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I know that God created us, but why did he put us on earth?  And if he is all knowing, then why did he allow Adam and Eve to fall?  What is the purpose?

Oklahoma Howdy to sandyg,

Hard question - but easy answer.

It is not man's place to ever question the power, majesty, and purpose of Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe. HE knew the number of hairs on your head before the foundation of the world. All you really need to know is that HE didn't make any mistakes. Yes, HE knew that Adam and Eve would disobey HIM, and HE also knew you would ask this question "umpteen" million years ago.

Tom

That doesn't actually answer the question thought, does it?  It's just a long winded way of saying "we don't know".   Not that I'm disagreeing with you, but it's a valid question that God hasn't really given us any answer to.

I would disagree with your statement: It is not man's place to ever question the power, majesty, and purpose of Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe.   I think God can handle us questioning it quite a bit - the psalmist certainly did.

See Ephesians 1:5-12.  In brief "that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ". Knowing the first Adam would fall, God already had planned for the second Adam to become the "last Adam" so that those who believe on Him should have everlasting life (Jn.3:16) and also become exact replicas of Him (Rom. 8:28-30).

God created us because He loves us.  He really has no need for us at all.

Rev 4:11

11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
KJV

I aree with ebia.  "It's not man's place to question God," is not really a good answer.  I was asked this question, "What is the purpose of God putting us on earth?" by a Mormon.  You can bet he has a good answer (spirit children sent to earth to learn and then go back to heaven to become Gods & Goddesses). I guess the only way to respond would be to put him on the defense and dispute his doctrine, however...I'm not really answering his question to me.  I already answered that we were created by God and are here to glorify God, but I have not answered why God put us on Earth.  I agree with Sower, but I can see this is going to open up a very long discussion on Adam/Eve, the fall, God's Sovereignty, why God puts people on earth and doesn't save everyone, etc.  He already doesn't think the Christian God is "fair."  Apparently they believe that as long as you don't rape or murder, you acheive some sort of place in one their heavenly kingdoms.  Anyway, I was hoping there was something that I had missed.

Ebia,

Your post was longer than mine and didn't contain an answer. However, if it has to do with the Bible or morals, we can count on you to be against it. You are at least consistent - a pain.   ;D  You've also helped to teach all of us to overcome evil with good.  So, THANKS!

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.  Romans 12:21

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  Romans 11:33  

Unlike you, I didn't claim to have an answer.  You did, but failed to give one.

No, I just against people spouting garbage and claiming it's correct or divinely inspired.

Some of my students think that too.

To Love us and for us to Love Him, and to have fellowship.

Brother Love :)

   <:)))><

"(spirit children sent to earth to learn and then go back to heaven to become Gods & Goddesses)."
A revelation from the "other testament" no doubt.
 

Well...Of COURSE we should question!!!!!!
Why not?  ???  :)
Why stifle?

Personally... this is my opinion so far on the subject. (granted I don't know the absolute TRUE answer..but hey, I can take a stab at it. No HARM!)

I believe we are here because God created humans, not robots. He didn't want automatons. He gave his first couple FREE WILL. Hey, here you are in this wonderful paradise (but did they know JUST how wonderful it was? They had nothing to compare it to...no darkness to compare it to...do you think they could FULLY appreciate God and Creation?) anyway, so they're in this paradise, and God wants them to be happy but like I said, He also doesn't want robots. He gives them the freedom to choose to obey Him or disobey. He gave them minds to USE. They chose wrong. POW! Now they have to take responsibility for their CHOICES. Now they see why they SHOULD have obeyed God for now they DO know the difference b/t good and evil. But they chose what they chose, but the silver lining is now they (and now, WE) have seen the darkness...have been IN the darkness, have experienced how DEAD life is without GOD. GOD is holy, pure...He cannot be IN the darkness. So, that is why I feel we're here.

We're here because the first folks chose to disobey, and we're reaping what they sowed, but we do have a silver lining in that we will so fully appreciate being in the LIGHT, forever being set apart from the horrible darkness...that just to KNOW that the darkness/evil is being thrown into the everlasting fire, and we will NEVER have to deal with IT or any of it's ugly wicked, dried-up, stinking, rotting fruits ever again..and that we will REALIZE JUST HOW wonderful the LIGHT of God really is...we will praise Him forever!!!!!!!

Earth is just a schoolyard. And God didn't want automatons.

Well, that's just how I see it. And y'know there's a lot more to it, but that's the gist.  ;)

C'mon... I want to hear other folks ideas!! This is such a fascinating topic of conversation, no? and y'know...it's just that, conversation. not a debate, really...just tossing out some ideas.

love,
Sparrow

If life, and the bible, are meant to be learning experiences, where we are supposed to think, grow, make connections; ie truly learn; that makes a lot more sense than any idea that we are supplied with the answers to me.

