Did God Create Evil?

 
Recently, I was made aware of a video by Jay Stevens titled "Did God create EVIL?!" It is a short video where two characters (who I will refer to in this post as Character A or A and Character B or B), both portrayed by Jay Stevens, have a conversation about whether or not God created evil. Character A began by asking "Did God create everything that exist?" Character B rightfully answers "Yes, He did." Then Character A proceeds by asking "So, He created evil, right?" B answers with a question "Does cold exist?" A responded "Of course it does, man. Haven't you ever felt cold?" B answers him "I have, but cold does not exist" He continues "Cold is the absence of heat. We only made up the word cold to describe the absence of heat." A then asks B "Then what about darkness?" B responds "Darkness is the complete absence of light. We can study light and brightness, but we can't study darkness itself. Darkness occurs when light isn't present." B concludes by saying "God did not create evil. Evil is the absence of God in people's heats, the lack of love and faith. Love and faith are like warmth and light, they exist. Their absence is what leads to evil." Lastly, B asked A "So, does evil exist?" Thus, their conversation was concluded.

 The video was not terrible, but I disagree with the answer to His original question "Did God create evil?"  So, I will, by God's grace, do my best to give a Biblical explanation here. Did God create evil? In short, the answer is yes. When God created the world, and all was good He established a boundary for Adam. Adam was not supposed to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was at this moment that evil had been established. It was a concept that had yet to be enacted but it was there. Evil by definition was to rebel against God by breaking His law, and that is exactly what Adam and Eve did. They committed evil establishing that rebellion against God would be the way of all mankind. All evil, also called sin, originated from this one evil act hence why it is often called the original sin. Evil waited in the creation for one to rebel so it could be brought for it like a bird in a cage waiting for someone to set it loose. There are those who disagree with me on this, because it is harsh to consider heinous sins and tie it back to God, and that is at the heart of the matter. More often than not people are considering types of sins and saying to themselves God would be against this and therefore evil could not have been His creation, instead of rightfully seeing He created it as a concept and knew how it would thrive once released on creation. Evil was made to be whatever is in opposition to Him. So, we should not be afraid to say God created evil, because He did not need to commit evil in order for it to be so.

Now, I would like to tackle the question at the end of the video, "So, does evil exist?" The answer to this is yes. I mentioned previously that evil was originally a concept that needed to be enacted on in order to be released, so the question we are to ask now is how does evil exist now that it is enacted? Evil once it was enacted became the nature of man, hence why we refer to man as having a sin nature. Recall the definition of evil is to rebel against God by breaking His law. The law of God is within the hearts of all people. It is what informs us that we are to be kind to our neighbor, that stealing and cheating are wrong, that murder is evil, etc., but man in his sinful state continues to choose evil. We humans lie, cheat, steal, murder, even choose to reject God outright. The moral law is not the only way God has allowed us to understand His law. It was more clearly spelled out in the law given to Moses.

Then God spoke all these words, saying. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I. the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Homor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not cover your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. - Exodus 20:1-17

These commandments were held in high regard by the children of Israel, to the point where they were shown to attempt very strict observance in the time of Christ. Consider the following confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.

He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward!" And He said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they could destroy Him. -Mark 3:1-6

At this point in history the children of Israel had known God's law for centuries, but due to the sinfulness in them they did not rightfully understand it. They would much rather a person suffer than to have been healed, because of a wrong interpretation of the law. The Lord Jesus showed that the issue of sin was not just whether or not one outwardly observes God's law, but it is an inner problem. It is because of the sin nature inherited from Adam that no person would ever be able to keep the law correctly. Jesus gave us further clarification of this inner problem in Matthew 5: 21-30 where He declares hating our fellow man is something worthy of Hell and lust is akin to adultery.

Being sinful is not good for us humans, for we are to be judged by God. Hebrews 9:27 informs us that after death is judgement. Those who have rebelled against God are doomed to spend eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).

"We sometimes shake our little fists, as if God is unjust to condemn anyone to an eternity of torment for rebelling against him...But, more fully, we need to realize the seriousness of our rebellion. The size of the crime is measured in part by the importance of the person you assault. Kill a fly and no one will bat an eyelid. Kill your dog and you might get a fine. Assassinate the Queen and you're in real trouble. So, attack God, the greatest of all beings...and the crime is infinitely serious."

 

- Jonty Rhodes (Covenants Made Simple, chapter 2)

God's wrath is coming! This is horrifying for anyone who truly understands, but we are not without hope. Christ has come and was sacrificed so that all who have faith in Him will be saved. No one can save themselves by attempting to keep the law. The sin nature has stained our souls thoroughly, but Christ saves His people, those who have faith in Him alone for salvation He has been resurrected proving that we can truly trust that on the last day we are truly saved in Him and will be freed from the curse of sin and death and resurrected in the new life in Him (1 Corinthians 15). The day of evil is almost over. 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23