Biblical Answers to Life’s Tough Questions: Why Did God Create Evil?
Isaiah 45:7
How many of you believe that God created all things? Without Him, does anything exist?
We all agree that God created everything.
That leads us to the question, why did God create evil? Afterall, we know the verse “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 Jn 1:5)
How could a God of light create evil? Seems like a contradiction doesn’t it!
I hope to answer this question in a manner that makes sense to you this evening.
Lets take a look at our text verse.
Looking at the original Hebrew text, the word translated in the KJV as evil is the Hebrew word is Ra (pronounced Raw). This word has several meanings, evil being one of those meanings.
But to think that God would create actual evil seems so out of the character of our Great I Am, it is hard to fathom.
This is why we must look at the context of this verse to understand what it means.
The context of this passage (and the message of the prophets of the Old Testament in general) is about blessing those who are faithful and punishing those who disobey (Isa. 45:9, 24).
It’s within this principle that God declares that he creates “well-being” and “calamity.” He’s responsible for bringing prosperity to those who are faithful and calamity to those who rebel. That’s even consistent with his treatment of his own people—Israel. He rewards them when they obey and punishes them (e.g., slavery, exile, etc.) when they disobey. In that sense, yes, it is God who creates calamity.
Furthermore, we must know the audience God was speaking to.
Isaiah is giving a message to Cyrus from God.
Simply put, Isaiah knows, Cyrus would know and declare to the whole world, and we should know today, that God is in control. Since this prophecy was given long before God’s people went into the captivity Isaiah now announces deliverance from, they could be comforted through the captivity by knowing God is in control.
Isaiah’s point is that there are not two gods or forces in heaven, one good and one bad, as in a dualistic “yin and yang” sense. “Cyrus was a Persian, and Persians had a dualistic concept of God and the world. Their good god they called Ahura-mazda and the evil god Angra-mainya. The former had created the light, the second the darkness.” (Bultema)
But God has no opposite. Satan is not and has never been God’s opposite. There is one God.
Knowing these things, we can determine that the better meaning for the word Ra in this context would be calamity, or distress.
This illustrates to us that He is not the author of evil; evil is never “original,” but always a perversion of an existing good. Yet God is the allower of evil, and He uses it to accomplish His eternal purpose of bringing together all things in Jesus.
There is a story about a college professor wanting to disprove the existence of God.
The University professor challenged his students with this question.
"Did God create everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir", the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is evil."
The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"
"Of course", replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, "Professor does cold exist?"
"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.
The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460? F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."
The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."
Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.
To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."
The professor sat down.
God did not create evil - while He does allow it.
Evil is simply the absence of God in one’s life.
Perhaps a better question we could ask is why does God allow evil. Simply put, God gives each individual the free will to accept Him or reject Him. He will not force anyone to follow Him or His plan for their lives. Choosing to reject Him opens one up to evil since God will be absent in their lives.
