Why Would God Create Life Knowing There Would Be Loss?

written by Tiffany Smith

Introduction

I am basing this study off of a question from a young girl wondering why God would create mankind knowing – since He is omniscient – that man would sin and have the potential to be condemned and cast into hell. It is a very valid question that could rock anyone’s faith in God. I am going to do my best in this study to use what scriptural evidence we are provided and the conclusions we can make about the mind of God from His word – the Bible.

Timeline

Part of this young girl’s question also involves Satan’s role as the opposing force to God. I would like to start here with what timeline I can provide from scripture about mankind’s creation in relation to the creation of angels. The reason my correlation is between man and angels is because in my own studied opinion I think Satan is an angel that fell from God’s grace when he rebelled against the authority of God (Ezekiel 28:11-19; Isaiah 14:12-15; Luke 10:18).

Unfortunately, I do not know of any scripture that provides us with a timeline of the creation of the spiritual realm and angels in relation to earth and man’s creation. What I do know is that at some point man and angels’ lives coincided. We see the first example of this when Satan tempts Eve in the garden. What I also cannot put scripture with to give a definite timeline is Satan’s fall from grace in relation to the creation of mankind. It would seem logical that Satan’s fall was after man was created, because I think it can be assumed Satan would waste no time tempting the rest of God’s creation after He was cast from the glory of heaven, and the only other part of God’s creation at the the beginning that He could corrupt without any longer having access to heaven was mankind: Adam and Eve.

The Question

Let’s return to the original question: Why would God create life knowing there would be loss? 

If we accept and understand that God is omniscient – all knowing, then the conclusion is that God chose to create man despite knowing that many souls would face condemnation. 

So, I suppose the question that stems from this is – Why would a loving God create life knowing many would face condemnation?

1. Life or No Life

Consider this – the choice God had knowing what would transpire from his choice was either create life or not create life at all. I suppose one could also argue that he could have created life differently but I will discuss more in relation to this in other sections. So, the choice was before him of whether or not to create life and God chose life. Is giving life not a loving act? Focus on the simplicity of the question for a moment without the other factors that we consider controversial about this choice. But, if you looked at this question without any background knowledge I think that the answer we would probably conclude would be yes, that is loving. I would like to try to provide here a scenario for illustrative purposes that may help us relate to the choice God had before him.

A woman with a genetic condition that could be passed down to her offspring, desires to have a child of her own. The choice before the woman is to have the child despite the potential it may suffer the same genetic condition she has or she can choose not to try to conceive at all. The woman desires a true being of her own – a child of her own. And, I think some women could empathize with this woman and if she were to choose to have a child would not think this woman to be an unloving mother. Now, we understand that with God’s choice he knew the outcome, but a similarity to both these examples, however, is love and potential. God wanted reciprocated love from his creation. And, the creation he created was made with the potential for condemnation, but his creation was also made with the potential for everlasting life.

2. Free Will

In this section I want to revert back to the statement I made in the previous section, which is that some people could argue that God could have created his creation in a different manner in which they would not have the possibility of failure (condemnation).

However, God wanted a creation that chose him, so created mankind with freewill and unfortunately allows us to be tempted as Job was because with freewill and temptation man’s true character is revealed. Would we be faithful and choose God through difficult times like Job or would we only want Him if life was easy? Would you want a friend or parent that was only on your side if things were easy? I wouldn’t think so. I think true love involves devotion through difficult things. 

The kind of love we would want from our parents, from a spouse, and definitely the kind of love God wants from us and the love we would want from God. Free will is also a loving, blessing that God has given his creation. We actually have great freedom in Christ under the new covenant. Of course we still have commands from God to follow, but because he has given us free will we get to choose things of joy and pleasure. We get to choose our friends, our spouse, whether or not we want to have children, what work we do to provide for our families, hobbies we enjoy, etc. These may seem trivial and they are in the grand scheme of things, but the point is God made us with the ability to choose. And, that can have good consequences, but unfortunately it can also have bad consequences if we do not make the right choices. Let’s use another illustration here again of a parent and child.

Would it seem very loving for a parent to have a child that they chose everything for: the books they could read, the friends they could be around, the degree they would pursue in school, who they would marry? For many, this restrictive lifestyle would seem very unloving. The child may be getting provided for, but they are not getting to develop a true identity of their own.

3. Authority

I feel that this may be an obvious truth and for some can be difficult to accept, but at the end of the day the choice that was before God was his to make and He had the authority to choose. We may look back on his decision now and have thoughts of our own about how we might have handled that choice, but we shouldn’t try to put ourselves in God’s place of authority or resent him for the decision he made.

 At this point we need to embrace the reality that is set before us: God did create us and we do unfortunately have the potential to be eternally condemned, but God did not create us without a way to keep us from condemnation. He provided a way. At the beginning of the world, faced with the choice we have talked about, God also prepared a plan in His mind that he would bring to fruition to save his creation: sending His son Jesus to die on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin. God did not create us without hope. He planned and made sure to bring about the events necessary for his son to be born, die, and be raised again in newness of life, so that those that chose Him could be saved and live with him in eternity.

God loved us, so He provided a way out of darkness. Consider also that Jesus himself, God’s son, faced what it was to be like us. He was in the flesh, as a man. He faced what it was like to be vulnerable, tempted, persecuted, rejected, killed. He endured all of these things out of love for mankind, so that a way of salvation could be made available for us so that we do not have to face condemnation. 

The place of hell was not even meant for us. Matthew 25:41 tells us that the place of everlasting fire was “prepared for the devil and his angels”.

In John 3:16-17 we see the life God wants for us,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Conclusion:

Let us choose God. Let us love Him as He loves us.

 1 John 4:19 

“We love him, because he first loved us.” 

1 John 4:9

 “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.”