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 of us may have chosen not to believe or worship God. “A loving God would not allow so many bad things to happen to so many good people”, many of would say. We proclaim that God should have created a so-called “perfect world” in which all people would do the right and proper thing all of the time. If that were the case, we would never have crimes like murder, rape, theft, lust, lies, greed, and deceit. And there is a lot to be said for a perfect world.

The fact is, however, that God did create a perfect world and he created humans 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, or always behave in the correct way, then we would be nothing more than programmed robots which are only capable 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. In fact, I think that–because God didn’t make the world “perfect” (at least from our human perspective)–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 productive and blissful life. There were all kinds of wonderful trees in the garden, among them, the Tree of Life which brought forth delicious fruit to freely eat and enjoy. God loved what He had created. He told the Man and Woman to be fruitful and multiply, 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 called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is where the double-edged nature of free will entered 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 and Satan, among other names–“chose” to rebel against God (Luke 10:18). Worse yet, in various verses throughout the old and New Testament, the Bible appears to imply that many more angels joined with Lucifer and also became enemies of God.

The serpent in the garden, which seems 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 there with 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 deceptions.

So, that is our world. God gave Man (men and women together) the power to rule over the earth but we sort of handed it over to the serpent through–among other undesirable qualities–disobedience, idolatry, greed, lust, pride and envy. We became slaves to these things, but God Himself (ref. the account of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22) arranged for our release through Jesus who is the Lamb of God; God incarnate. Regardless, I realize that some who read this will not see it the way I do. Leave me a comment with your thoughts and we can discuss it further.