Steven,
You made some good points. And those points, I think, are very relevant to Jan's charges that the God of the Bible could not be the loving God described therein because of what Jan calls "natural evil." By "natural evil" Jan refers to things in nature which cause people pain and death. Things like disease, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Jan's position maintains that the all-loving God described in the Bible would have carefully designed mankind's environment to make sure it was free of all elements which would cause people pain and death.
But such an argument is only valid if we understand the Bible to teach that God intended for the human race as physical people to live forever on earth. This is JW theology, but is it really a teaching supported by the Bible? No, it is not. The fact of the matter is that the Bible clearly teaches that God created the human race mortal. God created us to die.
The Genesis account clearly indicates that Adam and Eve were created mortal with a dying nature just like us. The story of Adam and Eve told in Genesis makes clear that their being able to live forever was not a part of their original physical nature. Rather, Adam and Eve's ability to live forever depended entirely on their eating from a tree "in the middle of the garden" of Eden, "the tree of life". (Genesis 2:9) Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve were going to be allowed to continue to eat from that tree only if they passed a God given test, a test which we are told they failed. After failing that test God expelled Adam and his wife from the Garden of Eden and prevented them from ever again eating from "the tree of life."
Genesis indicates that had Adam and Eve been allowed to continue eating from "the tree of life" their lives would have been prolonged indefinitely. (Genesis 3:22-24) But when God prevented them from ever again eating from "the tree of life" they died what were apparently natural deaths. A careful reading of the Genesis account shows us that living forever would have been as unnatural for Adam and Eve as it would now be for us.
Genesis does not indicate that Adam and Eve originally had eternal life programmed into their genetic codes by God and later had their genetic codes reprogrammed by God in order to remove eternal life from those codes. Rather, Genesis indicates that Adam and Eve would have lived forever only if God had graciously given them eternal life from an outside source, "the tree of life."
Of course, that "tree of life" was meant to picture Jesus Christ.
God was going to give Adam and Eve eternal life from an outside source, "the tree of life," only if they passed a very simple test. And the Bible tells us that we will be given eternal life from an outside source, Jesus Christ, only if we pass a very simple test. That test is to simply believe in our hearts that Christ's death was sufficient payment to buy every human being God's full forgiveness, forgiveness for both our sinful nature and our sinful acts.
So, since God created us to die and death is not a pleasant experience, would God have carefully designed our natural environment to be completely free of anything that might cause human beings pain and death? No, He would not have. The fact of the matter is, since God created us to die, he would have had to create a natural environment for us that contained things such as disease, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to make sure that we would die. For all deaths are caused by something. The fact is, there is no such thing as death by old age. Everyone dies either as a result of some sort of disease, as a result of some sort of accident - natural or otherwise - or as a result of the violent act of another human being. So, God would have only created a natural environment which contained nothing that might kill us if he intended for us to live forever on earth as physical people. But as you point out, that was not His intention.
