Bible Question:
I would never question God. He is the Lord of my life. I just wonder if anyone else thinks like me? Why . . . if God is all powerful (and He is), why if God is sovereign (and He is), and all knowing . . . would He allow us to be created with a mean devil who may or may not set a trap for us and is trying to kill us? God knew the Bible would be written. He knew the devil would try to take over. He knew it all would happen. I am just wondering why, if He knew me before I was born (and He did), why couldn't He just love us and make us love Him? Why all the tests and choices? He knows who will and who will not accept Him already. Right? Thank you.
Bible Answer:
The major issue you are struggling with is understanding God. It is not an issue in logic, but an issue in understanding the mind of God. We do not understand why He has made the decisions He has and we do not understand Him.
Princple
If we could understand Him, then we would understand why this universe even exists. We would understand why He created angels and humans. Today, scientists claim that the universe started with a big bang, but they cannot tell us why the big bang occurred. They cannot tell us where the matter came from that resulted in the big bang. In short, the big bang does not explain anything about the origin of anything. It is a nice theory which does not solve anything. The big bang theory says that everything started at some point in space; everything came into existence with a big explosion, and everything has been been expanding outward ever since. But we have discovered from the Hubble Telescope satellite that the expansion of the universe is not slowing down from the center of the theorized big bang. In fact, they have discovered that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. This contradicts the theory. So scientists are now revising their theory. In short, we do not understand our world and universe. We are in discovery.
God is a Mystery
But God understands all of this – He made it. An even greater mystery than the origin of the universe is: how can God be self-existent?
For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself . . . (NASB) John 5:26
We do not understand the concept of a Trinity. We do not understand salvation or why He allowed Adam and Eve to make a decision that resulted in sin entering the world. We do not understand why God created us and loves us. Why does such an awesome being want us to love Him and to know Him? That is a incredible question. Forget asking why He would die for us. Why did He even love Adam in the first place? That is where it all started. If we are honest, we have to admit that we do not understand any of these things let alone such an infinite and powerful being.
Conclusion:
Since we do not understand Him, we have many many questions. Why couldn’t He just love us and make us love Him? All I can tell you is what God says. He wants us to choose to love Him (rather than being forced to do so) and has given us that choice.
And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” (NASB) Luke 10:27
Why all the tests and choices? He says that it is designed to make us spiritually mature.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (NASB) Hebrews 12:11
Years ago I realized that I needed to just admit I could not understand and accept what is true. There are some things about an infinite, holy, self-existing being that I will never understand or comprehend. God, thank you for loving us. Thank you that we are not robots.