Why did God create man if He knew some would go to hell?

This provocative question comes from a Christian who is training to be a missionary. It was good to ponder this issue about my Lord Jesus Who created everything--

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

Why Were We Created?

This is a good starting point. Why were we created? Look at us--dust. What could we possibly offer God Almighty? Solomon said that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him--He's too big, too awesome, too fantastic to be contained. We are like grasshoppers in His sight. What is man that God is mindful of him? Our answer lies in the Bible which is God's word. Let Him explain why He created us:

...thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Revelation 4:11

We were created for God's pleasure! Don't you know that God loves you and wants you? It was His whole purpose in creating mankind.

The Bible draws an analogy between our relationship with our earthly parents and God, our heavenly Father. Let us therefore consider why a man and his wife desire to have children: the joy of a little child, to replicate themselves through creation, to have fellowship with that little kid, to have life. God uses the family relationship to illustrate our relationship to Him, our Father in heaven.

But What About Hell?

Know ye not that hell was not created for people? God tells us who it was created for:

...everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Matthew 25:41

Hell was created for the devil and his angels. It was not created for man! God doesn't want anybody to go there, it was not His purpose for men to go there. God knew that we would sin so He made provision for us by coming to this earth in the form of a man and paying the penalty for our sins with His own blood.

Nonetheless, humans do indeed go there because many say as the citizens in the parable of the nobleman in Luke 19, "We will not have Him to reign over us." When such people are cast in hell, it is literally what they asked for. Nonetheless, God is not pleased that they should perish:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jeremiah 29:11

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die...?

Ezekiel 33:11

The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 But Was it Fair to Create Us?

This is the bottom line in my mind--it would not have been fair for Him NOT to create us. God knew that many people would be cast in hellfire for their rebellion towards Him, but He also knew that there would be a multitude that would bask in His glory and love Him and want to be with Him forever.

Would it have been fair for me, Tracy, to miss out on knowing Jesus Christ because of the actions of the wicked? Would it have been fair for me to have been aborted of the opportunity to know my God and His pleasures forevermore? Would it have been fair for me to not have known love and bliss?

I say a resounding NO!!!! If God, in His Sovereignty had said, "There are going to be too many evil people, so I will not create man," He would have been overcome with evil! Evil would have dictated what He was going to do, would have denied life to the righteous and it would have stripped Him of His power as Lord of the Universe. Read what the scriptures say:

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21

If God had not created us, He would have been overcome with evil, for it would have dictated that the righteous would never have an opportunity to love and be loved by the One who is everlasting and full of pleasures forevermore. If the righteous were to miss out on the Magnificent God, would that be fair? That would be folly.