Behold, I Make All Things New!: An Exploration of God's Goodness in Light of the Existence of Evil - Paperback

by 'Tunde Caleb Agboola (Author)

Behold, I Make All Things New! was inspired by the author's experience of raising his beloved daughter, who was born with a genetic disorder. This book is written to inspire, support, and encourage all people, notably all followers of Jesus Christ, who might be going through inexplicable pain and suffering and are questioning the goodness of God.

The book has four sections:

Section 1 "Rational defense for a good God", started with a brief story of my daughter that led to the writing of this book. Chapter Two is a very rational and introspective chapter, written to provide thorough and careful reasoning to justify the fact that God is good. The argument's premise came from a statement of Jesus Christ recorded in the Bible. To help atheists, agnostics, and non-believers reading the book find a reason to believe and better appreciate the discussion in Chapter 2, Chapters Three and Four focus on why there is a God and why we should rely on the Bible, respectively.

Section 2, "Origin of evil and God's eternal purpose and desire", starts with Chapter Five that builds on Section one to address the origin of the manifestation of evil. In addition, Chapter Six provides a reason why God allows the expression of evil to continue despite His foreknowledge about the possibility of evil deeds. God's eternal purpose and desire that He must accomplish in time is the reason for which He allows evil to manifest in existence to date. God desires to have children (sons). Consequently, God gave Adam (before iniquity was also found in man) the dominion mandate to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth by raising godly seeds. Chapter Seven is about what it means for God to have sons according to the Bible.

Section 3, "God's plan against evil on Earth", focuses on demonstrating the active goodness of God. Although Section 2 seeks to exonerate God from evil, it might not be sufficient to support and demonstrate God's goodness. Section 3 addresses just that, beginning with Chapter Eight, to show that when God incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ, all he went about doing was good. Then Chapter Nine further strengthens the argument for the goodness of God through the continuation of Christ's good deeds by the body of Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ is the primary agent of goodness on the earth until the culmination of all things in the dispensation of the fullness of time. As though that is not good enough, Chapter Ten then explains God's goodness in setting up a system of human delegated authority to reward good and punish evil as part of His plan to contain evil deeds on the earth. In summary, Section 3 demonstrates God's inherent, present, and continuing goodness on the earth, hence God must be indeed good.

Section 4, "Hope while making sense of the problem of evil", begins with Chapter Eleven to answer the typical questions during pain and suffering like "Why do bad things happen to good people?" "Where was God when this or that was happening?" "If God is all-powerful and good, why is He not answering my prayers?" etc.

Having answers to those questions is excellent, but that might not change our expectation for a change of state from pain and suffering to bliss. Chapter Twelve gives a powerful biblical exposition on the hope in the certainty of the promise of God. All situations can change, and several will change as God promised when all conditions have aligned. However, there will be some situations that in God's eternal wisdom might remain; it is to such people and all of us who have experienced pain and suffering in any capacity that Chapter Thirteen speaks. We are all encouraged to keep hope alive because God will make all things new as promised, and He cannot lie!!!