Why didn’t God create us as perfect beings?

I think people have asked this question from the beginning of time. Many of us believe in God, but we struggle to understand why there is so much suffering, pain, and heartache in the world. Others have simply opted out of believing in God at all. “A loving God would not allow so many bad things to happen to so many good people”, many would say. We proclaim that God should have created a so-called “perfect world” in which people would always do the right and proper thing. If that were so, we would never have crimes like murder, rape, theft, lust, lies, greed, and deceit. And I don’t deny it; there is a lot to be said for having a perfect world.

The fact is, however, that God did create–In The Beginning–a perfect world, and he created human beings with a unique and divine quality. That quality is the freedom to choose. If God had created us in a way that compelled us to always make the right decision, always say or do the right thing, and always behave in the correct way, then we would be nothing more than programmed robots! Moreover, we would be capable only of doing what God deems to be good. On the surface that sounds great, but it actually results in an entirely pretentious, scripted, “fake news” type of world. But I digress. Since we believe that God did not make the “perfect world” we all hoped for, we try to do it ourselves. The outcome of our efforts is still very much in doubt!

I believe that the Bible is the Living Word of God and that it tells us the entire Truth of God and Mankind. Based on that premise, let’s take a look at what happens in Genesis after God creates Man in two forms; male (Adam) and female (Eve). First of all, everything in the Garden of Eden was “perfect”. God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed to live a beautiful and blissful life. There were a plethora of wonderful trees in the garden, among them, the Tree of Life, which brought forth delicious fruit to eat and enjoy. God loved what He had created. He told the Man and the Woman to eat of the tree, to be fruitful and multiply, and to have dominion over the whole Earth and over all the living things He had created. (Genesis 1:28)

He also planted another tree in the Garden; The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is where the double-edged nature of free will enters the scene. God told Adam that he and Eve must not eat the fruit of that tree. He made it very clear, saying “for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). That’s where things took a nasty turn. In addition to creating human beings, God created Angels as well. While most angels loved God and worked together with Him for good, one of them, known as Lucifer (Satan is his name in the New Testament) “chose” to rebel against God (Luke 10:18). Many biblical scholars theorize that Lucifer’s fall was even briefly described in the book of Isaiah, chapter 14 verses 12-15. There is also a passage in the New Testament which seems to imply that many more angels joined with Lucifer and they also became enemies of God (Revelation 12, verses 3,4, and 9).

The serpent in the garden, which appears to have been the fallen angel Lucifer (now known as Satan) successfully tempted Eve to eat from the tree which God had forbidden. He told her she would “surely NOT die” but rather, her eyes would be opened and she would be like God (Genesis 3:4,5) . Sadly, even as he stood near to Eve, listening to the lies of the serpent, Adam also consumed the fruit instead of protecting her from this great folly, and rebuking Satan’s destructive deceptions!

So, that is why our world is no longer “perfect”. God gave Man (mankind: men and women together) the power to rule over the earth but, essentially, we handed over that authority to the serpent by way of our disobedience, idolatry, greed, anger, lust, pride and envy. We became slaves to these things, but God had a plan to restore us and draw us back to Him through Jesus, the Lamb of God, God incarnate. I realize that some who read this will still not see it the way I do. Regardless, while life presents a difficult–and often painful–path, I believe that God has given us all a way (Jesus, The Way) to survive this world, and reconcile with Him; if we’re only willing to Trust Him and follow His Voice.