Questions, Questions . . .

If God is good, why is there so much trouble in the world? If God cares for us, why is there so much death and destruction? Have earthquakes, volcanoes, and other disasters always been a part of nature? How could a perfect God make such an imperfect creation?

THE BIBLE SAYS that God made all things in six days of creative work and then rested on the seventh day of the Creation Week (see Note 1). In fact, the Bible summarizes the impact of God's work during this Week in Genesis 1:31. This verse says that God looked at everything He had made; He "saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Since the entire creation at this time was good, what happened to fill the creation with pain, decay, and death?

We cannot say that evil was hidden behind the scenes to be revealed later, for Genesis 1:31 is a statement of the Lord, Who is the all-knowing and all-seeing God. He is everywhere, and there is nothing that could possibly pass beyond or above or below His vision. So when Genesis 1:31 says that God saw everything He had made, we must take this to mean that there was absolutely nothing that escaped God's attention. There was no evil anywhere (see Note 2). He knew that everything was perfect.

Nor can we limit what God could see by comparing Him with ourselves. After all, the Scripture states that it is man who looks on the outward appearance, but "the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). God can see interior flaws if any, as well as superficial beauty. So God's vision pierced the creation to all levels, but He saw no flaws. The creation was perfect.

What happened to turn the creation into such an imperfect place? No matter where we look, we see various kinds of decay and death, and many kinds of catastrophe and destruction. On the earth, for example, there are giant craters like the Arizona Meteor Crater. The Arizona Meteor Crater is about six hundred feet deep and nearly a mile wide. It was made several thousand years ago when a meteor slammed into the earth. There is no telling how much death and destruction was left in the wake of this meteorite, or how much life was snuffed out when the impact occurred. But when did these kinds of death-dealing cataclysms begin?