Chapter 4: Why Does a Loving God Allow Hopelessness?
Some of the most difficult questions those who believe in our loving Creator have faced are: Why does God allow evil? Why suffering and hopelessness? The Bible gives answers that make sense.
God’s nature and His love produce hope! So where does hopelessness come from?
The Bible shows it started with selfish, prideful thoughts by a powerful angel, called Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12. He rebelled against God and began a continuous campaign of hate and venom against his Creator. He committed himself to the futile goal of thwarting God’s plans. Though that is impossible, still everywhere this vicious dragon goes, he leaves evil and destruction in his wake. (Learn more in our online article “The Fall of Satan.”)
Rejecting hope
The way of hopelessness continued to evolve when this enemy lied to the first humans. He tempted them to choose pride and selfishness—represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—instead of the true hope of eternal life God offered— represented by the tree of life (Genesis 3:4-6, 22).
Adam and Eve essentially chose to decide for themselves (with Satan’s evil prodding) what they considered right and wrong. They rejected the real definition God provided, but they couldn’t actually change the results. What is truly wrong still causes pain, hopelessness and death, even if we rebrand it as not so bad or even good. Pretending that what is bad is good doesn’t make it so.
Sadly, the Bible shows that every human since Adam and Eve has at some point sinned—symbolically chosen to eat of the wrong tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so we have all tasted of its fruits, which include hopelessness.
No matter how much good you take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it’s still the wrong tree. It doesn’t have the real answers. It can’t give lasting hope.
Why a world of hopelessness?
Humanity’s wrong choices have combined over the centuries to produce the world of hopelessness we see today.
Every valiant attempt to fix this world’s problems eventually succumbs to the downward pulls of selfishness and pride with which Satan pervades our societies. Every well-meaning effort to promote fairness and freedom is seen by others as unfairly encroaching on their freedom. Every individual endeavor to pursue a happy and meaningful life meets obstacles, discouragements and failures.
Some remain resilient through such setbacks. But at some point everyone gets frustrated. Overwhelmed. Beaten down. Stressed. Disheartened. Depressed. Hopeless.
Without the solid hope of God’s promises and His help, it is natural to slide into discouragement and despair.
Could God stop all of this?
Yes, but not without either turning us into robots or thwarting and frustrating a large portion of our choices and actions. He has chosen not to do that. If He did, He would have to stop us every time we decided to do something that would hurt us or the ones around us. And, sadly, that is far too much of the time.
God values the character that can be produced only by our free choice. He desires a relationship with us based on our freely making right choices. So, in the meantime, He permits wrong choices. (Learn more about this in our online article “What Is Free Will?”)
But His plan leads toward a time when all will have made their final choices, and hopefully the vast majority will eventually make the right choices.
Then all who freely choose to believe and follow God will become His children. They will symbolically eat of the tree of life and live forever. They will have a future and a hope beyond our wildest imaginations!