1 John 4:8
God is Love
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 1:1-5
The Word Became Flesh
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Genesis 1:31
All That God Created Was Good
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
1 John 4:19
God Loved Before Creating Us
19 We love because he first loved us.
In the beginning was God...Jesus was with God in the beginning...All that God created in the beginning, was good...When we think about this Love and goodness preceded mankind...God was love before creation...There was love in the beginning with God and Jesus...Love and goodness was before Adam and Eve...God can make things full of goodness and full of love, without suffering or evil, but man cannot...
In the Garden of Eden was Paradise...Everything was good in the Garden of Eden...Everything was good that God created...When we think of Love in our world, we tend to think of it as happy, kind, and good...But to say God is Love, which He is, and to think of Him as Pure Eternal Love is much, much more than happiness and kindness...God gave us paradise...We messed paradise up, not God...We brought pain into this world...We also brought evil into this world...Pain and evil are two different things...But pain and evil are linked...They are valid arguments against our LORD...
Once we ate from the tree in the middle of the Garden our eyes opened and we got this glimpse of God, and we then not only knew good, but we found out about evil (Genesis 3:5)...This opening of our eyes has been a source of many issues since time began...We then at that time and for the first time in our history -could see and view evil...We, and for whatever reason, when the evil one tempted us we could not go back to only love and goodness...We could not put things back the way they were...We somehow cannot after falling, separate the goodness and evil, or at least alleviate it in our lives...We often struggle with the goodness and temptations of this world...
When we fell from grace in the Garden, we lost some or much of the goodness, God created...Sin, guilt, pain, and evil all came into our world, after we fell from grace and ate the forbidden fruit...The non-believer, who does not believe in God, does not believe therefore in the Garden of Eden...But even the non-believer can look around and see evil...There are things is this world which we can see and sometimes see very quickly, that we do not want our families, and the ones we love and our children, doing and following...These things are evil...As we read one of the earliest Bible books, the Book of Job, we see that the Problem of Pain and Evil have been with us since the beginning of time...Pain and suffering is still a world-wide fact today...And the questions and mysteries around these problems are as valid in our time, as they were in Job's time thousands of years ago...
So when we believe that there is evil, then we believe also are more likely to see love and goodness also...I think even the atheist would admit, his best argument against God is this problem of pain in the world...Yet, the irony of this kind of thinking, is that pain and suffering gets us thinking and our thoughts on God...And because we brought these things on ourselves and into this world, we need His help...In our minds He puts our thoughts on Him to help us, in our days of suffering...But most of all He loves us and sent His Son to die for us, not only to hear His megaphone in our thoughts, but show that He is a loving Father who cares and loves us...
The question and mystery for the believer is that there is pain and evil...It maybe like this, in the beginning everything was good, then evil came along because we sinned...And if you believe in evil, then you have to believe in goodness...And both goodness and love come from God...The believer sees this and knows that God is there to comfort us in our times of pain and suffering...This mysterious moral question on pain and evil can actually only be answered by the One Higher up...The One who never sins or does evil...This moral answer for the problem of evil, pain, and it is God...God is Absolutely Moral...
Goodness, for me, seems to something like a plant or a vine...It can grow, but it maybe able to be pruned to get even better...Sometimes, goodness can grow into something better...Evil, however, is evil...Evil cannot become good...Sometimes, we cannot see evil immediately, but when we do finally recognize it, we do admit and say -that is evil...When pain, suffering, and evil hit us and hit us hard, we question things and think of God more...C. S. Lewis says pain is God's megaphone to get our attention...Our pain and our suffering, do get our attention, and much of the time it brings God into our thoughts...And when we have pain and suffering, I think, even for the nonbeliever he or she wonders, if there is a God...They too ask, why does God allow people to suffer...These may not be the best or Godliest of thought, but are thoughts on God...The irony then to me, is that often the most argued subject, the pain and evil are arguments against God, bring us thoughts of God and maybe even closer to Him...
Love and goodness came before pain and love and goodness will come after all pain and suffering have left this world...When Jesus comes in His Second Advent, He will wipe all of our tears and bring love and goodness back into this world, without the pain and evil...What we have not been able to do since our fall from grace, He will do for us when He returns...