I think I have a pretty good grasp on some of the hard topics regarding God. I understand why we have a free will, even though so many of us choose wrongly. I see the necessity of certain paradoxes, such as “the great and terrible day of the Lord.” I’m okay with God’s decision to allow suffering to strengthen love. I’m even comfortable with the fact that there are just mysteries to God that we probably will not understand in this life.
As I was listening to a body-builder explain the fall of mankind last night, though, a question arose in my heart that’s been plauging me for some 12 hours: Why put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden in the first place?
Before you start explaining theology to your computer screen allow me to reassure you that I understand the following:
1. Hell was never intended for people.
2. God does not send people to hell; people send themselves to hell.
3. We have free will.
4. God is just and good.
My question, though, is, from the very begining of the whole thing, why put the tree there at all if He didn’t want them to eat from it? With the ability to see the end from the beginning, God must have known that Satan would convince them, that sin would enter the world, and that thousands would never escape it. He must have known from the very beginning that some would reject Him, and later reject Christ, and suffer an eternity of torment for it.
Assuming the tree was somehow necessary, why create man at all? Again, knowing that some would suffer so much for so long. Why create someone hoping for the best, but ultimately knowing his eternity would be unspeakably horrible? Wouldn’t it be a greater expression of love to deny Himself of His desire for man because He knows that some will condemn themselves? Because I’m sure if you could ask anyone in hell, they’d rather to never have been alive.
Read through the four assertions above again. I know these things. All I’m asking is, “Why?” On day four of creation, looking down the horizon of time into eternity, why didn’t He see those suffering for all time and scrap the whole plan?
I’m not backsliding, here. Not doubting. Not foresaking my salvation – because whether or not I understand or agree with it all, I know it’s true. And I’m sure there’s an answer that someday I will understand. I’d like it to be today, though.
