To summarize, for character to exist (and not simply things) liberty had
to be created. When liberty is actualized, evil turns from a possibility to a
reality, supervening upon good and opposing all of creation’s possibilities.
The Word of God says “yes” to character and liberty and continues to let
the eternal plan unfold, leading ultimately to the future when Christ could
say of the already accomplished and the yet to come, “I saw Satan fall like
lightning from heaven.” (Lk 10:18) and John could report, “The great
dragon was hurled down —that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan,
who leads the whole world astray. ...Now have come the salvation and the
power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For
the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God
day and night, has been hurled down.” (Rev 12:9–10).
This diversity of thought on the ontogeny, nature and timing of the
appearance of evil notwithstanding, the model proposed in this paper can
accommodate any of these views reasonably well.
GOD SAYS “YES!”
God fi rst said “Yes!” to order and life—in biblical words “Let there be
light!” God set out to redeem matter (creation) and to show that his
love (light) was suffi cient to bring beautiful order in the face of Satan’s
worst efforts. This was accomplished in spite of the fact that death and
violence had to be allowed—for a time—and in spite of limited resources.
This is expressed by Southgate 25 as “the best of all possible worlds.” Yong
elaborates, “The world is rightly declared to be good in the sense that an
evolutionary creation has given rise to the values human beings hold. Yet
the extensive death found in the evolutionary process is intrinsic to the
emergence and expansion of life itself.” 26 In essence, the evil limitation
placed on matter/energy was overcome by a recycling solution to yield
some of the abundance and beauty that God wanted to display. Disorder
was overcome by God’s continuous loving attention to his world. Death
was fi nally fully defeated at the Resurrection by recreating the body of
Jesus using matter the way God originally intended. The same victory
will be displayed at the redemption and restoration of all matter/energy.
Even now, humans can participate in a spiritual redemption/restoration.
Creation and redemption are inextricably linked.
The disorder and hatefulness of Satan extended beyond the material
into the spiritual. God has declared that evil’s time is up on that front, if
we choose to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as modeled by Jesus in his life
306 B. K. (BEV) MITCHELL