Bible Questions and Answers

Thank you for asking a question on www.thisisyourbible.com

(All quotations from the New King James translation unless stated otherwise).

Did God allow sin to happen since he put the tree in the garden and knows the future before it happens? and why?

Did God allow sin to happen?

God certainly allowed sin to happen in that he made Adam with the capacity to disobey and gave him opportunity. We cannot blame sin on God because he foreknew that Adam would disobey; the choice was Adam’s. The good or evil that he chose both had to be real rather than imaginary.

Why?

No one knows why God chooses to work his purpose in the way he does. All we know is what he has explained to us in scripture. His intention from the beginning is to fill this earth with his glory.

Numbers 14:21 "but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—
 
God knows the future before it happens.

God foresaw that Adam would disobey but he also foresaw that many of Adam’s offspring would choose to obey. As you and I were in Adam at the time that he disobeyed, if God hadn’t created Adam in the first place or had destroyed Adam and started again, we would not be alive today with the opportunity to obtain eternal life. For us the way God works is a blessing. We might construe that God did it that way for our benefit.

For those who will choose to obey, God is willing to endure the evil of others.

Romans 9:22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

God has known from the beginning who will be saved, but we cannot know and we have free choice in the way that Adam did.

Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We cannot be more righteous than our maker, or question him. He made us and he has the right do with us what he wants.

Romans 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"

We are told is that God is a God of love and all that he does has love as its basis.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

1 John 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

In my opinion it is a mistake to let our lack of understanding of why God does what he does become a reason for not making an effort to understand the gospel. There is no alternative other than death.

If you want to come to grips with what the Bible really teaches, why not take the free online Bible study course available on  www.thisisyourbible.com?  This course will give you a background in the major themes of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. As with everything we offer, there is no cost to you other than your time and effort. You will also have a personal tutor to whom you may pose questions either from the course itself or those questions which come to you as you read the Bible.

I hope this helps.

Glenn Smith