Thesis #92 of 95 -  In choosing to retain Adam and Eve as the procreative fountainhead of humanity after their rebellion, it must have been God's intention that evil and suffering  enter the world

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

Rom8:20-21[NASB] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Mt18:7 Woe to the world in view of its stumbling blocks! Yet it is necessary [ἀνάγκη]  that such stumbling blocks come; but woe to the person through whom the stumbling blocks come!

Heb2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering

1Jn4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

COMMENTS

Whether the Adam and Eve account in Genesis is taken symbolically or (as in my case) literally, it is to show that God had granted Satan permission to test humankind in her primeval infancy. And having failed that test, our loving but inscrutable God made the decision to utilize our disobedient first parents as the sin-polluted procreative fountain source for future humanity. For, as I have been demonstrating , the resultant suffering, division and ongoing struggle with Evil is no accident but a providential necessity (cf. Mt18:7).

Christ as human creation’s firstborn, in the sense of her representative/leader, epitomized such suffering and He did so on the cross. His Father (being God) had been perfectly entitled to enjoy unbroken felicity. Yet for mankind’s sake He was prepared to endure the agony of observing His only begotten Son’s humiliation and death.

WHY GOD PERMITS EVIL

If Satan had been barred from planet Earth or Adam and Eve had been erased and replaced as a result of their disobedience, Christ need not have died. But God permitted His arch-enemy what appeared to be an extraordinary victory for the sake of what He knew would be the ideal preparation for the beings created in His image to be raised from dust and prepared for a glorious destiny.

This hints at the solution to what for most Christians is the ultimate mystery of the universe: Why would a God the bible describes as love personified (1Jn4:8), permit and perpetuate evil and suffering in this world? The matter will (I trust) be given fuller resolution in the next thesis (#93) and is explained in detail in The Little Book of Providence (chapters 6 and 7).

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