Good God-Evil World. Evil God-Good World
- Adrian Espinosa
- Jun 13, 2023
- 7 min read

Whether you believe the Genesis account of Adam and Eve are literal, metaphorical, metaphysical, or a prophetic vision, humanity has always longed for a good world like Eden. Some argue we live in that world today, but we messed it up. But for many in the world we live in, it all seems like only a bad God could allow such a cruel world or there's no God at all.
Let’s talk about Eden. A perfect, fruitful and plentiful garden. In it God created a perfect, free willed, and spirit filled entity called Adam. (Genesis 2)
Eden in Hebrew meaning: Pleasure.
Adam in Hebrew meaning: Man.
So this “man”, in a place of “pleasure”, was told to eat the fruit of the garden, share it with his wife, name the animals of which God created, and not eat of only one tree. Pretty simple.
Total harmony, no pain, no suffering, and no death.
No sickness, murder, or abuse.
A place with no history, other than its creation and its endless future.
Yet despite this perfect and pleasurable world, Adam chose to disobey the one thing he was told not to do. Now the result of this disobedience was forewarned by God, that if man was to eat of the reserved tree, the tree of good and evil, he would die. This wasn’t a secret, this wasn’t a hypothesis, it was the truth. But Adam chose to listen to the temptation of disobedience even in the midst of perfection. He ate the fruit and this disobedience introduced sin and death, that would be carried through “man’s” descendants. Remember this now.
Thousands of years later in 30 C.E, there was a man who claimed to be the promised son of God. Perfect, like Adam, that was supposed to restore things back to the days of Eden. However, His garden was nothing like Eden, it was the exact opposite.
This garden’s history was full of death, corruption, and humiliation.
There was leprosy, blindness, and cancer.
There was war, torture, and rape.
Yet despite this imperfect and arid “garden”, this “man” was placed in it with the same responsibilities as the first “man”. Except His name wasn’t Adam, it was Jesus. He lived in communion with God and shared the fruit of the garden of which He dwelt, spiritually and physically. Despite being tempted profusely, threatened, and eventually murdered, Jesus never gave in to disobedience but rather gave up His own life in obedience. In imperfection, He chose obedience.
Why?
Everything and everyone around Him proved time and time again that no matter how “good” He was, it wasn’t enough for them. No matter how many people abandoned Him, mocked Him, or even died around Him, He kept obeying God’s command to obey and love. He trusted God and obeyed Him and in doing so led to our choice of freedom and restoration like Him and Adam. Ending the curse Adam brought on mankind (Romans 5:18-19).
Now, many times in my life as a believer in Jesus I have asked myself and God these questions:
Why does evil exist, if God is so good?
Why do bad things happen if God is so good?
Why would God let children die of bone cancer?
Why would God allow little girls to be prostituted and raped if He was a good father?
Why are black and brown people killed and no justice comes for the murderers?
Why did my friends die so young?
You may have asked these questions and more, but I would challenge you with another: Did you listen to God’s response? For many, you didn’t listen and some of you did and didn’t hear anything. All you heard was silence and the sounds of your own wailing. To both camps and everywhere in between, I say: Me too.
I begged numerous times with snot on the carpet and tears streaming out of my eyes for God to do “the right thing” in changing people’s lives and circumstances. But many times, He said nothing. He would give me dreams, visions, prophetic words, and direction about so many things, but too often, He did not answer my prayer of why? But even through my questions and frustration that were unanswered, I trusted Him and obeyed Him. He was faithful to me in so many other ways I just decided to trust Him even if He didn’t answer my main question of why.
One day after losing an old friend to gun violence, I was struggling with my mental health, mourning, and my faith and I asked God:
“Why? Why would you let this happen to him? Why didn’t you answer my prayers for him before? If you had answered this would have happened, I thought you cared?”
To my surprise He responded:
Do you not realize that I was there?
Do you not realize I watched?
Do you not realize I saw everything?
Do you not realize I loved both him and the shooter?
Do you not realize what I had done in their lives prior?
Do you not know that I am God and I know?
Do you not know your tears and prayers were heard for them?
I never abandoned them, even at the end.
I was there as he gave his last breath.
God’s response made me stop and begin to understand what He had been doing all along. He isn’t an evil God or a neglectful God. The truth is that He never gave up on His children, even in the worst of times but they chose their disobedience for one reason or another. It’s not that God is powerless, busy, or uncaring for those in pain. He gives all of us a choice. A choice to obey and a choice to disobey. A choice to trust or abandon. It isn’t just one, it’s several and several until the end result leads to the same consequence of Adam; Death.
He allows man to make their own choices so that they could be who God created them to be; children made in His image. Because He made a choice to make us, love us, and die for us. But the choices we make daily lead us to a variety of outcomes, some good and some bad. Some things are out of our control because in the beginning man chose to refuse God’s perfect world of which there was no pain, no suffering, and no abuse. It was perfect but he chose wrong and that consequence led to more people choosing wrong, even when good was presented. And we still choose wrong today, even when there is a better way. .
An evil God didn’t create us to suffer in a good world or an evil world either. A good God created us to live in a good world but we chose evil and continue to choose evil to this day. It’s the effects of our choices, in the midst of a good God.
Now His response didn't answer why horrible things happen to the innocent or why God allows some good things and not others. But it did tell me this; God is not a puppet master watching his puppets endure pain for His own pleasure and He also is not an absent father who lets His children suffer alone while He lives in blissful ignorance.
He is the one who gave us a choice. He is the one who weeps when we weep, hurts when we hurt, and mourns when we mourn. He goes through and has gone through our exact pain since the beginning of time. He has answered prayer after prayer and not answered many more. Do I or you understand why? Hell no! But have I seen how man’s own choices have led us to our own destruction? Hell yeah! Have I seen how God shows up and creates miracles? Hell yeah? Have I prayed for years on end and not seen my prayers answered how I prayed them? Hell yeah!
You may not believe any of these words and they may not have answered your questions but I will leave you with this piece of knowledge. When Adam sinned and realized what he did wrong, he abandoned God and God cried out for Adam in Eden “Where are you?”( Genesis 3:9) and when Jesus was dying on the cross, abandoned by God for us He cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
God in pursuit of his children that abandoned Him, abandoned His one and only perfect and obedient son to save and have relationship with those who abandoned Him. Those questions you have cried out of “where are you” or “why did you forsake me”, are not yours alone. God cried them out too. Jesus cried them out too.
I learned that day, that one moment of abandonment in Eden, caused the creator of the universe to make a promise to His creation that stands today, “I will never abandon them, even if they abandon me”.
So is God good or bad? I would argue that He is good but in the midst of His goodness we have chosen evil and that evil has consequences. Some consequences come sooner and some come later and unfortunately we suffer those consequences whether we had a part to play in it or not. Is it unfair? Yes! But just because I don’t understand why anything and everything happens doesn’t mean I’ll abandon Him. Because I do know that He won’t abandon me, even if I don’t fully understand Him. I choose to trust in God and everything He says and has done for me and wait patiently until He answers the questions I have asked.
What are you going to choose? Will you choose to believe and trust in the God who doesn’t abandon? Will you choose to abandon Him and choose some other answer or lack thereof? At the end of the day the choice is yours and it always will be.
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