Some of us distrust God because we believe he established a flawed system.
God’s System
First, God created a perfect place called heaven and filled it with perfect beings, known as angels, even though he knew that Satan, a high-ranking angel, would rebel against him and persuade many of his angelic cohorts to join the revolt.
Then God created a perfect universe, including the earth, which he populated with two perfect people, Adam and Eve, even though he knew they would succumb to Satan’s temptation and defy him.
God knew their defiance would allow evil to damage his perfect world, render us innately sinful, and cause suffering for everyone. He recognized that our native sinfulness would automatically disqualify us from heaven.
God realized this situation would require him, in the person of Jesus, to come to earth and die so we could have the opportunity to enjoy eternity in heaven despite our sinfulness.
But he also knew the death of Jesus would not immediately rid the world of evil, and our suffering would continue as a result.
He understood that this suffering would be the primary reason we distrust him. Moreover, he realized that this distrust would leave many of us indifferent to his salvation plan.
So why did God create a system with these inherent vulnerabilities when he foresaw all the harmful outcomes that would result?
The answer is a matter of will.
Free Will
God created angels and humans with free will so we could love him and each other by choice and carry out our assigned tasks.
Our free will enables us to think whatever we want, whenever we want, within certain constraints.
It allows us to make choices within limits and to pursue what we believe will advance our perceived self-interest.
Advent Of Evil
Suffering is ultimately a manifestation of evil.
Evil stems from wrong choices rooted in moral untruth, which is a lie, deception, distortion, or half-truth about what God deems morally true.
God intended the angels, Adam, and Eve to exercise their free will to make the right choices grounded in moral truth, thereby producing the superior outcomes his perfect system was designed to achieve.
Instead, they misused their free will to make wrong choices grounded in moral untruth. The ensuing evil damaged God’s perfect system, which now produces inferior outcomes he never intended.
The Alternative
God could have avoided these suboptimal results by creating the angels, Adam, and Eve without free will. However, he rejected this option because of its inherent defects.
Foremost among them, as descendants of Adam and Eve, we would not have free will.
Without free will, our ability to conceive new ideas and create new things would be limited. As a result, we would be indifferent to discovery, exploration, and invention.
We would be disinterested in actualizing our potential. The world would be void of culture, e.g., no art, literature, poetry, music, or humor.
Our moral values would be determined individually by instinctive responses to our current needs and circumstances, without regard for the greater good.
We would be apathetic about building civil, just, and free societies. We would not care about being fair, gracious, or merciful to others.
We would be complacent about forming new relationships, incapable of truly loving anyone.
This brings us to the ultimate reason God gave the angels, Adam, Eve, and us free will.
Ultimate Reason
God wanted to enjoy an eternal relationship with us, one based on mutual love. True love is not a function of instinct or feelings; it is a matter of choice.
God dedicated himself to loving us the moment he contemplated our existence. He had to grant us free will so we could choose to love him in return.
God determined that the upside benefit of giving us free will—eternal relationships with us based on mutual love—outweighed the downside risk inherent in our volitional freedom—the temporal evil resulting from our immoral choices.
This risk assessment is remarkable, given the cumulative devastation evil has inflicted throughout history across every earthly realm, including our individual well-being, our relationships, our societies, and the natural world.
God’s desire to commune with us outweighs all that damage, which is astonishing. The intensity of his yearning is beyond our comprehension.
Best Outcome
God is omniscient and unconstrained by time. He sees the ultimate outcomes of all possibilities simultaneously.
God selected the current system over all other potential variations because he knew it would yield the best possible outcome.
That result will ultimately be heaven on earth, inhabited by blissful people who delight in God, his creation, and one another as they actualize their personal potential.
