I believe the Bible because in Genesis 3 it tells me where evil came from. It tells me that our original ancestors were perfect and lived in a paradise. They seemed to be content until one day someone told them they could be like God. Since they knew God, yes, they wanted to be like Him. They were told they could be like God knowing good from evil if only they would eat the fruit of a certain tree. Now God had told them to eat of every fruit in the garden except that one, but they became convinced God didn’t want them to eat of that fruit because He was hiding something from them. Were these people different from us? Don’t we all want to be the god of our own destiny. Don’t we think that we have enough wisdom to make our own decisions and run our own lives? Of course, we do. There is even a religion that teaches we can become gods of our own worlds if we are good enough. So, what happened?
Not only did Adam and Eve sin by acting against God’s command, but as the first couple, they became our representatives before God. And as our representatives, they could only produce offspring like they had become. Paul tells us clearly, “As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is righteous – not even one’.” Romans 3:10 (NLT). Again, Paul tells us “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23 (NLT). And, what is the consequence of sin? “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world, Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” Romans 5:12 (NLT).
I am not a sinner because I sin; I sin because I am a sinner. And, I found out that for me the hardest thing I ever had to do in life was to admit I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe this is the most difficult thing for any person to admit. We know that we do dumb stuff, we do wrong things, we make mistakes, but we all hope we can do enough good in this life to outweigh the bad and, as a friend of mine once said, hope the gods will say I’m okay. I also believe this is why people try to escape through atheistic evolution; because if I believe in God, I have to find out what He wants and says and that scares people. You see, I can philosophize about why other people are evil, but I see the evil in me, and I don’t want to admit it is there, and I certainly don’t want you to know the evil in me. Do you want people to see the evil in you?