Why did God create evil?

[tsth]

Question: "Did God create evil?"


God did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want “robots” that simply did what He wanted them to do because of their “programming.” God allowed for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.

If I may add to this comment, you have to go back to the Garden of Eden:

Consider the trees:

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.           

Man when he ate of the above, was now given the choice because he was given the knowledge of good and evil.......he now has to make a choice.....so, what if a man chooses evil, to do evil?  What is the remedy?

The short answer is evil contends w/evil:

 

Psalm 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.               

Proverbs 16:4 The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.           

 

Evil contends with evil.

 

 

In His Love,

Suzanne

 

                                

 

 

 

                     

 

Edited August 31, 2015 by tsth

[JohnD]

WHY DID GOD CREATE EVIL? Can someone counsel me on the reason why God created evil. I believe that the eyes of God is too pure to behold evil, I desire to know the reason why God created evil. your contribution can be of help.

God did not create evil. 

The Bible seems to say he did.

Isaiah 45:7 (AV)

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

But as I pointed out, it was incidental rather than intentional.

Akin to the idea that the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay (from the discussion why did God harden Pharaoh's heart?).

 

[enoob57]

can you clarify you don't mean "bait" as in tempted to get evil response.....

 

Lucifer could only be tempted because that desire to go against God was already in him.  Evil had to be born for God's whole plan to start.  God designed it this way.  He doesn't make an angel "perfect" for some defect to pop up by chance.  Lucifer was created to change heart for the whole plan to be accomplished. 

This is not supported by God's Word:
Ezek 28:14-15
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so:
thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and
down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
KJV
This is God speaking through His prophet and claiming Lucifer's, now satan, beginning state this agrees with God's Word in the beginning:
Gen 2:1-3
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and
he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had
rested from all his work which God created and made.
KJV
We are held accountable to stand upon the Scripture not our presumptions!  God has no part with sin in The Eternity! 
That is why He has created the place of the lake of fire where only His wrath abides forever...  Love, Steven

 

[enoob57]

There is a passage that seems to indicate God created evil.

Isaiah 45:7 (AV)

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

But if you look carefully at the verse the explanation is clear. Light causes shadows. Without light there is only darkness.

And borrowing a line from that theologically concise movie "Oh God" George Burns Almighty put it succinctly, "You can't have a front without a back." 

The best we can hope for is the focus of evil in a constrained place called hell / the lake of fire / gehenna / hades when all who are going to be saved have been saved. But God did not create evil by intention or testing or entrapment. There isn't a cruel thought in God's thinking. It's just the flip side of his goodness and the basis for the choices we must make. 

 

 

 

the ultimate conclusion to your statement is that evil is necessary! This is error! For God's eternity is without it!  Love, Steven

[enoob57]

 

God witness of His creation:
Gen 2:1-3
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  2 And on the seventh day
God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which
he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested
from all his work which God created and made.
KJV
within this statement of God all that He had made He sanctified... are you suggesting evil is sanctified?
Love, Steven

Enoob dear brother

Evil was not created during the 6 day creation, but well before that.

The angels were created long before the heavens and the earth were created.  They were there and rejoiced when everything was made.  Evil had already existed in Lucifer's heart, but it was not performed yet until God would provide innocent man to bait him with.

God sanctified the "7th day".  Everything was made and ready for us, and that includes his wonderful plan.

Evil was not created during the 6 day creation, but well before that. The angels were created long before the heavens and the earth were created.

Please show me in Scripture where there is beginning before Gen 1:1 ?
Your poor exegetical skill is evident in the very simple reasoning of Gen 1:1 "in the beginning" -> this is a conclusive statement
of the communication of God to all that had beginning! Even a child knows God has no beginning yet that same child  knows
angels began, heaven and earth began, man began...  "In the beginning" encompasses all that began and is written to that which
has beginning! Context Gen 1:1 is God's Word to that of beginning ... to the eternal state Rev 22:17 all will be judged within these
parameters of God's Word to His creation!

