I heard my niece repeat her question from
the Bible study last night. Jodi and I were talking to her sister and their
family over Skype (they’re serving as missionaries in another country). I didn’t
think that now was the time to jump in with a response, especially because I
didn’t know how the question and answer played out in the Bible study itself.
But it’s a question that a lot of Christians, not just young people, have
pondered. The question is this: If God is all-knowing, wouldn’t he know that
Satan was going to be evil, and do something to prevent it? A good question,
indeed!
Strictly speaking, this does not merely
assume God’s omniscience. It also assumes his omnibenevolence, or all-goodness.
It also assumes his omnipotence (or at least a faculty of powers such that he
could overcome Satan’s intentions). This is fine, for these things are part and
parcel of historic Christianity. But then why didn’t God do something about it?
I think the key lies in the concept of love. God wants his creatures to love
him (those that are capable of loving). At some level, and at some time, it
appears Lucifer (Satan’s angelic name) had the ability to love God (and perhaps
most or even all of the angels have had such an opportunity also). But to be in
a love relationship requires two or more participants and a response that freely chooses love.
This makes sense, at least intuitively,
right? Consider a man who wanted a woman to love him. She didn’t seem to at
first, so he breaks out his magic spell. The magic spell makes it to where she
fawns all over him, and even causes her to desire only him.[1]
But can she be really said to love him? At the very least, we recognize she
lacks something crucially important to love relationships: that she at least
should choose to want to love him (or at least should choose to want to choose,
if such a thing be demanded). Instead, this was foisted upon her. Her response
is no different from an automaton.
So then, love requires freedom of choice at
some level. Now the reason God doesn’t intervene is because if a choice is to
be successfully made, it must be free. If God mitigates the choice when Satan
tries to reject him, then it’s not really a choice (that is, forcing Satan to
choose God in the event that Satan tries to reject him[2].
So God allows his choice to be real, and have real consequences. But why would
God, knowing that his world would go so wrong, still stick with it? For a few
reasons: 1. The love relationship God deems to be worth it. That should be
humbling! 2. God knows something we don’t.[3] It
may be that only in this type of a world would we get the number of saved
freely trusting in Christ and living in eternal bliss with him, with the
low-balance to minimize the lost.
What do you think? Let me know in the
comments!
[1] Thanks to Jerry Walls for a relevantly similar
example.
[2] Frankfurt examples are interesting here,
but not directly relevant, since on this discussion it’s not the case that
Satan chooses and God does not intervene. On this supposition, Satan does not
choose God and God has to intervene. Frankfurt examples tend to lose their
intuitive force on these situations.
[3] I once heard Tim McGrew say this.
