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Transcript 546A
Why Did God Create a Universe that Would Fall?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hi, Mr. Camping. I have one question, and I really don't know how to state the question, but I'll do it the best I can. I'm a Christian, but I've had a problem that I've dealt with for quite some time. And last night on your show you discussed the creation of evil. Well, if God knew that there was evil or that there would be evil, or that Eve would succumb to Satan in the Garden, why was it all done? Why did He do it?
HC: The question is, if God knew that after He had created this universe good and perfect so that everything was very good, everything was to God's glory, there was no sin, if God knew that somehow the angels would rebel against Him, as Lucifer did and became Satan, as Eve did and so mankind became rebellious against God, why did He do this? It ends up that He has to send most of the human race into hell, a great number of the angels are going to end up in hell. How can all of this come to pass?
Well, we get a clue in Ephesians 1. In Ephesians 1 God discusses why He saved us. He says in verse 5: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved." In verse 11: "in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ." Now that's one strong clue that God gives us, that the whole plan of mankind's creation, the universe's creation and all that followed out of it, and then finally the redemption of man, was to the praise of God's glory.
Now let's develop this for just a little bit. Let's suppose that God said, "I am infinitely holy, I am altogether just, I am altogether gracious, I am altogether merciful, I am infinitely loving," and so on and so on. That's one thing. But suppose that God now says, "I am all these things, and I will demonstrate, so that all of the principalities and powers (whomever God is demonstrating this to) will all see this in actuality." Then God will be glorified even more greatly.
Now notice that in saving us how God's justice was maintained. For God to save us He could not just say, "Well, by sovereign decree, because I am God, I forgive you, sinners, and you are going to be My children." No, God had laid down the law that the wages of sin is death, and there could be no avoidance of that. And so it was necessary that God Himself take on a human nature and endure the wrath of God, the equivalent of an eternity in hell, in order that God's justice might remain inviolate, so that it would still be absolutely holy justice.
Now that's a fantastic idea, you see. And then in accomplishing this and maintaining this holy justice, God also showed His fantastic love, that He would condescend to do this, and His grace and His mercy, and so on. In other words, in this whole plan God is demonstrating in no uncertain terms the reality of His attributes that come to the fore in the salvation program.
But with that I'll have to say Good Night, because we've run out of time.