The Participatory God
Management
How can God allow so much evil in this world?
Part of the answer is that the Biblical God is a participatory God. Rather than doing everything unilaterally—on his own like single-handedly stamping out evil—he allows people and even other spiritual beings to participate in the management of the world. To make the world better or worse, he involves his spiritual “council” of angelic beings to participate in the running of the universe. They are like the presidential cabinet of the universe. They operate behind the scenes of human affairs.
In the book of Genesis we find that God entrusted management of the earth to human beings (Genesis 1:29-30). And there’s the rub. With the great responsibility of managing the world, comes great choices and great responsibility. Some of the divine council and human leaders rebelled against God and his goodness. The Bible refers to this rebellion against God as “evil.”
God did not leave us, though, to our own, often wretched devices. He came into the world in the person of Jesus (John 1:1-5). He offered a path for us humans to manage our lives in accordance with his good ways (John 10:10). By voluntarily choosing to follow him and his ways, we can be part of the solution, rather than continuing to perpetuate the problem.
The Apostle Paul understood the process perhaps better than most. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” he said, quoting his beloved Hebrew scriptures (Joel 2:32). But, he said, there is a problem:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15)
Some people can go; others can send. We all work together to help people “call on the name of the Lord.” Isn’t that beautiful!
The beauty of God’s participatory system is that we can participate in the joy of seeing people choosing to follow him. We also can share in his heartache and anguish when people reject him.
The reason God can allow so much evil in the world is that the world is a work in progress. He has given the truth once and for all delivered to his people (Jude 3). Now it is up to us to get that truth out, so the people who have a thirst to know God can meet him.
And he has not left us only to our own devices. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” said Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20).
Let us renew or determination to get the word out, so people can know him!
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