God is the CREATOR – He made ALL things – including the devil who is the personification of evil. God PERMITTED evil to manifest in existence, to be a CONTRAST (with His ABSOLUTE GOODNESS), and a CHOICE (between good and evil).
In the Garden of Evil, which was idyllic, blissful, safe, evil brooded nevertheless, though restrained. Again, this was God’s permissive design, in His perfect and omniscient wisdom. As long as our ancestral parents trusted God utterly and fully, following His instructions to the letter, they had no need of the knowledge of the difference between good and evil – they would be good, firmly tracking in perfectly good ways.
Because they allowed the devil – manifesting as the most subtly cunning of all creatures – the snake – to plant seeds of doubt against God in their hearts and minds, they went off track, and were quickly derailed. Traumatized with a new and awful knowledge of the existence and free choice to do evil; guilt, shame, fear, ruptured relationship, evasion of responsibility, betrayal,
To the glee of our eternal enemy, our ancestral parents were banished from safe Eden and thrust into the external reaches of the wider world where no longer nestled in the cocoon of Eden, they would have to deliberately seek and listen for God’s voice, and fend for themselves, with or without God’s help – as they choose.
An incalculably worse outcome in every way. In short, we may have the choice to do life in our own strength, but it is the hard way – far inferior to the path of faith – and stubbornly pursued will result in the stubbornly independent being thrust from the gift of blissful eternal life into an eternity of torment.
We inherited the awful consequences of our fore-parent’s ’ bad choice, but the mess was fixable, redeemable. The choice we all now face is more desperate: We each have the choice to walk with God or….do it our way, be the master of our own souls, be captain of our own ship, but if we make the wrong choice, there will be no turning back.
It is a real choice. Know that the ‘Me’ choice unavoidably will lead to the ultimate death = an eternity of torment, estranged from God, at the mercy of the utterly diabolical.
🙏🏾 Lord God Almighty, thank you for a new year. Thank that every new year, new month, new week, new day, new hour, new minute, new second: is an opportunity for a fresh start. I choose to turn away from my wilful mistakes, and to repent – make a 180° turn – to get back on track with living under Your Lordship and guidance. Save me from my wilful sins; enable me to walk with you for all of 2021 onward. In Jesus redeeming Name, Amen.