Why Not Create a Perfect World? A Christian Answer with Mike Jones | Theological | PragerU

God has every right to execute punishment for us being sinful. The question is, why doesn't he do it now? You know, I got a friend named David Wood, he's a diagnosed psychopath. And he's a Christian, but when he was an atheist, he said one of the reasons he didn't believe in God is because if a just God did exist, he would destroy us. Look at how evil we are, we deserve that. So that's a profound thing to think about. I mean, you think of all the sin. I like going to the story of Elijah. That's one of my favorite biblical stories. I think Elijah is one of the most fascinating prophets. You notice what he does on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. He defeats them, and what does it say after? He ran to the capital of Israel. We was so thrilled to go there because he thought the revolution was gonna start. He just defeated the prophets of Baal. Israel was gonna turn back to the God of Israel. He knew it, and he shows up, doesn't happen. Jezebel says, I'm gonna kill you. So what does he do? He runs out into the desert, super depressed. And it's profound, he did everything right. He did the miracle, God showed up, he won, but Israel didn't turn back to God. So where does he go? He goes to Mount Sinai, and he's super depressed about all this. He's like, God, I've been very zealous for you. I did everything right, but Israel has turned away. I'm the only one left. And what does God basically tell him? I mean, I feel like the theological implications are, it's like, look, Elijah, if I came down in all that power, I'd win the war, but I'd lose you because you're all sinful. You're only here because of my mercy. I could come down in these earthquakes with these fires. I could do that, but none of you would be saved. And so I think that's just one of the most profound things about God is his mercy in the light of all of our sin. Now, this somewhat reminds me as well as the story of Eov, of Job, and the rejection of divine retribution, as in the story itself challenges the idea that suffering is always a consequence or a punishment for sin. So Job, ostensibly, if you just read the verses, I mean, the Talmud starts to interpret in a different way, but the verses themselves, it doesn't really offer a comprehensive reason as to why Job would suffer these trials and tribulations. And it's chapter 38, verse four, where I think we get one of the funniest responses that God ever gives to a human being, where Job says, you know, why did you do this to me? And God basically says, eifo ha-yeesa b'yisode ha-aretz. You know, where were you when I formed the world? You don't know anything. You know, you do not understand the complexities of not only the natural physical world, but also I'm dealing with millions of people and millions of different priorities and value systems and circumstances. You, as mere mortal man, you can't even conceive of the behind the scenes of why I do what I do. And in fact, when Jews pray, we pray three times a day, and the standard prayer is the Shemona Esrei, these 18 blessings. And the first blessing we actually say is not one whereby we ask God, bring about the Messiah, end world hunger, is it's a tachanein ladam da'as, is that you, God, give man wisdom, and please give us chachma binav da'as, give us wisdom, clarity, and understanding, because this world is so complex, we just don't understand it. And in order to create a divine relationship with you, we have to have some knowledge. And this is the knowledge that God was telling Job, you just simply don't have. So how do you as a Christian understand seemingly this, I don't wanna say randomness, but this idea that sometimes when there is punishment, we just don't know. Oh yeah, and that's what, it's amazing that Bronze Age goat herders could write such a complex philosophical work like the Book of Job. I mean, it really just- Happy coincidence. Happy coincidence, yeah. I mean, it's a profound book because we still wrestle with it today that it doesn't answer, that's the amazing thing about the Book of Job, it doesn't give you the answer to the problem of evil and suffering. It just leaves you with an open-ended question like, okay, well, yeah, I don't understand the complexity, but now what? And I think that's one of the profound things about that book. I mean, as a Christian, when we look at that complexity and we look at all that suffering, we start to ask why. One of the things I try to give to people is like, so people ask me, why did God create the world that he did? Why did he create the world like this? Why not create a perfect world? And I go, well, that's not the world you pick. And they push back. I would pick a world without suffering if I could. I'm like, no, you wouldn't. Let me give you an example. Let's say instead of watching this interview, we were gonna watch the entire season of Teletubbies season one, or we could watch the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition. I guarantee 99.9% of the audience watching this would pick Lord of the Rings. Well, wait a minute, you just picked a world of suffering. You didn't pick the world with no suffering. But you didn't just pick a world of suffering, you picked a world with triumph. And that's what I think is the best possible world. It's not a world where there is no suffering. It's a world where there is suffering and evil, but it's defeated, it's triumphed over. And if that's the best kind of possible world, it creates the best kind of virtues. You can't experience courage if you're never afraid. You can't experience compassion if no one is ever suffering. And so that creates the best kind of virtues in us. It creates the best kind of souls, the best kind of stories. And if we recognize that in the stories we come up with or tell, surely our Heavenly Father does as well. So he's gonna create a world where, yeah, there is suffering, but it's gonna be defeated, it's gonna be triumphed over. And what is not that story, if not the Bible, where evil is gonna be defeated and triumphed over? You know, just to wrap up on that, go back to the Book of Job. Notice at the end, he gets double everything, except children, because the resurrection's coming. He does get double children. The children that died in the beginning, they're still there, their souls still exist. He will have them again in the resurrection. That's why, like St. Augustine said, God doesn't give him double children, because he still has double children. The seven are just waiting for him on the other side.