Is God to Blame?
There are many people in the world who feel that somehow God is to blame for the plight of the human family. They may feel that when God made the first man he knew what the outcome would be and, for that reason, the sin, suffering, wars and death that overwhelm humankind are a part of his will. When death takes a loved one, they resignedly say, “It is the will of God.” And many calamities are termed “acts of God.” But the Bible clearly shows that God is not to blame.
Having created the earth and the plant and animal life upon it, Jehovah God specially beautified a portion of it in Eden, and in these delightful surroundings he placed Adam and his lovely wife Eve. They were perfect, the crowning earthly creation of God, all of whose activity is perfect. “After that,” the inspired account relates, “God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good.”—Gen. 1:31.
Every provision was made to supply the needs of man. Surrounded as he was with these loving provisions of his heavenly Father, man was given the opportunity to demonstrate his appreciation for them by willing obedience. “And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: ‘From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.’” (Gen. 2:16, 17) But Adam did eat of it, and he died. Does that not prove that man was imperfect? One who is perfect cannot do wrong, some may reason.
It is true that when the United States Air Force launched its Pioneer rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 11, 1958, its failure to reach the moon and swing in an orbit around it indicated imperfection. That rocket had been manufactured with the express purpose of reaching the moon and all its controls had been adjusted with that goal in view. Its failure proved imperfection.
However, man was not made like a rocket, with electronic controls by which the Almighty would move him and guide his course. He was not a robot, mechanically efficient but devoid of sensibility. Man had the divine gift of free will. Therefore, at a later date Joshua could say: “Now if it is bad in your eyes to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve.” (Josh. 24:15) Had man, endowed with free will, been unable to choose bad, that ability to choose would have been incomplete, hence imperfect. Therefore, the very fact that man could choose either good or bad argues, not that he was imperfect, but rather that even in this respect he was a perfect creation. His sin resulted from entertaining wrong desires.—Jas. 1:13-15.
Another idea that lingers in the mind of some is that God must bear the blame for man’s sin in that He placed the tree of the knowledge of good and bad in the garden, in that way putting temptation before man. Had there been no tree, there would have been no sin. Therefore, the tree produced evil results and the Maker of it must bear the blame, they feel. Such reasoning is in error.
For example, at a drugstore you may purchase medicine that is marked: “Danger. For External Use Only.” Properly applied, the medicine has a healthful effect; but if someone ignores the plainly printed instructions and swallows the medicine, it may bring his death. Is the druggist to blame? Did he lay temptation before the customer? Of course not!
Neither did God do injury to man in planting the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. It was an altogether good thing that gave man opportunity to exercise his free will in a right way and so to learn obedience. Properly viewed, it would have had a healthful effect; but when man, urged by the Devil and motivated by his own wrong desire, ignored the plainly given warning that “in the day you eat from it you will positively die,” he brought the sentence of death upon himself. How true, then, the statement found at Deuteronomy 32:5: “They have acted ruinously on their own part; . . . the defect is their own”!
The same is true today when homes are broken by divorce and delinquency. God is not to blame. His will is expressed in the Bible. When it is followed, ‘wives are in subjection to their husbands,’ ‘husbands keep on loving their wives,’ and together they bring up their children in “the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.” To those who listen to God’s counsel, family life is a source of rich blessing and deep satisfaction.—Col. 3:18-21; Eph. 6:4.
Nor was the destruction of an estimated 10,000,000 human lives by the fifty-seven nations participating in combat in World War II God’s doing. To the contrary, it was a violation of His declaration of the sanctity of human life. So with sin and death; God is not to blame. The Scriptures make clear that, not as a result of what God has done, but “through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”—Gen. 9:4-6; Rom. 5:12.
In Eden it was the Devil that led off in rebellion against God, and man followed. So today it is Satan the Devil “who is misleading the entire inhabited earth,” and man has followed in blaming God for all distress and in ignoring His Word, the Bible.—Rev. 12:9.
Almighty God is the Author of “every good gift and every perfect present.” He lovingly gave the first man a perfect start in a paradise home. When man sinned, God’s goodness did not cease. He mercifully made provision for those of the human family yet to be born to have opportunity to gain what Adam lost. By means of His kingdom, for which all Christians pray, he will see that those evildoers, including the Devil himself, who are to blame for the woes of man will be cut off. “But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Jas. 1:17; Ps. 37:9-11.