What went wrong? What has ruined the good beginning that God gave to our first parents in Paradise Eden? Why, instead of the peace and harmony of paradise, have wickedness and suffering prevailed for thousands of years.
The reason is that Adam and Eve abused their free will. They lost sight of the fact that they were not created to live apart from God and His laws. They decided to become independent of God and thought that would improve their lives. So they stepped outside God's limits of free will.
Why did not God just destroy Adam and Eve and start again with another human couple? Because his universal sovereignty, that is, his inalienable right to rule, had been questioned.
The question was, who has the right to govern, and whose rule is right? His mightiness and the Creator of all creatures give God the right to rule over them. Since he is all wise, his rule is best for all creatures. But God's rule had now been called into question. Was something wrong with his creations? We will examine later what the issue of human integrity is.
Another question was implied by the independence of man from God: Could people become better if they are not ruled by God? The Creator certainly knew the answer, but finding a safe way for the people was to give them the total freedom they wanted. They chose this path of free will, so God allowed it.
By giving people enough time to experiment with complete freedom, God will determine for all time whether people are better off under God's rule or on their own. And the time allowed should be long enough to allow people to get what they saw as the culmination of their political, industrial, scientific and medical achievements.
Therefore, God has given man a free hand to make clear to this day whether the human rule independent of him can succeed. So man was able to choose between goodness and cruelty, love and hatred, righteousness and injustice. But he was also confronted with the consequences of his choice: goodness and peace or malice and suffering.
Rebellion of Spirit Creatures
There is another factor to consider. Our original parents were not the only ones who rebelled against God's rule. But who still existed then? Spiritual beings. Before God created man, he created a higher form of life, a great number of angels, to live in the heavenly kingdom. They, too, were created with free will, and also with the need to submit to the rule of God (Job 38: 7). Psalm 104: 4; Revelation 5:11.
The Bible shows that rebellion first broke out in the spiritual realm. A spirit wanted total freedom. He even wanted people to worship him. (Matthew 4: 8, 9) This spirit rebel became a factor in repressing Adam and Eve, falsely claiming that God withheld from them something good. (Genesis 3: 1-5) That's the name of the devil (slanderer) and Satan (adversary). Later, he caused other spirits to rebel. They became known as demons (Deuteronomy 32:17); Revelation 12: 9; 16:14.
People, rebelling against God, gave in to the influence of Satan and his demons. Therefore, the Bible calls Satan "the god of this system of things," who "blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers." Therefore, God's Word says that "the whole world is in the power of evil." Jesus himself called Satan "the ruler of this world" (2 Corinthians 4: 4); 1 John 5:19; John 12:31.
Two Issues
Satan has raised another question that God has challenged. In fact, he blamed God for making mistakes, for creating human beings, and that no one wants to do the right thing when he's pressured. In fact, he claimed that they would even curse God in the test. (Job 2: 1-5) In this way, Satan questioned the integrity of human creation.
Therefore, God has left enough time for all intelligent creatures to see how this problem and the question of God's sovereignty are resolved. (Compare Exodus 9:16.) The ultimate experience of human history would reveal the truth about these two questions.
What would time reveal about the issue of universal sovereignty, the rightness of God's rule? Could people rule themselves better than God? Would any system of human domination, apart from God, usher in a happy world free from war, crime and injustice? Would poverty be eliminated and prosperity created for all? Would anyone be able to overcome illness, old age and death? God's rule was destined to do all of this (Genesis 1: 26-31).
As for the second question, what would time reveal about the value of human creation? Was it a mistake that God created people like Him? Would one of them do the right thing in the test? Would people show that they wanted God's rule instead of independent human rule?
