Question: If God knew that Adam & Eve were going to sin, why did he let them sin?
How do we answer a question like this?
1. Whenever answering questions about God, we use the Bible...
We can't just "make things up" from whatever seems right. If we do, we will be constantly changing our minds - like the song "Tossed to and Fro"
The Bible isn't arranged by topic - unfortunately. We can't look up things like "How God thinks" or "What happened before the creation of the world"?
What we do see in the Bible is the things God has done.
We put as many of these together as we can
Ex: a jigsaw puzzle - the more you "fill in" the more you can see what the whole picture is about
2. ...and we use our minds.
"Based on what I know about God, what is the answer here?"
Q: Does God have to "make sense" - can I look at what God did in the Bible and know what he will do in the future?
A: Yes and no. If God wasn't predictable, we would have a hard time trusting him. But God can cause miracles, he can do the unexpected; he also cannot do certain things: lie, change, un-create himself, make a square circle, etc.
But, we generally use what we know God has done (the Bible) as a clue for what he will do in the future.
3. We should check with more than one person on tough questions
To see if their answers match
Because having things explained in more than one way will help you understand better
If God knew that Adam & Eve were going to sin, why did he let them sin?
1. Did God know?
Like our example from a couple of weeks ago, God is like a man sitting in a tower watching the parade go by - he sees the beginning, middle and end.
Some people believe "God doesn't know the future"
Others believe "God could know but he chooses not to" - like climbing down off the tower
I (Mark) believe that yes, God does know the future (although it isn't the future to him). Eph. 1:4 and other places talk of God making decisions before the start of time.
2. If he knew, why did God let them do it?
...because sin makes the world worse, and causes death, why wouldn't God prevent that?
A: God lets people make choices. Not trees or mountains - they make no choices. And animals don't make moral choices - no knowledge of right & wrong.
God won't take away our freedom to make moral choices. In the end, this makes him look even better!
Ex: Two teachers, Mr. X and Mr. Y
Teacher Mr. X never let his students make any mistakes. He watched over their shoulders as they worked and made everyone stay on the same problem at the same time. This frustrated the faster workers. As soon as it looked like someone was going to mis-spell a word or add something wrong, Mr. X would raise his voice and say, “STOP!” so they’d catch their mistake.
Mr. X gave all his students the questions to every test ahead of time. That way, they could just memorize all the answers. And wouldn’t you know it? Mr. X’s students all got As.
On the first day of school, Mr. X had his students write “Get Well” cards and “Thank You” cards. You know who they were for? For him! So when he came down with the flu in January, he got 30 get well cards from his students. And at the end of the year, he mailed the thank you cards to himself, too.
Teacher Mr. Y did the best he could to teach his students, but in the end, he let them be themselves. He knew that some kids were better at math than others, so he didn’t expect everyone to do things perfectly. Mr. Y would give homework, and have students do it on their own. Then, when it was graded, he let students come to him during recess or after school and work to fix their mistakes.
Mr. Y’s kids didn’t always do great on tests. But, a fair number did. And there were a few students who started the year not really liking school all that much who raised their grades to all As by the end of the year.
When Mr. Y went in the hospital to have his appendix out, half of the kids in his class sent him Get Well cards on their own. And at the end of the year, 20 out of 30 kids gave him some kind of Thank You gift.
What was being a student like in Mr. X's classroom? In Mr. Y's classroom?
Who was more loved by his students? Mr. Y - his students wrote him cards even though they didn't have to
Which teacher is more like God? Mr. Y. God wants us to love him, but he gives us the choice.
So...when a human chooses to love God, it makes God look great, because there were so many other things that person could have chosen to love.
God took a chance by giving us freedom...we might not choose him. But, to take away our choice would make us like robots. Then we wouldn't really be choosing to love him.
Rocks, trees, mountains - make us say, "God must be pretty cool"
Animals - make us say, "God is very cool"
A person who has chosen to love God even though they didn't have to - makes us say, "God must be awesome!"
