Introduction
Elsewhere in this blog, I have posted my 6000-word paper that • presents my resolution of The [Formal] Problem of Evil and • tersely fleshes out the attendant picture of Heaven and Earth.
My core argument is a philosophical argument. The idea is that… if you can not fault the premises, and you can not fault the formal argumentation, you must accept the conclusion. That is why people make philosophical arguments. [I am presupposing that the Bible is appropriate and sufficient to establish a premise.]
The rest [the fleshing out] depends on the core argument. The first step, then, is to take in the core argument, and either • fault it, • accept it, or • give your subconscious time to process the picture (and then accept it).
I therefore present here only a terse version of the core argument… plus the unabridged original core argument, for convenient reference.
Core Argument — Short Version
Satan (and billions of other angels) fell.
God then must destroy evil.
There must be a Reason why God did not destroy evil immediately.
God then must address that Reason.
{Addressing this Reason} requires time, because otherwise God would have destroyed evil immediately.
We know that God could address, and will have addressed, that Reason, because we know that God will have destroyed evil.
Given that God intended to create the physical realm… it is absolutely indefensible for Him to create it during the period when evil exists, when He could have created it after that period. …Unless it is part of, or constitutes {God addressing the Reason at issue}.
The chronology is as follows. • God created Satan, • Satan fell, • God formulated a Plan, • God created the world.
[From the Bible…] God’s Plan is about evil.
The Cross is the centre-piece of God’s Plan, but it is not the whole Plan on its own; the Old Testament age [the failure of {saving Israel by works}] and the New Testament age [people choosing good, and the Church enduring under Satan] are also necessary elements. (Otherwise they would have been taking unnecessary time.)
That is why we suffer.
Comment A — Recompense
God will recompense you for your suffering. He can, and He will.
Comment B — Unfairness
[This might all seem a lot to take in, on first encounter. I am accustomed to the view, and I am trying to be terse. Apologies.]
Synopsis. I am not going to tell a suffering person that life is fair. What matters is that… just by choosing good, you thereby contribute to the destruction of evil.
First some fleshing out. I submit that Heaven post-Fall would be broadly the same as Earth would be if half of its population was unfallen… and that that would be broadly the same as the Earth actually is (except for some consequences for the unfallen that would not bear mentioning, possibly).
The question I have posed is about fairness.
Note first, then, that {being created fallen, and suffering evil} is both fair and just for everyone who chooses to not repent; they will continue to be evil and to suffer in Hell; that is their choice. Thus, the question is significant only re those who choose to repent.
Note that God’s Plan is about a domain of which Satan is the god (2 Cor 4: 4) and in which every denizen is fallen. My view is that that is what Satan wanted (ideally)… and I am confident that it is a defining criterion of God’s solution. That is… God can not destroy evil without having a domain in which every denizen is born fallen, and comes into existence during evil’s existence and suffers under evil. [Otherwise arguably He would not do that.]
The corollary is that the angels in Heaven can not contribute to the destruction of evil.
Consider, then. God was not morally obligated to save the fallen [my view (not 100% dogmatic)/Matt 26: 53]. One might say, then, that it is not fair to Jesus, that He die for the sins of the fallen… but I suggest that it is more apropos to say that Jesus freely chose to die for the sins of the fallen. (That is why the act was glorious.)
We, however, do not have a third alternative of choosing to not get involved. Our alternatives are • to remain fallen or • to be saved and to participate in the destruction of evil (• just by choosing good, but also • by suffering persecution)… noting that, either way, we suffer evil from other persons (and natural evil).
I submit that the scenario is [particularly] just, for the simple reason that God will render it just by • compensating us for our suffering, and • rewarding us for participating in the destruction of evil… as much as is required to make it just.
The issue of [particularly] fairness has to do with comparing the subject with some other person. We note, then, that… absent God executing a Plan to destroy evil… • any new persons He might create would also suffer under evil and • the existing persons would continue to suffer under evil forever.
There is also a question about what it is that is possibly unfair — being born fallen or being born into suffering under evil.
Re the latter… the only persons with whom one might compare oneself, who do not suffer under evil, are hypothetical, absent God’s Plan being executed and completed. The corollary is that God might indeed have not created any persons during the existence of evil… but that would represent a choice to not destroy evil… at all, ever.
