Bad Design?

God loaded our universe with incredible designs that we can copy, but not everything seems designed for good. If God made everything, why do so many animals, like snakes and lions, have special abilities that help them to hurt us? Couldn’t God have made a world without harmful designs?

Yes, He could—and did. When God made the world, He designed it to be perfect (the “very good” creation He described in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1). That good world is exactly what we’d expect from a perfect God. The original universe had none of the bad stuff we know today.

So, what happened? We did it. We brought all this evil into the world. Here’s how. The first man, Adam, disobeyed God, and as a result, the “very good” universe lost its perfection (Genesis 3). From then on, bad things began to happen. People got hurt and died. In fact, the Bible compares our world now to a person groaning in pain because it’s not like God made it to be (Romans 8:22).

If someone points out a “bad design,” like sharp claws on a lion, now you’ll know the truth. God created everything good, but Adam sinned and the universe changed. God still had a plan to make things right. He promised in the Bible that He would send His Son, Jesus, to put things right (Isaiah 53). When Jesus came to earth two thousand years ago, He died on the Cross to pay the penalty for our disobedience. He provided a way for us to escape the eternal punishment of sin.

Someday, Jesus will make everything good again. Pain, death, and sadness will cease forever!

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying” (Revelation 21:4).