What God’s Up To on Planet Earth?. Mark J. Keown

moves towards its climax.44 The last century had more wars and death than any before it. There were world wars, nuclear threats, natural disasters and now the threat of extremists who violate the stability of society.

      Self-Realisation

      I remember before my conversion to Christianity, when I was searching for God and bemoaning the state of the world – its greed, oppression, pride and spiritual futility – the truth progressively dawned on me that I was part of the problem. I became aware that if the world was to change, it had to start with me, with my attitudes, my actions and words. I realised I was corrupted and needed to be transformed. I recognised that there was only one person in the world I had the power to change, and that was me. This was the beginning of my path to restoration.

      This is not to say that we are worthless and unloved. On the contrary, the principles of the first chapter still stand – God loves us absolutely and unconditionally, despite our flawed lives.45 We are made in his image – despite the image being broken and flawed – and he cares for us so deeply that it hurts. He doesn’t enjoy our sinfulness, our bad attitudes, deeds and words, but his love for us is relentless and he is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to spend eternity with us.

      Why Did God Allow Such a Tragedy?

      Another question you might have is, ‘Why would God create such a world if it would fall?’ The answer is found in the principles outlined in chapter one. The first thing to say is that God created so that he would have a love-based volitional relationship with every person, and although we have fallen, that is not the end of the story. He is not a God who gives up easily. He will pursue the relationship and find a way out (see the next chapter). The second thing to realise is that God, who is all-knowing and has all knowledge across time (omniscient), knew that this fall would occur but still went ahead with his creation.46 He did so because true awareness of freedom requires choice. In a sense, God allowed the possibility of the Fall so that freedom would be real and revealed.

      We can go further. God in his omniscience actually knew that some would fall but still went ahead. Why? He did so because of his love and yearning for relationship. God, because of this love and desire to create and give freedom, considered it worthwhile to create for those who would ultimately accept his offer of relationship. God considered it better to create and risk losing some than not to create at all. We can understand this from human relationships – to risk loving is to risk rejection. The alternative is to resist relationships and die lonely. As the saying goes, ‘It is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.’ This is the risk that every parent takes when having a child. One never knows whether the child will choose obedience, love and goodness. Yet humanity continues to have children because it is worth the risk. In the same way, God chose to create us.

      Conclusion

      The tragedy of human history is that while God longs to have an eternal relationship of love with every human, he will not do this because of his character of purity and our hearts of sin. The answer to the question ‘What is wrong with the world?’ is sin – or, even more accurately, evil. So is there a way out? Is there a way in which the original relationship can be restored? Is there a way to save people and leave them with volition, with their ability to say yes or no to God? Thankfully there is, and to this we now turn.

      Questions for Reflection