on earth. Satan’s authority over the material world is still allowed and we
humans live in a situation in which we can exercise our free will and choose
to become children of God through Christ—or not.
T HE DEFEAT OF EVIL AND DEATH
God’s solution to the dilemma posed by Satan’s rebellion was to work
with and through spiritual/material creation and, ultimately, human
beings. We are given free will because God sees this as the only loving
thing to do—and it is consistent with the way he relates to created spiritual
beings. He then reveals himself to us, standing by us as we work out why
it’s really important to yield to his way of doing things. Finally, God steps
in to show, in Christ, that human beings really can follow God in complete
faith. This ultimately brings evil’s claim on us to an end, in both material
and spiritual reality. This is the victory of God’s love in Christ.
We are material and spiritual beings inhabiting an easily perceived mate-
rial reality with which we regularly interact. We have only weak abilities
to interact with spiritual reality where the Trinity and other beings live,
including evil agents. The Holy Spirit is our only sure and trustworthy
connection with that other reality and we are called to do battle in that
reality by agreeing with him and thereby availing ourselves of his power.
According to Scripture, God has chosen to guide and work with us in this
battle. We need to experience his power while still inhabiting material real-
ity—we are in training as it were. Through his Spirit and in Christ’s name,
God wants us to use his love to help overcome the disorder caused by evil.
In this way we can cooperate with God as he creates his Kingdom.
We are now in the already-not-yet time, still material and under all the
limitations of that reality. But by accepting Christ’s forgiveness, we are
able to grow spiritually as we learn to yield to the gentle urgings of the
Holy Spirit. When God will say “enough” is his concern. But the stage
is set, the necessary suffering and sacrifi ce have already been completed.
His love has won, in Christ, but our battle with evil is still in progress in
order to build the Kingdom and to offer more people an opportunity to
repent. Since, in our disobedience, we appear to be rapidly changing the
planet, environmentally, economically, and politically, into a place that is
increasingly unfriendly to life, it may be that Christ will need to come to
our rescue just before we make some irreversible errors. Until that time,
there is still only so much matter to go around which, quite practically,
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