“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

1.2 It Was Very Good

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. – Genesis 1:31

Initial Creation Was Perfect. Just as God Himself is holy, righteous, just, true, and perfect, you must also realize that the Bible states that God’s initial creation of this Earth (and the Garden of Eden, and mankind as well as all animals and plants) was also perfect – without sin, suffering, disease or death. God “is love,” and He declared that His creation was “very good.” God would not declare anything “very good” if it were not perfect in His own mind, which must also reflect His own character. And when “God, who cannot lie” tells us that through Scripture, we know it is true.

Now you may be thinking to yourself: “But what I see around me shows disease, suffering, killing, and death!” You’re also probably thinking: “What I’ve learned and seen proof of is that it took millions of years for us to evolve to this point.” Additionally, you may be thinking: “Well, what I see around me doesn’t match what is in the Bible!” You look around at the reality we find ourselves in and wonder how could there ever be a God, or how can God be called “good” and “loving” with what we see in the world today?

If so, I empathize with you greatly, and for the longest time (many years, decades even), I also didn’t believe in God because of what I saw around me in this fallen, sinful world. But you mustn’t make the mistake of blaming God for what you see around us – this fallen world and the reality that we find ourselves in now resulted from man’s actions. What we see around us today is not what God initially created. We are currently seeing things through the veil of sin and the curse; we cannot see things clearly here in this fallen world.

In fact, what we see today is just a mere foggy glimpse of what initial creation was like, as if looking through a dark and dimly lit veil. What we see today is a result of a “curse” being put on creation by God, but that was done as a result of the sinful actions of man, and it was done out of love and for our benefit: so that we would not live forever in a sinful state of separation from Him by taking and eating of the “Tree of Life” that was in the perfect Garden of Eden. This matter of humanity and sin is covered more fully in the upcoming chapter on Humanity and Sin. But first, we must deal with the commonly held belief that science has disproven the Bible (and therefore God).

FALSE TEACHING(S) YOU WILL ENCOUNTER:

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. – Genesis 1:31

The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” – Genesis 2:8-17

“The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.” – Deuteronomy 32:4

And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.” – Isaiah 6:3

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting. – 1 Chronicles 16:34

But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children. – Psalm 103:17

For His lovingkindness is great toward us,
And the truth of the Lord is everlasting.
Praise the Lord! – Psalm 117:2

…for God is love. – 1 John 4:8

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. – Romans 8:19-23

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Cite this article

Anderson, R. John. "1.2 It Was Very Good." EachDay.org. Access date: October 6, 2024. https://eachday.org/part-i-god-humanity-sin/1-2-it-was-very-good/