Good & Evil: How do we know God isn't deceiving us?

A common question regarding the existence of God really boils down to one thing for many people: How can a God who is so “good” allow for so much evil to exist? If God created everything, then didn’t he create diseases? Cancer? Natural Disasters? Pain? Now, why would a good God create these things?

Taking a few steps back, it’s important to look at creation in the book of Genesis. When God created humankind, he created us in his likeness, “So God created Man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27). So what does it mean to be made in Gods image? Well, we are thinkers, builders, creators, inventors, artists, philosophers and so much more–just as God is. Not only this, but it means we are special from everything else that was created, with dominion over all living things and the earth (Genesis 1:26). To imagine, at one point all that there was were natural resources and we’ve turned all that into what we have today: cities, the internet, transportation, technology, masterpieces, everything! There is not another living thing in the universe that can do what people have done. God made us like him: God is a thinker, builder, creator, inventor, artist, philosopher etc! Those unique traits of ours come from God, who designed us according to his own being.

Now, in addition to all this, God also gave humanity the ability to act on its own enterprise: to have free will. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from one single tree in Genesis 2:17, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”. This was a command from God, but this still allowed Adam and Eve to act as they wished. In order for humans to be what God wanted humans to be, Man couldn’t be His little puppets. God had to let us choose, decide, and act upon our own will: because God acts upon his own will and we are made in his image. Furthermore, God had to create the forbidden fruit, in order to demonstrate to Adam and Eve that they have the ability to choose, because without choices their only option would be to obey God. So the ability to disobey God had to be possible in order for free will to be possible.

After God created Adam and Eve and everything in the world, he saw that it was good, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31). Both Eve and Adam resided in the garden of Eden where everything was good. Image the content, and pure peacefulness they must of felt? A tranquil sublimity must have covered the garden… But even perfection wouldn’t prevent humans from questioning, thinking, and even doubting… God had told Adam and Eve that the world he created for them is good and He had given them everything they needed (Genesis 1:28-31). Yet, how did they know this was true? How did they know God wasn’t holding something back from them? Why couldn’t they have knowledge of good and evil? How did they know God wasn’t selfish, keeping a secret part of creation to himself? Preventing humanity from being as great as God is? No! These questions were inevitable–doubt was inevitable.

See, God created the world built on the basis of faith and trust. Yet, the only way to trust someone is to trust them. If someone is testing trust then they are no longer trusting: but this leaves us vulnerable. To trust and have faith alone leaves humanity in the hands of God, it makes humankind secondary–without full control or knowledge of our own existence. Thus, God understood that humans would doubt, and because of this doubt, the tree of knowledge had to exist and the fall of mankind had to take place. Humans had to have an outlet for their doubt in order to trust God by choice, thus, the fall of humankind had to happen in order for humanity to choose to love our God, instead of being given no other option but to love him. So in order to trust and love God, free will had to exist, and for free will to exist an alternative to God’s will had to be an option for humanity to choose.

No matter how good the world is, with the ability to act on our own being, with no other point of reference than God himself how could Adam and Eve even understand what good even was? If all they ever experienced was good, how could they really know it was good? What if the “good” God gave them was actually bad, and the real “good” God kept for himself and the tree of knowledge was the answer? With nothing to compare Gods goodness too, for all Adam and Eve knew, God could be deceiving them. Of course with no proof, the only way to know for sure is to go against what God has commanded and eat the fruit and discover good and evil.

So just imagine the temptation when God told them not to eat the forbidden fruit? It is true that God is honest, pure, and perfect in all of his ways, but he had to present humanity with choices, which meant the choice to choose his goodness, or to not. Essentially, this comes down to faith and Adam and Eve had to simply trust Him… yet, the looming idea of deception would always hang over humanities head unless tested. Humanity would never really know if what God gave us was in reality good. Which is why good requires the existence of evil; it needs an opposite. Not only does the opposite need to exist but that opposite needs to be obtainable. Evil couldn’t exist solely in theory or in some explanation God could give to us, but it had to be fully real, tangible, obtainable: it had to be a choice, an equal choice to choose good or to choose evil.

So returning to the Tree of Knowledge, God had to present Adam and Eve with the ability to make a decision, essentially saying, “Hey, I have given you everything good, your lives are perfect but please do not eat of this tree, it’s the one thing I ask, but I promise you I have given you everything you will ever need.”. Yet of course, when the serpent came slithering over and was like, “Yo Eveeee, you should eat the fruit, then your eyes will be opened, and you will know what God knows, you could be like him!” (The actual scripture can be found in Genesis 3). Naturally, this only validated the idea that God could be the deceiver, that God could be lying to Adam and Eve, holding something for himself. So, Eve ate from the tree, and so did Adam and what did they feel immediately? Shame.