I said that the question about fairness concerns only those who choose to repent. Barring hypotheticals, one can compare oneself with • those who do not exist [so to speak], or • those who suffer under evil and are not fallen and can not participate in the destruction of evil.
I leave the reader to wrestle with this picture. (Note that there is a whole chapter on the former — Job 3.)
I submit that that [suffering] is what one has in mind, when one entertains a concern that it is unfair that one was created during the existence of evil. What of the other issue — being created fallen?
I suggest that most Christians quietly imagine that Satan had “bad wiring”, so to speak. Actually, billions of hitherto sinless angels, in Heaven, chose evil… and consequently are fallen.
Even in a “perfect” environment, doing good can and does carry a cost. Each instance of doing good represents a substantive moral choice. The issue is that there exists conceptually the possibility of choosing to not do good to/for others at all. [My view is that] the billions of {now fallen angels} chose the latter.
The point is that any given human being indeed might well have chosen evil — including you, the reader… and that Adam and Eve choosing evil (albeit on the behalf of all of humanity) is not anomalous.
I suggest that the pivotal point is that where one begins is not at issue; what is at issue is what one chooses — evil or good. That is… pertinently, {how one is when born} is not apt to be unfair.
The Full [Original] Argument
When Did Evil Come into Existence?
The Bible tells us that things are running according to a plan of God that goes back to before the creation of this world (John 17: 24, Acts 2: 23, Rom 8: 29, 1 Cor. 2: 7–8, Eph 1: 4–5, Eph 3: 8–9, Eph 3: 10–11, 2 Tim 1: 9–10, 1 Pet 1: 20, [Rev 13: 8], Rev 17: 8). This plan revolves around the Cross… and the Cross was the addressing of evil.
Thus, the chronology is as follows: • God created Satan, • Satan fell, • God formulated a Plan, • God created the world.
The Creation in a Context of Evil
We know that evil came into existence at some point, and will have been annihilated, a some later point. That is, the existence of evil is for a significant, but finite, period of time.
This gives rise to two questions: “Why did God not instantaneously destroy evil at the moment of its coming-into-existence?”, and (given that He did not, but would later), “Why did God create the world during the existence of evil?”.
The Timing Viewpoint
We will consider the possibility of a connection between evil and the creation from the point of view of when God might deal with evil. There are three possibilities: • instantaneously, • never or
• something between those two.
Never is not an option, because God is holy, because He has declared that He most certainly will destroy evil, and because, in a sense, He already has.
The first option — instantaneously — does not obtain, but is the interesting one, because it is what we would have expected. In both the first and second cases, God annihilates evil; why did He not do so immediately?
The Reason
God is holy; His will is to annihilate evil… but He did not do so. We can be certain that this requires a Reason.
We can deduce something else, as well.
Failing Him being able to instantaneously annihilate evil, because of a certain Reason, His course is set: He must address the Reason. When the Reason has been addressed, He will immediately annihilate evil. (We know that this is possible, since we know that evil will be destroyed.)
Reconciling the Plan and the Reason
Ephesians 1: 9-10 tells us that God’s purpose was a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in the Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. Colossians 1: 20 says that, through the Christ (by the blood of His Cross), God has reconciled all things (on earth and in heaven) to Himself.
This creation was made through and for the Christ (John 1: 3, 1 Corinthians 8: 6, Colossians 1: 15 – 20, Hebrews 1: 2). All this is according to a Plan of God that was formulated before the foundation of the world.
However… the Cross is not, itself, the means by which God brings about the annihilation of evil. This follows from the fact that evil exists for a significant time both before and after the Cross; God’s holiness would require that there be no delay.
The Cross is certainly the centrepiece of the annihilation of evil. However, it is as a part of this creation that it achieves its purpose. Revelation 12: 11 tells us that the accuser is conquered by the saints, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Ephesians 3: 1 – 12 talks about the mystery of Christ; we see in verses 9 – 11 that the hidden mystery of God’s plan was that His manifold wisdom, “might… be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places”, “through the church”. Verse 11 tells us that this was according to the eternal purpose which God has realised in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The reason that this physical world was created during the existence of evil is that it is to bring about the destruction of evil that we exist. (Hence Colossians 1: 24.)
Phaenexiad — David Everingham’s Blog 
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