The answer to the question of “How could a perfectly good Creator create evil?”, lies in that evil is not a thing but the absence of good, like darkness is the absence of light.  Our Creator did not create evil for evil is not a thing.  Our Creator gave us free will which is good, but a consequence is that lesser good choices may be made, “evil” choices.  To help us decide, our Creator gave us guilt.  Those who are truly evil are those that have overridden their natural guilt.

Everyone admires a hero, the underdog who prevails against the odds, an advocate for the oppressed, the hard worker who perseveres, a compassionate helper.  These “greater good” character traits are not possible unless there are choices, trials, and evil.  Yes, trials and choices can lead to a greater good, in that they can build character traits that can not be formed in paradise.  The key to understanding this life is that our Creator built this world to build our character, not for our comfort.  This makes total sense if you consider that when your body dies, your character is that main part of your soul that survives.  There will be paradise in Heaven but also the absence of opportunities to build certain positive character traits.

These concepts are deep and difficult, but worthwhile to digest.  Our Creator’s plan is perfect, but the plan only makes sense if we take the time to consider and think through aspects that we can only know through Real Faith.  Real Faith is not a blind faith, but a rational faith only on unverifiable things from a trusted source.  A trusted source established from what can be known and reasoned: for example, getting directions from a policeman or mapquest.com.  We know a Creator exists, we know that only one book bears His endorsement, we know reason, but we have to trust what He says in His book about unverifiable things, before we can make sense of life and death.

Now knowing about our Creator being perfectly good and just, and that a Heaven and Hell exist, some aspects of His Plan start to make sense.  Justice and rewards not dealt with in this life, can be dealt with in the afterlife.  Another major piece of understanding is to comprehend that many of the difficult choices and hardships in our life are not only consequences of our Creator giving us free will, but are also opportunities to improve our character, opportunities that we will not have in Heaven.

Now with other positions from our Creator’s book that we might initially take issue, we need to be careful and humble ourselves. None of us are smart enough to properly consider all the ramifications, relationships, and long term effects, of alternative propositions that we may think may be better than our Creator’s plans.  Our default position needs to be: to understand and trust in our Creator’s ways first before jumping to any conclusion that He may be wrong.  Remember, He is smart enough to create this universe and life.

Our Real Faith is held in the highest regard by our Creator, so make it one of your top priorities to build.  Real Faith requires you to be discerning, otherwise your strong beliefs might be based on falsehoods.  Real Faith requires you to be disciplined and deliberate, as your own desires and the ways of the world will often tempt you to live in ways inconsistent with your faith.  Finally, building your faith is a process that is never truly finished.  Faith is Discerning, Disciplined, Deliberate, Doing, and Developed.

A big part of our Creator’s plan is free will.  A key element of His plan is to not coerce people to do things His way, but to allow people to choose and live with their consequences.  An interesting aspect of history which has repeated itself many times, is that our Creator has blessed a group of people who have turned toward Him, only to have their descendents turn from His Ways within a couple of generations.  There is something in our basic nature that allows sinful ways to creep into our cultures during good times.  The consequences of sin then force us to turn back toward our Creator for guidance and help.

Now that we have cleared a few elephants from this room of understanding, let us now find out just what our Creator is like, (besides being perfect), ...................