A REASONABLE ANSWER TO A TROUBLESOME QUESTION

By Maurice Barnett

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uestion: "Why would a God of love create a race of beings, knowing that He would have to sentence the vast majority of them to suffer forever in hell?"

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here are three other questions that belong in the same class: (1) "Where did God come from?" (2) "Why did God create a universe such as ours to begin with?" (3) "Why did God create a race of countless angels who are beings of free will when an untold number of them will spend eternity suffering in hell (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6)?" Whatever can be said of humans can be said of angels. Many things involved in an answer to the question you were asked are beyond information given to us in revelation. God has always existed, according to the Bible. He had no beginning but has always been. We do know something of why the universe was created and why man is here. From those items comes at least some answer to the question you were asked.

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irst, The Bible teaches that God is eternal, always existing. The universe is just a "short" slice of that eternity; it had a beginning and will have an end. What God was doing before he brought the universe into existence is something we are not told and so there is no use in speculating.

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e do know that this universe was planned before creation ever began. God did not plan nor did He will for man to sin but did have a plan contingent on man sinning. The Calvinist view of the sovereignty of God and predestination are not true. God did not force the angels who sinned to do so nor did He do that regarding man. Angels have free will and decided on their own to sin just as Adam did. It is the nature of free will to make decisions about one's course of action.

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econd, God created the universe to His own glory, declaring His existence (Romans 1:18ff). It announces to all sentient beings that the all powerful God exists. It is obvious that God has never wanted to live in a "closet" vacuum, all alone. Consider His nature as an intelligent, emotional and all powerful God. Those characteristics must be exercised, God had to do something. Do people suppose that He just "sat around" all alone and "twiddled His thumbs" for eternity?

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hird, man is created in the spiritual image and likeness of God (Genesis 1). The angels were also created in His image and likeness. Such created beings have not been given the powers and abilities of God but in other respects they are the same. Angels and man have free will, just as God does. That is what would be expected in creating beings in His image and likeness. What value would there have been for God to have created mere robots who could only act in every detail as God dictated? He could have created such beings but there would have been neither value nor glory to God in such creatures.

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ourth, it must be kept in mind that the doctrine of "omnipresence" does not mean that God fills all space. God is in heaven, which is neither this earth nor this universe. Heaven existed before this universe and will continue to exist after this universe is gone. I will not take time and space here to argue that from Scriptures. God has used angels throughout this universe time period to carry out numberless acts. He has done this with intelligent, free will, spiritual beings made in His own image. Some of them, with inflated egos, rebelled and suffered punishment because of it. Undoubtedly, they knew the consequences of doing that and chose that path, anyway. They didn't have to do it, were not forced into rebellion.

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ifth, man was made a little lower than the angels because human spirits are confined to a body of flesh. Jesus promises us that in the resurrection we will be like the angels (Matt. 22). As angels have had their tasks to perform (Heb. 1:13-14), so has man (Gen. 1:28; Psalm 8).

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n creating the earth and bringing life into it, God made man in His own image, creatures of intelligence, ability to reason, communicate, with emotions, creativity with a body having the dexterity to carry out the tasks God gave mankind. We are here to rule over and subdue God's creation which includes the Sun, Moon, Stars and this earth. We are just now fully showing the image of God in us by our bending the Sun, Moon, Planets and space itself to our own authority. Look at the marvelous things man has accomplished through the centuries as well. All man lacked four thousand years ago was the technology we have today in order to do what we do today. Consider the Pyramids, for example, or the Roman engineers inventing concrete that can set up under sea water. That took great intelligence, reasoning and imaginative work. Even the atheists glorify God though they deny him, just because of their God-given spirit that acts in accord with the purpose of man's existence here. All men are children of God by special creation and the spiritual children of God by special recreation. As man is to glorify God in ruling over God's creation, Christians are not only to do that but also to glorify God in life and conduct.

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n creating the earth and bringing life into it, God made man in His own image, creatures of intelligence, ability to reason, communicate, with emotions, creativity with a body having the dexterity to carry out the tasks God gave mankind. We are here to rule over and subdue God's creation which includes the Sun, Moon, Stars and this earth. We are just now fully showing the image of God in us by our bending the Sun, Moon, Planets and space itself to our own authority. Look at the marvelous things man has accomplished through the centuries as well. All man lacked four thousand years ago was the technology we have today in order to do what we do today. Consider the Pyramids, for example, or the Roman engineers inventing concrete that can set up under sea water. That took great intelligence, reasoning and imaginative work. Even the atheists glorify God though they deny him, just because of their God-given spirit that acts in accord with the purpose of man's existence here. All men are children of God by special creation and the spiritual children of God by special recreation. As man is to glorify God in ruling over God's creation, Christians are not only to do that but also to glorify God in life and conduct.

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ob, other than this short rendition, I don't know of anything else I can say about it. &

Maurice Barnett

Phoenix, AZ

SOME THINGS FOR WHICH WE STAND

By Bob Myhan

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nasmuch we do not wish to be “too negative” in our teaching, here is a list of some things for which we stand. Of course, being for these things puts us squarely against other things.

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Local churches using the power of the gospel to convert lost souls; this places us squarely against local churches using carnal rewards and motivations to “convert” lost souls.

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 Individual members doing "personal" work and local churches doing "congregational" work; this compels us to oppose local churches doing the work of individual members as well as individual members delegating their “personal” responsibilities to the local church.

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 Local churches overseeing their own work; this places us directly against local churches delegating their work to the elders of other local churches.

4

 Scriptural cooperation between congregations that preserves local independence; this causes us to diametrically oppose overseen cooperation of churches.

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 Local churches providing for their own needy members; this places us squarely against local churches providing for the physical needs of non-saints.

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f any of our readers have questions, we will be glad to try to answer them. &