you will go" God arranges a fish.
There was so much more to Jonah’s story than the fish….All these examples teach us something about God and how he has a way of bringing his will to a completion without overriding free will, which always has consequences.
Humans are unique in that they are the only creatures whom God endowed with imagination. That is the ability to discern past, present and future events and place them in logical order. Even if we have never experienced a penalty, we can know what to expect through someone else’s experience, which we can then mentally transfer to ourselves and use it as a deterrent.
When God told Adam that he would die if he ate the forbidden fruit….Adam had never seen a human die….but since he had in all probability seen animals die, (nowhere does the Bible tell us that animals can live forever) he knew what death meant….it was not the gateway to another life…but the cessation of it.
Life and death are opposites, but the devil’s first lie is still promoted in the idea that you “surely will not die” and hence the belief in an immortal soul….something the Bible does not teach.
We are also endowed with a conscience, that small inner voice that tells us when something is right or wrong…..and woe betide us if we ignore it….trouble will surely follow…..eventually ending in regret.