Because kangaroos are dangerous?

Genesis 1:28.............Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:15.  And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.


  He did not allow the disobedience. He allowed choice to obey or disobey. He gave the command, " Genesis 2:16.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
 17.  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God also issued the penalty for disobeying the command. He was completely in control of His creation as He wanted it to be. There is a command for obedience and a penalty for disobedience. He is just and judges by His commandment and gives out His reward for obedience and His penalty for disobedience.
Adam and Eve disobeyed the command and thus received the penalty.

The purpose being: All creation reflects the glory of God in its very being and doing the things for which they were created by God. Man created in His image to either glorify or not glorify God by obedience or not obedience. Also the wonderful plan of redemption to bring the disobedient back to the original glory God wanted from His created image.


Ollie

Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Mat 5:16)

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? (Rom 9:20-24)

Why did God put it in our hearts to desire children/heirs?

God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)

Could this be part of the character of God??

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (Joh 1:12-13)

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;... (Rom 8:16-17)

For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26)

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom 8:14-17)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely bestowed favor on us in the Beloved, (Eph 1:3-6)

i'll take a few stabs at this one.

why he created? maybe for the pleasure of creating, like an artist paints for the pleasure of painting.. maybe it is just a part of His nature, of what God is. The nature of Cause to have and effect.

whe He created us? Love, someone to Love and return that Love. Like a parent, we want children, something that is a part of us but different, something that we can pour our vastness into and watch become.

earth? a place to exist. a place to exhibit His wonder and greatness. the framing, and background of the object of a painting, the house for children to grow in.

And if he is all knowing, then why did he allow Adam and Eve to fall? What is the purpose?

Theodicy.
I think that being 'all knowing' God knew that in the end the good would outweigh the evil sufficiently enough to allow adam and eve the freedom to fall. freewill and predestination are a paradox... they both exist and both are active in our lives,, it is not an either or. the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world,,,, implies at the very least that God know the potential of this new creature to "fall", and that in spite of this the lamb was enough of a solution to this problem.

it is interesting that hell, purgatory and heaven all kind of address this question. These all have specific relation to Gods justice and His mercy.

mike

In all the answers posted, I noticed two in particular that interested me.

First, let me just say that we don't have all the answers (and neither does anybody else).....and we won't until we stand before Him, and He opens our minds to know as He knows, and is known.

Now, the posts. One by BEP, and an answer by ebia.

IMO...you're both right.

Long before there was an Israel, long before there was a Moses, or a delivery thru him of law, probably some time before Abram, there lived a man who knew and worshiped the one true God. He was true, and upright in the sight of God, and he did not sin with his lips. He was a successful businessman, owning a trucking company, a very large agricultural operation, and also was a manufacturer of transportation devices (an early version of the Hummer).

And one day it all caved in. In the space of just a few hours, he lost everything...including his family. If this weren't enough, a week or so later he lost his health.

During the course of many long and unbearably agonizing days and nights, he pled for an audience with God, he hated the day he was born, he withstood the verbal onslaught of his legalistic friends who condemned him, and he questioned "why" this had happened to him.

But in the midst of all this, he also made some absolutely wonderful statements about realizations he had concerning God, and himself.

He realized that regardless of how "good" he was, he required a mediator between himself and God. He realized that only through that mediator could he hope to stand in the last days before God and be declared righteous, and that in the last days he would SEE (in the flesh) his savior stand upon this earth in the flesh.

But never did he question God as to whether or not what was happening to him was Gods right.

And in this, when God finally answered, God once again said..."and in this he did not sin with his lips".

God wants us to have a healthy relationship with Him, which includes asking questions and seeking answers....but He never guarantees that He will always answer or explain, and He never says that we have the right to demand, or have, a complete explanation about everything.

Some things are a mystery...and they will remain that way. And while we may ask, or question about something, there are times when we just don't know, won't know, can't know...and that is His prerogative.

Stuff happens.

God created us for fellowship. He walked and talked with Adam in the cool of the evening. God created evil as a defining contrast to His light. No artist can paint a masterpiece with all white. There has to be black for definition and color for character. The evil came about by choice being given and risked by God in the choices given in His creation of lucifer and then using that evil to provide Adam a choice to obey or disobey in the Garden of Eden. God wanted true love and fellowship from His special creation in man, and could not force us to obey or to love Him. Who has heard of love that is forced or robotic being satisfying? Through man's fall, God has been able to show us redeeming love and had planned ahead through and by His omniscinece to redeem us with the lamb slain before the foundations - Jesus. God suffers the existence of evil until all who will be revealed have come to Him and then it will be done away with forever along with all that follow after it.
Although God created evil, He does not do evil, but uses it to reveal Himself to His creation - that contrast of evils darkness flees before the light of His holiness and light of truth. Evil thinks it wins victories, such as the crime of ages when Jesus died innocent at the cross, but look at the glorious result - salvation for mankind and resurrection of Jesus as the firstborn of many brethren.

