God's Test: Choose Good Or Evil (MP 4)

God is good; evil He cannot abide;
To dwell with Him in everlasting life,
Each must have chosen good before he died,
Eschewing evil in earth’s testing strife!
God knew He must put evil on the earth,
Side by side with good, and give man free will,
So, by man’s own choice, each could prove his worth,
Or show himself unfit God’s house to fill!
Then God made angels, as helpers for Him;
Lucifer was chief, prideful though most fair;
He preened himself, strutting among them;
None else but God could with him compare!
Knowing the future, God suffered it be;
For His Plan's success, Lucifer was key!

Scripture Quoted: Isaiah 14:113-14 (NIV)
“… You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.’ “

Commentary
God dwells outside the steadily growing universe. During the billions of years before He created life on earth, He created millions of angels. These are supernatural beings who live with God, worshiping and glorifying Him. Angels will never die; they have many marvelous powers; are neither male nor female; do not have souls; and carry out various tasks assigned by God. Of these, Lucifer was chief of all, the most powerful and beautiful of the angels. God knew in advance that Lucifer’s overweening pride would cause him to be unfaithful.

Many people have been unable to reconcile the question of how a loving God could create a world which contains evil. His inability to find a plausible answer to the problem of evil kept Albert Einstein from believing in the existence of God. I believe that God had to deliberately insert evil into the world in order that men and women have freedom of choice—that is, free will—and thus each individual would be totally responsible for his or her destiny: eternal life with God or eternal life without God. If there was no evil in the world, there would be no choice; everyone would be forced to live for good. It was God’s Plan that evil come into the world through Lucifer; his pride induced him to do the unthinkable—to desire God’s throne for himself; Lucifer rebelled against God. He is waging war against Him to this day. Because God loves humans so much, Lucifer is stealing men’s souls by inducing them to “sin”, which means to “miss the mark” of God’s high standards for being good.

Later, when God created men and women in bodies of flesh on earth, He implanted a nonperishable soul in each. The physical bodies are shortlived and will die, but the souls will live forever; the bodies will be resurrected imperishable and rejoin the souls. The question is not whether there is an afterlife or not; there is eternal life awaiting; the question is, Where will the life after death be lived? While in this very brief life of flesh, each must choose whether to live with God or without God. It is too late to choose after physical death.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)