Pendragon_6
08-31-2005, 10:54 AM
By J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Aug 31, 2005
So many dead. So many grieving. So many distraught.
Where is God? Where is the good God?
Good God created all things sound and pure. Then He placed our first parents in paradise — the Garden of Eden. There, however, was a stipulation. They dared not touch a particular tree. That obviously was to test the mortals-with-free-will obedience quotient.
All other creatures on Earth were programmed by instinct. Only Adam and Eve were gifted with free will — the awesome power of choice. In that, at least, was their image of deity upon their very own natures — the power to think, to make decisions.
Yet, sadly, our first parents disobeyed God to follow the Lie. The Lie told them God really didn’t mean what He said. It was all a ruse. Good God would overlook their eating of the forbidden fruit. After all, He is good God.
However, good God is not only mercy but also justice — eternally so. If He were not, none of us would want to know Him let alone worship and obey Him.
In His mercy and justice, God dealt with Adam and Eve’s disobedience. In His mercy, He did not slay them. He permitted them life and forgiving grace — but a temporary span on Earth, not the eternity He had originally planned. In His justice, He disciplined them by casting them out of Eden. Further, Eve would give birth in pain. Adam would dig out a living by the sweat of his brow.
In Full
Mich News (http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9281.shtml)
Aug 31, 2005
So many dead. So many grieving. So many distraught.
Where is God? Where is the good God?
Good God created all things sound and pure. Then He placed our first parents in paradise — the Garden of Eden. There, however, was a stipulation. They dared not touch a particular tree. That obviously was to test the mortals-with-free-will obedience quotient.
All other creatures on Earth were programmed by instinct. Only Adam and Eve were gifted with free will — the awesome power of choice. In that, at least, was their image of deity upon their very own natures — the power to think, to make decisions.
Yet, sadly, our first parents disobeyed God to follow the Lie. The Lie told them God really didn’t mean what He said. It was all a ruse. Good God would overlook their eating of the forbidden fruit. After all, He is good God.
However, good God is not only mercy but also justice — eternally so. If He were not, none of us would want to know Him let alone worship and obey Him.
In His mercy and justice, God dealt with Adam and Eve’s disobedience. In His mercy, He did not slay them. He permitted them life and forgiving grace — but a temporary span on Earth, not the eternity He had originally planned. In His justice, He disciplined them by casting them out of Eden. Further, Eve would give birth in pain. Adam would dig out a living by the sweat of his brow.
In Full
Mich News (http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9281.shtml)