Ro 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Isaiah 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Re 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Ro 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

I believe that God created us for many reasons.
Firstly for his pleasure. Our God is a creative God. He has a need to create and he loves everything and everyone he has ever created. He loved humankind so much that he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - in His BEST place, and put them in charge. Because we were created for God's pleasure everything we do should please him!

Secondly, We were created to be a part of God's Family. God Loves family life. He wants us, as his children, to share in his Glory (See Hebrews 2:10 and 1John 3:1)

"When we become Christians, God becomes our father, we become His children and other Christians become our brother's and Sister's and the Church becomes our Spiritual family" (The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren)

Thirdly, we were created to become like Christ. Only Human beings are made in Christ's image!!
Remember, Jesus was the image of God made man - We should all strive to be like Jesus, the perfect human!!

Fourthly, we were created for serving God. Again, we should follow Jesus' example in being a servant and doing good deeds for others. (Ephesians 2:10)

Finally, we were created for a mission. Each of us has a purpose in this life and God has equipped us to do it. It is one of our tasks as a Christian to discover our gifts and talents and find out what Mission God has got planned for us.

Let me finish off with this verse...

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visitble and invisible... Everything god started in Him and finds its purpose in Him!" Collossians 1:16 (Message)

Hope that helps!
God Bless,
Marie

That final quotation should read:

"For everything got started in him"

We were created for His glory.  He desires us to worship Him.
He does not need us in order to be worshipped though.  I believe He desires it and He sacrificed His one and only Son to see us through.  Praise God!  
Isaiah 43:7-everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."  

Wow...I never thought that we had so much possible viewpoints in this thread. But anyway I will give my 2 cents.

As someone already stated the exact reason of why God choosed Earth instead of another planet we don't know, but we do know that we were created because we are here. Now, what is the purpose? As some people also stated the purpose for our creation is to be with God. To enjoy of all the things that God can give us. It was not because God was feeling lonely or anything like that. He just decided to create us. What was the exact feeling in the moment prior to our Creation we don't know. But maybe someday, when we are in Heaven, we may ask Him. And about why did He let Adam and Eve to sin...well the truth is that He didn't allow them to sin per se. He allow them to take their own decisions, that Free Will that we all have. And it was through that Free Will that man choosed to sin.

Hope this helps.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, (Eph 1:3-5)

"according to the good pleasure of his desire"

We have adopted two precious little girls from the South Pacific.  So the idea of God choosing us before the foundation of the world for adoption according to the good pleasure of his desire is especially poignant.

Here's another verse that mentions God's pleasure.

Re 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

I've thought about this question a lot and my husband and I have discussed it many times. If God didn't allow us to fall, then we would have no knowledge of good and evil, therefore nor appreciate our walk with God. There can be no grace without sin. If we hadn't fallen, then  weo would never have had to learn anything because we would still be walking with God like Adam and eve first did. We HAVE to have knowledge of good and evil to appreciate the good. Can anyone think of a better way to do that?

Genesis 2:17 - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:
Genesis 2:18 - "For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."


Genesis 2:17 - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it..."

You really need to study the concept of original sin if you think that is true.  The whole point of original sin is that man fell from grace.  So before they sinned Adam and Eve were in a state of grace.  No grace without sin?  Nonsense.

Oh and to answer the original question of the thread.

Why did God create us?  To glorify Him.

How do we glorify Him?  By loving Him and cooperating with His grace thus doing good works of love toward our fellow man.

Michael,
Without the knowledge of good and evil, how could we know the value of good unless we understood evil? Who do you think kicked Satan out of heaven? You obviously again believe that Satan is more powerful than God and also that the "free" will of man is more powerful than God. You obviously then CANNOT believe that God is omnipotent, nor do you believe that His plan is bigger than Satan's plan. Do you think God is just "winging it"? Why do you think Revelations talks about Satan being bound up? Is that just a lucky co-incidence? Who do you think ALLOWS that? Who do you think ALLOWS sin? God can step in any time he wants and he does. "God hardens whom He wants and has mercy on whom He wants."  Again your belief that the devil is more powerful than God is blatantly obvious.

Scrpture says we were created for his good pleasure. That is why we were created. He allowed Adam and Eve to sin, because they were created in his image with a free will of their own. God never overrides our free will. Our purpose is to choose life.
Why do parents have children? Would they want those children to be children all their lives such as a retarded child would be, or do they want them to go out into the world prepared to face it?
God is the perfect parent. He wanted us and he made a way for us to come back to him through our Lord and Savior Jesus.

Amen, to both of you.