Can It Go Wrong Again?

In the previously mentioned EO article about heaven and hell, the following interesting question is posed and discussed.

11. Who says that later in heaven, humanity will not rise up against God yet again?

In the seemingly perfect eternity, it was possible for evil to arise in the form of the rebellion of the one who was originally the light-bearer. So this could happen, and God chose to let evil run its full course. Who says, as the question asks, that this could not happen again in that “new eternity”? Because God can, so to speak, “let you look over the edge” and say: “There – you see the consequences.”

Good question! Unfortunately, the response can hardly be called an answer. I will leave aside the fact that the Bible knows nothing of a rebellion by a figure who was supposedly once created as a light-bearer (Lucifer). Scripture simply says of the devil that “from the beginning is the Adversary sinning” (1 John 3:8). Not later, then, but from the beginning. But that aside.

If one assumes that evil arose through a rebellion that was not in the Creator’s script, then we have a VERY big problem! For in that case, from God’s perspective, something fundamentally went WRONG in the past. Evil was introduced without the Creator having planned it. That would mean a BLUNDER of the highest order! Or, stated differently: a SIN of the highest order (“sin” and “missing the mark” mean the same thing). But it does not stop there. If God made a blunder in the past, does this not also give us every reason to fear the worst for the future? If a “perfect” creation could go wrong in the past, what guarantee do we have for a “perfect” creation in the future? Read the almost amusing answer from the writers of the EO article:

Because God can, so to speak, “let you look over the edge” and will say: “There—you see the consequences.”

Aha, things could go wrong in the past because God’s creatures were still ignorant of the consequences of sin. That amounts to saying that if God had better informed His creatures in the past, all evil could have been prevented. A mistake, then. But, according to the reassurance offered in the EO answer, it will not happen to God a second time. Does this provide a solid basis for our expectation of the future?? On the contrary! A God who makes a blunder is simply no GOD. Such a being does not have everything under control. He is dependent on what His own creations think up and do. They have, so it is said in the Christian world, a “free will” (i.e., as far as their willing is concerned, they are not under God’s control). Such beings are unpredictable and therefore pose an enormous risk. Do you realize that this is a disaster scenario?

The real, biblical answer is that with God, NOTHING ever goes wrong. God KNEW that man would listen to the serpent (which God Himself had made) and would eat from the tree of knowledge. He KNEW that in this way man would gain knowledge of evil but thereby also of the GOOD. That is why creation was subjected to vanity NOT VOLUNTARILY, “but because of Him Who subjects it” (Romans 8:20). GOD has LOCKED UP all together in stubbornness. No one else! Like fish in a net. Inescapable. Why? Paul gives this magnificent answer:

“For God locks up all together in stubbornness,
that He should be merciful to all.”

—Romans 11:32

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