1BC 1082, 1083
If the race had ceased to fall when Adam was driven from Eden, we should now be in a far more elevated condition physically, mentally, and morally. But while men deplore the fall of Adam, which has resulted in such unutterable woe, they disobey the express injunctions of God, as did Adam, although they have his example to warn them from doing as he did in violating the law of Jehovah. Would that man had stopped falling with Adam. But there has been a succession of falls. Men will not take warning from Adam's experience. They will indulge appetite and passion in direct violation of the law of God, and at the same time continue to mourn Adam's transgression, which brought sin into the world. {1BC 1082.7}

From Adam's day to ours there has been a succession of falls, each greater than the last, in every species of crime. God did not create a race of beings so devoid of health, beauty, and moral power as now exists in the world. Disease of every kind has been fearfully increasing upon the race. This has not been by God's especial providence, but directly contrary to His will. It has come by man's disregard of the very means which God has ordained to shield him from the terrible evils existing (Ibid., March 4, 1875). {1BC 1082.8}

Is it a sin to view God's character in a false light, and to speak of it in a false way?

Tom, the length of time a sinner remains in the lake of fire is proportionate to their accumulated sinfulness. Some will expire sooner than others. Satan will die last. If Adam and Eve had received the wages of their sin, the instant they sinned, they would have expired rapidly, almost instantly.

The reason they did not die immediately is because Jesus paid their sin debt in full. “Christ, in counsel with His Father, instituted the system of sacrificial offerings; that death, instead of being immediately visited upon the transgressor, should be transferred to a victim which should prefigure the great and perfect offering of the son of God.” (1BC 1104)

The reason Jesus suffered so long on the cross, instead of dying immediately, is because He was receiving the wages of sin for all the sins of the world. His situation was totally different than if Adam and Eve had died the instant they sinned. They would have died for one sin, not all the sins of the world. It doesn’t take as long to die for one sin.

Because God did not allow Adam and Eve to receive the wages of their sin, the second they sinned, He introduced a situation where sinners would live a long, lingering death, full of pain and suffering. It wasn’t the result of mankind’s choice. Man chose death. It was Jesus who initiated the plan of salvation. Mankind didn’t ask God for probation, for a second chance. God just did it.

The results of God’s choice to initiate the plan of salvation are many, all of them good. All the sorrow, sadness, and suffering that Adam and Eve experienced, as a result of their probation, was made possible when God chose not to end their existence, the moment they sinned, as originally promised. God is both directly and indirectly responsible for all the suffering that occurs on earth, including the death of His only begotten Son. But it is a choice God made, because God is love, and He is not willing that any should perish.

No!

God has, and will, use evil angels to do His bidding. He has, and will, use the elements of nature to do His "strange work".

Psalm
78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels [among them].

Ezekiel
21:31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, [and] skilful to destroy.
21:32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no [more] remembered: for I the LORD have spoken [it].

Isaiah
30:30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of [his] anger, and [with] the flame of a devouring fire, [with] scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

Yeppers, Tom: you're so right! Christ died so rapidly that the Romans and Jewish rabbis were stunned. They had seen many crucifictions, and it normally took 24 hours or more, even after ones' supporting legs were smashed.

But on a muscular, healthy carpenter/walker/outdoorsman like Jesus, they expected a long and cruel showy struggle....not mere hours.

They took "insurance" and unwittingly fulfilled prophecy :

"The consent of the governor (Pilate) having been obtained, the legs of the two that were crucified with Jesus were broken to hasten their death; but Jesus was already dead, and they broke not his legs...A soldier, at the suggestion of the priests who wished to make the death of Jesus sure, thrust his spear into the Saviour's side, inflicting a wound which would have caused instant death if he had not already been dead"{3SP 171.3}