A friend asked me to summarize Book 2, which I had not done, thinking that the subject was too broad. Still I answered:
"The world is in its current condition entirely because of people’s choices."
Therefore,
"People’s choices matter.
and
My choices matter."
And two corollaries:
1. If we want a different world, then we make different choices.
2. If we want a better world, including a better personal world, then - in our hearts and lives - we learn, embrace
and we choose God’s ways as revealed in the literal Bible, and as directed in relationship to God. His ways fit reality and fulfill us.
Part 1 answers: How does the Good and Almighty God co-exist with evil?
Part 2 answers: How can God be Sovereign and we humans be responsible for each of our actions?
The answers come from God’s Own mouth.
Our Creator knows what He did, and He knows how to tell us about it.
He used the right words; He put them in the right order, and He ordained their locations and contexts in the Bible.
If we try to fit the Bible’s words to our understanding,
- if we narrow the meaning of a Hebrew word, for example, so that it makes sense to us, -
then we lose meaning.
If the message is clear just as written … but does not seem to fit …
then we believe it until God helps us understand it as written.
We need God’s words in Isaiah 45:7 to understand the place of evil in our world,
but we have not believed them literally because they seem to conflict with the truth that God is good.
If we do not believe, we do not fake an understanding; we do not reverse Proverbs 3:5: “Lean to your own understanding,
and then trust the Lord.”
We are not God; our personal understanding will filter out His literal truths.
God's Pre-Fall reality is described in Genesis 1 and 2. Evil is in the world uncorrupted by sin.
When we learn the uncorrupted definition of evil, then we can understand the explanation of evil.
Plus, God nowhere changes any of His Pre-Fall reality.
People mess up what God created in many ways, but no one ever changes any part of it.
Sin can be quite destructive, but it never will change what God created.
The Literal Bible has accessible answers to:
1. What is the origin of evil?
2. What is the definition of evil?
3. How can both a good God and evil exist together?
4. Why does (or How can) a good and almighty God allow evil on the earth?
But we need Literal Lenses …
Part 1 of Book 2 uses a literal read of Isaiah 45 and Genesis 2 to explain the origin and definition of evil.
Part 2 of Book 2 uses a literal read of three verses in Genesis 1 to reconcile
God’s Sovereignty with human responsibility. It answers why God does not stop evil from hitting the earth.
(The reconciliation is explained throughout the Bible, so Part 2 has eight chapters.)
Part 3 of Book 2 builds on Parts 1 and 2 to give us practical ways to deal with the evil in our world.
It addresses questions such as: since evil messes up my world, what can I do to stop it and to get rid of it?
The good God co-exists with bad / evil … and His revealed explanation is accessible to average thinkers … no Bible believer needs to appeal to God’s unsearchable wisdom.