4. What is the authority structure?
God Delegated All Earthly Authority to Humanity
Who is able to stop evil from hitting the earth? Certainly, God created and owns the earth (Psalm 24:1-2). That makes
Him the Boss on the earth, so the earthly authority structure is whatever God says it is. Since we have assumed that God
is in control on the earth, we have also assumed that God could stop any evil from hitting the earth.
This is the hardest part of the solution to accept because those who have taught us, have taught us wrong. God Himself
spoke something different than all of our teachers say, and one of the results of that is that we do not even read what God
said. Most seem to know what teachers teach, and therefore they think that it is settled … but it is upside-down.
Those who assume that God is in control on the earth, also assume that God could intervene to stop evil from hitting the
earth. Yet, people wonder, “Why just one? Why does God not stop all ‘bad’ evil from hitting the earth? or at least the
‘bad’ evil that hits ‘my’ life?” If God could stop one evil on His own, the Problem of Evil is not solved for us … the
answer would still be hidden in His wise, infinite purposes to allow this evil to hit the earth, but not that evil. Since He
did not reveal that, it is asked: “Since God, the Creator and Owner of the earth, is still the Boss, is not the authority
structure on the earth His direct control on the earth, as has been assumed for all of human history”? or “Did God change
that authority structure over His created earth?” If God did not change the authority structure on the earth, then the
answer to the reality of evil hitting the earth is not accessible to us … it would be hidden from us, since the details of
His wise ways are beyond us.
We ask: “Should His people believe that He is in control over all the earth and over all life on it”? … No. We should not.
Since God told us that He delegated all earthly authority, His people should believe the Creator’s Revelation … not that
He is in control on the earth - that is not His revelation to us.
God’s act of delegation is both clearly revealed in His Own words and it is essential to the solution to the Problem of
Evil.
Not believing this, His people have two serious problems:
- They do not believe the revelation of the Creator, and
- the reality they think they live in is upside-down … it is an imagined reality.
Why is the Creator not believed? God never leads us astray. Why do we believe instead that God is in control on the earth?
Since God is not in control, by His Own clear Word of delegation, His people have
an entirely inverted understanding … they are wrong at the most fundamental level.
In Genesis 1:26-28, God spoke His delegation plan after creating the earth and all life … except humanity.
God reveals in verses 26 and 27, why He planned and created humanity in His image.
In Genesis 1:28, God actually delegated to humanity direct authority over all the earth.
By His act of delegation, God is not in charge on the earth; God has no direct authority over any of the earth.
In verse 26, God planned humanity for earthly authority.
In verse 27, God created the human, male and female, to be able to fulfill His plan for authority … and more.
In verse 28, God blessed the human He had just created, and commanded them to subdue the earth, and to subjugate all previously created life.
After God delegated authority, humans have chosen badly and sinned.
In doing so, we have made a mess of the earth…and God let that happen.
We, people/humanity, are entirely responsible for the poor condition of the earth;
God did not stop humanity from making a mess of the earth that He created.
God enforced His Own created reality, and required the evil effect(s) of every bad human choice to hit the earth.
We see this as we read and believe the Bible literally, and we see it as we live on the earth.
We know that God delegated … the Almighty, Sovereign Creator did not maintain any direct earthly control.
The Sovereign God delegated this one time, and never delegated again.
Since God is the Boss, He could have remained in charge of the earth of His creation or He could have delegated again,
for any reason He wanted. Yet, when horrible choices continued to be made by the humans He put in charge,
instead of re-delegating, God confirmed that His delegation to humanity remained in effect.
Three large confirmations are:
in Psalm 8 after He gave the law to Israel and before the coming of Jesus;
in Hebrews 2:5-9 after the coming, cross, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and
in I Corinthians 15:24-28 at the end of time.
Delegation is a subject dealt with extensively in Literal Lenses Book 2: Part 2.