Why

By GCL Dorsey

God knows everything; He is omniscient. Have you ever wondered why God created Lucifer? Certainly, God knew that Lucifer would go rogue and become Satan. Have you ever wondered why God created us with the power of choice? Certainly, God knew that countless billions would abuse this power and turn against Him. Have you ever wondered why God doesn't eradicate sin? Why does He seemingly lay silent while the Earth continues to deteriorate and sin runs rampant? Explore and discover the answer to these questions and many others in the pages of this thought-provoking, interactive book, Why.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098020132

Book preview

Why Choice

When the time is right, God will send His Son, Jesus, to Earth for the second time (Isa. 35:4; Matt. 16:27; Matt. 25:31; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 22:7, 12, 20). (Write more verses here: ___________________ ________________ ). This time to pick up His elect (Matt. 24:30, 31), Jesus came the first time to live as we live, though without sin (1 Pet. 2:22). Jesus came to reveal the love of God. He came to show us how to live the perfect life through His example (1 Pet. 2:21). He came to pay the penalty of sin (1 Pet. 2:24) so that every son and daughter of Adam who chooses salvation, through acceptance of Jesus Christ, will be saved.

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. (John 3:16)

You and I fall into that category of whosoever. Furthermore, it is not God’s desire that anyone should perish but that all should repent and receive eternal life (2 Pet. 3:9; Ezek. 18:21–23; Ezek. 33:11). _________________________________________ Put in its simplest form, God is in the saving business. God will save us! If we choose salvation. But only if we choose to be saved.

It is important to discuss this power we have been intrinsically endowed with called choice. What is this choice, and why did God create us with it? Let’s unravel this notion together. In order to understand choice, we must first gain an understanding about God. Dear reader, I must caution you at this juncture, this is not all there is to say about God. God is too huge, too multidimensional, to multidisciplined to be described by any one person, certainly not me. This is only a minute concept of God, a mere snippet, or a fleeting glance in time. However, the principles espoused herein does allow a closer look at the Sovereign God. This is one individual’s concept or revelation of God. No man/woman can know God. Meaning simply that no one can know all there is to know about God. So now that the disclaimer has been addressed, let’s explore some attributes that allow us to get a glimpse of who God is.

God is all powerful (omnipotent). God is all knowing (omniscient). God is everywhere at the same time (omnipresent). Absent these attributes, God could not be God. How else could God control galaxies without these attributes? Oh yes, I did say galaxies, as in plural, more than one. Astronomers have been discovering more and more galaxies the longer they peer into their telescopes. The latest estimate, as of the writing of this book, is one hundred billion galaxies! Google it: www.physics.org/facts/sand-galaxies.asp. Moreover, the estimate of the number of planets that make up our galaxy, the Milky Way, is likewise one hundred billion planets. Google that for yourself also. Put in the query: how many planets are in one galaxy? And you thought there were only nine planets. No worries, I thought so as well. It doesn’t take too much of a mathematician to understand that if one galaxy contains one hundred billion planets and there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the universe as we now know it, the answer is a very large number for which we probably do not have a name. I’d go with infinitizillion! But I digress; we are discussing choice.

God, being Omni, could have designed his creatures any way He chose because He is the Creator and as such can do whatever He chooses to do. God is sovereign. All the creations of God are created for His glory (Isa. 43:1–7). Listen to the voice of God:

O Israel, Fear Not: for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, For I am the lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea I have made him.

Be honest, after reading that passage, can you help but be struck with how important we are to God?

God could have designed intelligent beings with no choice but to serve Him. However, where is the glory in that? If you don’t have the choice to give God praise but have to give Him praise, all you are is a robot. Since God is not a robot designer; and yet He desires praise, adoration, worship, and loyalty from His creation. He created us with the power to choose. Therefore, whatever praise, adoration, and worship God receives from those who choose to render such is from a position of choice and is consequently extremely valuable to God.

Admittedly, the power of choice is a very risky proposition. Once God opted to design His intelligent beings with the power of choice, He knew that there would be ramifications because many would choose other than His will. However, God was willing to assume that risk because the gains are most precious in the sight of God. Yes, it is true that God desires us to worship Him but He wants our worship to flow from our desire to please Him, not because we have no other option.

Hopefully, this simple discussion has shed some light about choice and God. To put it in a nutshell, God creates because He is God and that is what He does. He creates because He desires love, praise, adoration, worship, and loyalty from His creation. But God is not a vagrant who wants something for nothing. God willingly gives to us in order to earn from us what He desires of us. God provides everything we need, and in return, He requires everything we have. Not in a literal sense, but God wants us to choose Him. By choosing Him, we consent to allow Him to live within us and direct us into His perfect Will. However, we must consent. God will never force His will upon us. God is the consummate Gentleman. If we choose to go against the will of God, He respects that choice. However, there are consequences for going against the will of God. Furthermore, God has revealed what the consequences of going against His will are. (Read the Bible. It is full of examples of those who went against the will of God).

Biblical Examples of Choice

Within the context of choice, let’s discuss some of the intriguing characters in the Bible. By so doing, we can draw some conclusions about this choice matter and how God operates within it. Let’s begin with Jonah. Jonah was a prophet. He was chosen by God to deliver a message to Nineveh. God, operating under the principle of not wanting any to perish, desired to give the people of Nineveh an opportunity to repent of their wickedness before destroying them. We see this same principle operating in Genesis chapter 18 when Abram, newly named Abraham, pled with God not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if God could identify fifty people in the city who were righteous. Please do not miss the point that God was the One who hinted to Abraham that He intended to destroy the cities. Let’s look at Genesis 18 starting at verse 17:

And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?"

Verse 20 and 21 says:

And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

God never says to Abraham: I’m going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He simply tells Abraham that the cry of the city is great and their sin very grievous. Abraham knew what God intended to do, so he immediately starts bargaining with God to save the city. Abraham begins the reverse bidding at fifty. Surely Abraham knew God to be a forgiving God, a God of justice, a God of love and not willing that any should perish. Abraham says in verse 24, 25:

Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Can you imagine the audacity of Father Abraham? Are you and I in such a relationship with God as this, that we could bargain with God, that we could plead with God to save strangers? Yes, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, lived in Sodom; but Abraham was pleading for more than just Lot.

Abraham continues his reverse bidding until he gets down to ten souls. God commits to save the city if He can find ten righteous people. Imagine in the whole of two cities, God could not find ten righteous people!

Sidetrack: What Does Righteous Mean?

Let’s go on a small side journey and identify what righteous means. The Word of God tells us that there is none righteous, not one (Rom. 3:10). Lest you think that there is a contradiction amiss, let’s rephrase: There are none righteous, without or absent the righteousness of Jesus. This will become clear after the following discussion. So the Word of God tells us in Romans that there are none righteous; however, in other places the Word says:

Who His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed. (1 Pet. 2:24, emphasis added)

But the salvation of the righteous is of the lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble. (Ps. 37:39)

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isa. 64:6)

The righteous considereth the cause of the poor; but the wicked regardeth not to know it. (Prov. 29:7)

Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the