In the Beginning

Over the course of 50 chapters, we learn about God — who He is and what He is all about.

And although He is the creator of the universe, we do not live in His world, but rather in a world that belongs to Satan. And wouldn’t you guess it? We were the ones who handed him the keys.

Criticism from the atheist

A critique I often hear from atheists — and one I asked myself at an earlier point in my life — is this: If God is so good, then why does He allow bad things to happen? Why would an all-powerful God, a God of mercy and grace, turn a blind eye to the needy and poor, the hardworking, and the honest? Why should we pray to a God that allows our world to burn?

These critics have not read Genesis.

In the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), the Serpent influences Eve asking, “Did God say…” It’s not God’s authority he questions, but rather, her trust in God. It is this distrust that introduces brokenness into our world. Had Eve simply trusted God’s instruction to not eat the forbidden fruit, I very well could be sitting pretty on a beach in Cancun right about now.

So the question really isn’t about why God does these things to us, but actually, why God allows us free will when our hearts often lead to devastating outcomes.

Force vs. will

In an earlier post, I made the observation that the first five books of the Bible are about God’s fight to protect our liberty. It is made abundantly clear from the very beginning that God does not want to control us — frankly, why would he? What would be the point of that?

Think about it: if parents had children to satisfy a desire for control, what would be the outcome? Would the child grow to become a functioning member of society, or would they struggle with boundaries, relationships, or self-esteem? Would they even be happy?

This is not a hypothetical example. Many studies have been done on this question. For example, a 2021 longitudinal study followed adolescents from age 13 into their early 30s and found that overly controlling parenting was linked to greater difficulty adjusting to adulthood, particularly in education and romantic relationships.^[1] Another study, published in 2025, looked across 53 studies on helicopter parenting and found that over-involved parenting was linked to higher anxiety and depression, lower self-confidence, and more difficulty adjusting to school and adult responsibilities.^[2]

We as humans need studies like these to learn this lesson, but because God is God, this was a no-brainer.

Trust & confidence

Now you might be thinking, ok great — so God doesn’t want to control us, but isn’t that what he was doing when he told Adam and Eve not to eat from the forbidden tree in the first place? Isn’t that in of itself an act of control?

To this I say, grow up. Someday, I’ll tell my children not to run into the street — I won’t simply wait for them to get hit by a car. And, like God, my instruction will come with a warning, that if they do run into the street, they could very well get seriously hurt.

Faith does not mean blind allegiance to a wrathful tyrant. It means obeying a loving guardian with confidence.

We trust God in the same way we trust our parents to lead us down the right path and to teach us about life’s hardest lessons.

Point being, we need to think more critically about God’s goals and intentions. We must not be so focused on the micro — concerned with how we may feel in one particular moment. Everything has consequences, both good and bad.

God plays the long game, and so should we.