Genesis reveals more profound insights about this Deity: "He saw all that He had made and it was very good." (Genesis 1:31).  His handiwork reflected His nature - His good, and in fact perfect, nature. He could not do or create evil. This scripture also implies God's comment on Man's initial nature: he was good, also, and was "…made in our (God's) image and likeness." (Genesis 1:27).  So the Bible begins by describing creation as God's harmonious masterpiece, reflecting His glorious, benevolent nature.  He is not a mere "Force" or an "It" or a "Scrooge," but a kind and personal, yet almighty, God.

Paradise Lost

If this is an accurate picture of the true Creator-God and of our origins, then what happened to the utopian world of our first parents? If this God could not create the many forms of evil such as natural calamities, disease, disharmony, lack, insecurity and even death, then who or what originated it? If the God of the Bible is really sovereign and holy and loving and personal, then how could He allow, if not cause, such ruin and heartache that abounds in the world today? Again, the Total Truth - Big Picture thinking (see previous chapter), His revelation from the Bible, provides the insight. God knows the end from the beginning of ALL things.

This Awesome God

This God constantly reveals Himself as a covenant-making God, who lives eternally in a three-Person covenant.  They share a single-minded, single-hearted Oneness of selfless intimacy, unfathomable to our darkened mind.  Graciously, He chose to express His magnanimous nature through His creation.  Yet, by granting the gift of a free will to every angel and every human being, He revealed another side of Himself - longsuffering.

The Divine Risk

Now, for the first time ever, it became possible for a created being to reject selflessness and to oppose his Creator God's holy will and thus contradict His essence of goodness, perfection and inter-personal harmony.  This infinite risk to divine order and peace provided the opportunity for God to express Himself as submissive, vulnerable and even sacrificial within His tri-person being and to all creation.  And the unspeakable calamity that God's infinite wisdom allowed for happened! 

Evil is Born

First, Lucifer, a light-exuding angel, challenged his creator's rightful authority and rejected just submission to his Master. Instantly, God's light in him ceased and he became Darkness.  When one third of the angelic host followed his treachery, the spiritual Kingdom of Evil began.

For the first time ever, righteousness, peace, joy and love were spurned; evil, turmoil, grief and hate became embodied. For the first time ever, chaos challenged order, anarchy challenged law, bondage challenged liberty and death challenged life. And in the Garden, wickedness tempted innocence - and won. Man's perfect nature became corrupt to the core.  Now, as a willing pawn under the fatherhood of the Devil, man was capable of any atrocity that Satan's selfishness could inspire. Robbery, rape, murder and war became acceptable, even normal, among humans. And it grieved the Spirit of this all-loving Father God. 

Creation Groans, Mercy Intervenes

Creation's harmonious order was destroyed in the worldwide flood of Noah's day.  It was the natural result of the unbridled spiritual chaos that reigned over the earth.  A longsuffering God watched his creatures revel in the lusts of darkness.  He chose to spare Noah - and by extension, mankind - from annihilation, even though His mercy eventually cost Him His very own Son. What sacrifice, what selfless love. Isn't this God worth knowing?