They were there and rejoiced when everything was made.

You really need to speak from the foundation of Scripture and not so loosely as your comments suggest! The only indication of
the angel's rejoicing in the creative act of God is found in Job:
Job 38:7
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
KJV

Evil had already existed in Lucifer's heart, but it was not performed yet until God would provide innocent man to bait him with.

This has no place in God's Word and should have no place in the heart of His children...
Love, Steven

[JohnD]

There is a passage that seems to indicate God created evil.

Isaiah 45:7 (AV)

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

But if you look carefully at the verse the explanation is clear. Light causes shadows. Without light there is only darkness.

And borrowing a line from that theologically concise movie "Oh God" George Burns Almighty put it succinctly, "You can't have a front without a back." 

The best we can hope for is the focus of evil in a constrained place called hell / the lake of fire / gehenna / hades when all who are going to be saved have been saved. But God did not create evil by intention or testing or entrapment. There isn't a cruel thought in God's thinking. It's just the flip side of his goodness and the basis for the choices we must make. 

 

 

 

the ultimate conclusion to your statement is that evil is necessary! This is error! For God's eternity is without it!  Love, Steven

Um, actually it will be confined to hell for eternity. Therefore it will exist.

His blessings to you!

[tsth]

Question: "Did God create evil?"


God did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want “robots” that simply did what He wanted them to do because of their “programming.” God allowed for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.

If I may add to this comment, you have to go back to the Garden of Eden:

Consider the trees:

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.           

Man when he ate of the above, was now given the choice because he was given the knowledge of good and evil.......he now has to make a choice.....so, what if a man chooses evil, to do evil?  What is the remedy?

The short answer is evil contends w/evil:

 

Psalm 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.               

Proverbs 16:4 The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.           

 

Evil contends with evil.

 

 

In His Love,

Suzanne

Edited August 31, 2015 by tsth

[Guest shiloh357]

WHY DID GOD CREATE EVIL? Can someone counsel me on the reason why God created evil. I believe that the eyes of God is too pure to behold evil, I desire to know the reason why God created evil. your contribution can be of help.

God did not create evil. 

The Bible seems to say he did.

Isaiah 45:7 (AV)

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

But as I pointed out, it was incidental rather than intentional.

Akin to the idea that the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay (from the discussion why did God harden Pharaoh's heart?).

 

What I am saying is that God did not create moral evil.   The "evil"  that is mentioned in Isa. 45:7 is referring to calamity usually resulting from judgment, such as natural disasters.  The biblical languages use the word "evil"  to describe not just moral issues but misfortune like natural disasters or unfortunate circumstances.

Is. 45:7 is not saying that God created sin, but that he causes bad things to happen in judgment on mankind.   He causes good things and he causes bad things.   That's the basic jist of the verse in context.

[enoob57]

There is a passage that seems to indicate God created evil.

Isaiah 45:7 (AV)

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

But if you look carefully at the verse the explanation is clear. Light causes shadows. Without light there is only darkness.

And borrowing a line from that theologically concise movie "Oh God" George Burns Almighty put it succinctly, "You can't have a front without a back." 

The best we can hope for is the focus of evil in a constrained place called hell / the lake of fire / gehenna / hades when all who are going to be saved have been saved. But God did not create evil by intention or testing or entrapment. There isn't a cruel thought in God's thinking. It's just the flip side of his goodness and the basis for the choices we must make. 

 

 

 

the ultimate conclusion to your statement is that evil is necessary! This is error! For God's eternity is without it!  Love, Steven

Um, actually it will be confined to hell for eternity. Therefore it will exist.

His blessings to you!

What God has separated from Himself Rev 20:14-15 for eternity as swallowed up 1Cor 15:54 combining Rev 21:4 and  shall be kept as such and The Eternity of Life shall have
no recollection of ever been, being, will be...    Love, Steven

[JohnD]

Not going to debate what the Bible clearly teaches that hell is the place where the condemned will suffer forever.