The first premise is this: "I will be like the Most High." That is, "If I can imagine ... why can't God?" Or, to put it another way, "I can think more clearly than God can." How do we know this? Well, my idea of perfection is right and God's isn't -- plain and simple. This premise has its own underlying premise, and this one is the real problem. Of Number One importance is ... me. Well, we can be more generous. The most important being in the universe is the human being. This idea spawns the rest of the ideas. If humans are the most important beings, then it follows that humans should always have what they want. It's good to be #1, right? We assume, from this, that evil is bad and discomfort is bad and it's all because humans are #1. Therefore, if a being we call "God" is to be valid at all, He must cater to our sense of what we think is right and must do His utmost to make us happy and comfortable. Since we are not all happy and comfortable, there is no such being. Poof! God vanishes in a puff of logic.
Now, the problem is easy from my perspective. I admit readily that it's not so easy from their perspective, but from mine it's a piece of cake. While they start from "I'm the most important being", I start from God. Given a God who is omniscient and omnipotent, loving and good, and, by virtue that He is God, the singularly most important being in the universe (because, after all, He made and owns it all), the entire question goes away because the line of reasoning fails. God is not obligated to humans. He isn't required to make His creation happy and/or comfortable. This is not to suggest that God is not obligated. He's just not obligated to His creation. No, God is obligated ... to Himself. The "perfect world", then, would necessarily reflect Him in the best possible light.
"Oh, see?" they object again."He would be best reflected if we were most comfortable." No, that's not true. In Romans 9, Paul says this:
What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory (Rom 9:22-23)?Here we see a peak at God's intentions. It is God's desire to "show His wrath and make known His power". That is one intent. He also intends to "make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy". God, in order to best display His character, intended to show both wrath and mercy. Indeed, there is a whole gamut of character traits that we would never see if there was no sin, no pain, no evil. We wouldn't see God's judgment or wrath, His mercy or grace. We wouldn't know what "imputed righteousness" was. We wouldn't understand what it means to rely solely on our Maker "in whom we live and move and have our being." There would be no need for repentance and no death to self. In fact, there would be no need for Christ or the Holy Spirit. Much of the God that we know now would not be visible at all.
Imagine with me, if you will, the anti-theist's "perfect world". No one ever sins. No one ever chooses evil. Nothing bad ever happens. Try, if you can, to imagine in this "perfect world" on what basis God would show His wrath for sin or His mercy toward sinners. Since neither sin nor sinners exist in this world ... it cannot be done. No justice, no mercy, no love (because many things are only seen in contrast with their opposites) would be actually known. There would be no Jesus, no Savior, no intimacy with the Holy Spirit, all aspects of God. And if God cannot best display Himself -- His priority -- then it cannot be a "perfect world".
Yes, evil is evil. Yes, unpleasant events are unpleasant. But it is only when we start with humans as ultimate that this becomes a problem. If we start with God as ultimate, the whole thing changes. Evil is evil, but God can use evil for good. Unpleasant things are unpleasant, but God can work them for good. In fact, if we start with the premise of God as ultimate, life becomes amazing! Amidst all the sin and pain around us we can see a continuous miracle of God at work making good out of bad and blessing out of discomfort. That is a far more "perfect world" than the plain, bland, "everyone is comfortable all the time" offering that the opponents of the Master might offer. So the question becomes not "What's wrong with God?", but "Whose side are you on -- God's or Man's?" If you side with God, the wonderful thing is Man is benefited. Win-win!
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