Imagine, they had never experienced this emotion before. They went and sewed fig leaves together to cover their bodies because they were ashamed! This was the first time in the existence of humankind that people had experienced the opposite of good, the opposite of… God. This was the discovery that the knowledge of good and evil was simply the knowledge of things that existed apart from God and his intentions for the world… At this moment Adam and Eve learned that God was not deceiving them, that it was the serpent who had deceived them and in fact, God really was who he said he was and now they finally understood what good was, that good is God… Of course, this came with a price because now they had come to know evil as well.

Now with the discovery of evil, God had to lay down some ground rules for humankind, because well, things were going to be different from now on and God wanted to help his people choose good amidst the presence of evil and temptation, but consequences would take place (Genesis 3:14-19). Hence, history is made… and with history so comes a billion other questions and theological discussions, (but I’d like to keep this essay short) so returning to the origination of this discussion; doesn’t this still mean God created evil? God still allows bad things to happen?

The answer is both yes and no. God only intended for what is good. Yet, God also wanted humankind to act independently and choose him on our own will: which leaves us with choices, and inevitably allowed us to see what happens when we stray from God (or stray from good, at this point it is the same). So just as when Adam and Eve discovered shame for the first time, when they strayed from God, there is consequently consequences: Although these consequences are not all punishments sent down directly from God (as though many were). Yet in todays date, many of these consequences are inline with the functionality of the world: a world where people all have decided to know and take part in both good and evil. All things apart from God are evil and have either direct or indirect consequences. This is not to be confused with the idea of karma, because our consequences of sin are not necessarily individualized. A terrible, sinful person living an evil life could reside in luxury, while a faithful servant of God could remain in poverty: the consequences of sin are present in the reality that these two states may exist here on earth; the unfairness itself is a consequence. It’s only that this world is not God’s final intention and justice and fairness will be served for all because eventually everyone dies. Of course, God does bless those who love him, but Jesus Christ already payed the debt for our sin–he took the consequences of our direct sin for us.

Now, the fact that we are not living entirely what God intended for us is our consequence. So, diseases exist, natural disasters exist, and the worst of it all: death exists. Death is the worst that can come from all of the terrible things in the world, and these terrible things are small glimpses of what it looks like to be apart from our creator. For sin is death. But even when we face death, God offers us new life if we choose him through the sacrifice of Jesus, who already paid it all, forgive us all! Through Jesus, God offers us the life he intended for humanity.

Yet, even these consequences do not come without reason! God allows human sin to exist only because it brings us back to him! Creation is good, and in the end, for humans to even have the chance to know God is enough to face the hardships we have caused. It is in times of struggle and hardship where people feel like they need God, and the reality is we need him all the time. Although, God uses humankind’s own sin and distance from Him to remind us if we get too far, we’re going to end up in a place where we don’t want to be. Imagine if the world was completely perfect and every person had everything they ever needed, never facing adversity in their life… why would we need God? Exactly, we woudl believe we wouldn’t need him. Yet, God so badly wants to have a relationship with us!

So you see, even evil and sin brings balance to our world. Just look at how much God has used adversity to mold humanity? To make us stronger, smarter and ultimately more faithful? God had to put us on earth, given us the ability to choose, and gave us the ability to discover His true character. God is not deceiving us and once we have discerned this, once we have accepted Christ, and repent from sin and move into love (just more tangible worlds for evil and good), we will move from this broken world to a perfect one. Although we have to choose the perfect world, we have to discover Gods character, (and thank goodness God sent Jesus, Himself in the form of man, who lived a life as we do; to see what it looks like to choose Him, to see what it looks like to live a live aimed at goodness (closeness to God) rather than evil (distance from God)). It’s not easy to do, but as Adam and Eve learned that God is true and good; that people can have complete faith in Him–they witnessed first hand the immediate consequences of distrust and unfaithfulness. And with Jesus humanity can learn to understand Gods character even closer and in greater depth (and, of course, have enternal life through his sacrifice for all our sins, but that's another essay). So yes evil exists, but we can trust God’s word and trust that He is good and has a greater life in store for us, simply, because he has said so.