“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.

Years ago a famous atheist stated that, “If there is a God he is the devil”. Now that appears to be a logical statement and many people, even among Christians who should know better, view God as an angry old man who just cannot wait to get us up there to tear us apart.

Picture Him, up in heaven, red faced; grinding His teeth and clenching His fists, He is angry!

Of course if you do not like this version of God you can adopt the one many others hold of Him as the clueless cartoon character Homer Simpson whose running of creation depends on dumb luck and a little help from us less bewildered humans.

Stop and think about the world around you for a moment, all the rapes, pedophilia, murders, robberies, even the ovens of the Nazi concentration camps and the starvations in Africa. Your own life may be one of constant horror for that matter.

It is easy to see why someone would hate God. He is supposed to be in control, no wonder people ask, “How can a loving God allow all this?”

First it should be understood that God is omniscient, He knows everything that will happen from eternity to eternity.

This is a staggering thought when you consider that He knew not only everything that was to happen on this earth well before He created it but He also planned out all the contingencies.

“Known to God from eternity are all His works.” Acts 15:18.

“For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” Isaiah 57:15.

So why is the world so out of control?

Actually it is not, but when you consider that God is dealing with over 8 billion individuals things can seem a bit chaotic from the bystander’s standpoint.

Still the question remains, “Why does God allow it?” The answer is much simpler than you would expect. The following illustration may clarify the matter.

Suppose for a moment that a serial killer is on the loose and after months of killings and dead ends for the police the entire country in desperation decides to do something. Everyone gets down on their knees and prays to God to help them be rid of this person.

After 24 hours an angel appears in the sky and says, “Watch Times Square tomorrow at twelve noon”. The next day at noon a gallows suddenly appears in Times Square then immediately, zap, the serial killer is hanging there by the neck!

The shock and awe going through the crowd is absolutely electric! A few minutes of silence pass and a man steps out from the crowd, raises his hands to heaven and cries out, “God, a man raped and murdered my sister and her two friends. What about him?”

God looks down from heaven and says, “Hmm, that makes sense, since I did it for the others”, and zap, another man is hanging from the gibbet. There is a moment of silence, then suddenly the entire crowd presses forward imploring God to right some injustice, a rape or murder or such like.

Soon God realizes that He might as well set up His throne on earth and handle things personally from here. This is what everybody says they want, is it not?

But like any other king things will be run God’s way, no more porn, carousing till late at night, drunkenness, adultery, and general hell raising. The world would become a dull place indeed.

Know what else, in spite of all the peace and prosperity, people will become dissatisfied and rebel trying to get Him to return to heaven and leave us alone.

So why does He not do something? Actually He has, He put man in charge of caring for the earth and those in it.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26.

So the question should be rephrased, “How can man allow these things?”

What does God have to do with the current condition of the earth?

“Then God saw every thing that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31.

Let us assume for a moment that you believe this statement in Genesis 1:31 to be true, what happened?

Well, when man rebelled against God (sound familiar? See above illustration) and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he brought himself under a curse and was ejected from the Garden of Eden.

While this was catastrophic, things were still pretty nice, if you could go back in time you would think you actually were in Eden. So what happened?

Over a period of about 2242 years, men being the sinful beings that they are were not content with living with plenty of food, great weather, and it is likely no diseases, launched off into the tidal wave of vile behavior exactly as we are experiencing today.

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5.

I want you to honestly look into your own heart, look at the news, the people around you and history and tell me that this is not a true statement.

So what happened? Well God finally took pity on the inhabitants of the earth. That is what people ask today is it not? Why does God allow such evil to go on?

The world was on a downward spiral and there was no pulling out of it short of destroying all life on it, and in pity He did. But God is also merciful He made a way out for those righteous people who did not want to perish with the evil ones.

He had Noah build an ark (a floating box) and for 120 years as he built this boat he preached to all the inhabitants of the earth about the coming judgment upon all the earth.

This ark had a capacity of one million four hundred thousand cubic feet; it was roughly the size of a world war two aircraft carrier. And when the flood came, how many were on board? Eight souls! Read genesis chapters 6 through 9, for more information.

How is God merciful? There was, warning (for 120 years), an exit plan, and His guarantee that He would watch over the ark carefully.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

Would you say it is merciful to bring an abrupt end to pandemic murders, robberies, rapes of women, children, boys and girls, child molestations, sodomy of men, women and animals, and whatever else of the vile things you see on the news today?

“And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things [evil, see Romans 1:18-32], and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds’… Romans 2:3-6.

The Muslim group ISIS like those in Noah’s day has caused unimaginable misery in the Middle East, even teaching their children to kill.

ISIS keeps places filled with women and young girls who are continually raped. At least one woman smuggled out a message.

And what did she ask for; “Rescue us”? No, she said bomb this place, do not worry about us, bomb it, and destroy it all! Can things be so bad that death is a mercy? These women did not deserve such vile treatment.

Yet this is only a small part of the evil that fills this world today. We are rapidly approaching the same level of evil which brought on the judgment of God and the flood of Noah’s day.

The rioting and lawlessness which we are experiencing today is only a preview of the coming tribulation period to come upon the whole earth.

However, do you truly pity people who like those of Noah’s day are continually warned of a category 5 hurricane coming right at them, and yet they keep their wife and children in their home instead of evacuating? These are folks who are making volitional choices my friends.

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me [Jesus]. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:39-40.

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God [Jesus Christ].” 1 John 5:12-13.

Go back to the genealogies in Genesis chapter 5 and do a little math, the results will be interesting.

Because men lived to such ripe old ages it is possible that many of the people that heard Noah’s preaching about the flood had fathers or grandfathers who had actually seen Adam and Eve and heard the story of the Garden of Eden from their own lips.

These people were not ignorant about God in the least. The decision to ignore Noah’s warnings was a willful rejection of the message. Whether we choose to ignore Him or not, God is merciful.

The result of the flood was unimaginable; the Grand Canyon was carved in a matter of months, or years, not billions of years. The Matterhorn in the Alps was moved from a location some 30 or 60 miles away to its present location, see “THE GENESIS FLOOD” by John C. Whitcomb, Jr. and Henry M. Morris.

The present world we live in has actually declined from the mess that was left after the flood. Again, though, if you were to go back in time to the period a few years after the flood, you would possibly mistake it for Eden. That is how bad earth has gotten over the years.

Just the change in weather patterns alone has had a continuing effect on the quality of life on earth, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, to name a few.

There was a great shift in weather patterns after the flood as can be seen by the fact that it never rained before the deluge, see Genesis 2:5-6.

This is not a reference to the climate change hoax which is being perpetuated now that the global warming hoax has failed to destroy the earth.

“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other.’” Isaiah 45:18.

The world was permanently changed because of runaway sin, which is nothing but rebellion against God.

What does God want?

“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.

That term “man”, means everybody, kings, presidents, dictators, judges and police, not just the man or woman on the street.

“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:18.

“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well…” James 2:8.

“You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 97:10.

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’” Matthew 22:37-40.

God is Not a Monster, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-18-18 updated on 4-4-23.

If you have an interest in weather there is a DVD called “The Weather”, presented by Donal MacIntyre which I found fascinating, and Donal is a real character, very likeable. The web address shown on the DVD jacket is, www.bbcamerica.com.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.