Evil - name the evil that God did not create

[WomanLovesTX]

I've read in many other threads that God is not evil nor is it His will when evil occurs. Also read in posts He did not create evil. So what is evil and how did it get here? Here are some Bible verses that I see that support God created evil. Surely though they must mean something than what they appear to be saying. God created evil. God created nothing to hard to make. God created everything there is. So how did evil get into our world and how could God allow this when nothing is too hard for him? (wanted to hear what others have to say, for now I am convinced God created evil and it is the like God create light and dark, up and down, and sea and land, valley and mountain, male and female...good and evil, too. There are lots of scriptures that make statement regarding evil and running away from it, so I hope you don't post those. Also God created all living things, yet we are taught to run away from several animals because they will tear you apart. So is evil anything like the animals that God made that are harmful to others?

Isaiah:45

5I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
6That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.



Jeremiah 32:17
Ah Lord GOD! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and outstretched arm; and there is nothing too hard for Thee.
Ephesians 3:9
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,

 

[MahogonySnail]

create evil is a mis translation it should say create disaster. This is easy to see because the opposite of peace is not evil but disaster or calamity, distress, etc. There is no place in scripture that says God creates good and evil.

 

[Captain_Mal]

I will do my best to answer your questions with Scripture

1. So what is evil and how did it get here?

- Evil is contrary to good. What is not good is evil (which is not to say there isn't a grey area). For example, sin is evil. Man is, by nature, evil. Murder, which is a sin, is evil. Genocide, which is a sin, is evil. Evil is the absence of good (G-d).

- How it got here: G-d created it (Isaiah 45:7)

2. So how did evil get into our world...?

- Evil entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve. Had they not sinned, evil would not have entered our world, the perfect world that G-d created.

3. ...and how could God allow this when nothing is too hard for him?

- Many people, myself included, struggle with this question. The key is in the Scriptures. Romans 8:28 teaches us that "G-d causes everything to work together for the good of those who love G-d and are called in accordance with his purpose." That is to say it's not too hard for G-d to prevent evil from entering this world, but He allowed it to enter the world to work ultimately for the good of those who follow Him.

4. So is evil anything like the animals that God made that are harmful to others?

- Animals are not evil, they are only doing what is natural to them, their G-d-given purpose. If you step into their territory, many times they will see you as prey. It's not because they are evil.

 

[aspen]

I've read in many other threads that God is not evil nor is it His will when evil occurs. Also read in posts He did not create evil. So what is evil and how did it get here? Here are some Bible verses that I see that support God created evil. Surely though they must mean something than what they appear to be saying. God created evil. God created nothing to hard to make. God created everything there is. So how did evil get into our world and how could God allow this when nothing is too hard for him? (wanted to hear what others have to say, for now I am convinced God created evil and it is the like God create light and dark, up and down, and sea and land, valley and mountain, male and female...good and evil, too. There are lots of scriptures that make statement regarding evil and running away from it, so I hope you don't post those. Also God created all living things, yet we are taught to run away from several animals because they will tear you apart. So is evil anything like the animals that God made that are harmful to others?

Isaiah:45

5I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
6That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.



Jeremiah 32:17
Ah Lord GOD! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and outstretched arm; and there is nothing too hard for Thee.
Ephesians 3:9
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,

If you read any of the threads addressing God and evil, I am surprised you didn't see what I wrote about the topic.

God did not create evil. He did create the potential for evil, simply by creating. Evil is not an entity or force, it is the lack of good. God didn't create cold either - like evil, cold is not a force, it is the lack of heat. Anything that exists has the potential to be misused, or diminished.

Adam and Eve sinned because they misused the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by eating from it. We have continued the tradition of sinning by choosing the lesser good or misusing creation.

God cannot sin - He cannot misuse His creation, nor can He choose the lesser good. If God could create evil by sinning against us, He would no longer be Good.

Isaiah is telling us that God is Omnipotent - all powerful. He indeed created everything - since evil is not a thing, but a misuse of creation, He did not technically create it, He created the potential for it.

 

[WomanLovesTX]

create evil is a mis translation it should say create disaster. This is easy to see because the opposite of peace is not evil but disaster or calamity, distress, etc. There is no place in scripture that says God creates good and evil.

So disaster, calamity and distress are "Acts of God" but not created by God? Am I understanding you correctly? Sorry if I am not.

 

[MahogonySnail]

let me explain.
It does not mean evil in the sense of occult, satan, sin etc. It means evil in the sense of destruction, war, etc. Evil in the satanic sense, is not the opposite of peace. "I create peace, I create destruction" is how the verse should be read. It cannot be used to prove that God created evil (in the opposite of good sense).

 

[Zippo200]

Without the Dark their can be no Light

 

[Zippo200]

wrong there...sorry im tired haha

 

[charisenexcelcis]

God created the angels and us and gave us contingent free will. Whenever we exercise that free will outside the righteousness of God, we create evil. All evil is the twisting of the good--s disecretion of the good thing that God has given us.

 

[serpentslayer]

Evil was a 'default' creation, when GOD created GOOD. THE LAW, The Commandment the LORD gave Adam defined what was good and evil; therefore, in a sense, GOD allowed evil to have a chance to enter the world. However, HE left that up to Adam, whom HE gave the Garden and the Commandment. Some say GOD let evil occur so HE could show us love and compassion, but i disagree. If we should not coninue in sin that Grace may abound (Rom 6:1), i cannot believe God would want sin in the first place, so that all could live forever, instead of sin entering into the world and most
people ending up in the Lake of Fire.

 

[MusicTester]

Mirrors that scare you in the dark.

 

[reject-tech]

create evil is a mis translation it should say create disaster. This is easy to see because the opposite of peace is not evil but disaster or calamity, distress, etc. There is no place in scripture that says God creates good and evil.

I agree with this. And I believe that "heartbreak" is an even better alternative translation to "evil"
Because heartbreak is inner disaster, caused by either inner or outer events.

Whatever the reasoning behind having it translated to the word "evil", and whatever the intent of the translator, I believe that we have expanded the magnitude of the word evil to include things that are beyond the idea of what God said He created.

We do have at least one scripture example that I can think of, I think there may be others, where God says that mankind came up with bad things more intense than what He would have even thought of doing.

I don't think He created evil by our modern definition of the word.
We took a base "disaster" or "heartbreak" and "ran with it" in other words.

Another perspective is to recognize that with the mechanic of "eye for eye" and the laws of physics, we are automatically revisited by our own sins. What we put out comes back to us, and that is His design, so He has created "evil" in that whatever we do that is evil, He sends it right back. This happens right now, but people don't realize or believe it, and they just do more evil to try and get ahead of what's coming back at them.
Example, if you steal $100 from someone, you will also suffer from something that causes you to feel the same hurt they did, to the same degree. That might be having $100 stolen from you in the exact same way, or might be your bank making a $100 mistake and never fixing it. Whatever it takes to let you know how it feels the same way the other person did. Some of it may come back quickly, some slowly, and presumably some of it may come back in hindsight in the resurrection.

So by creating and executing the re-visitation of sin, He creates some description of "evil", either directly or by mechanical proxy, I guess only He knows the blueprint exactly.

If you're looking to figure out how a good and loving God can create something that is horrid, I think it's a little bit of a misdirection. We create the horrible things that go out, He just makes sure they come back to try and teach us a lesson. And He created that system. It is fair at least.

Yet another perspective, that most will not like, is that in order for God to have made this system, and to understand everything we go through, He must have experienced whatever He is calling "evil" prior to our creation. That would mean that there was at some point some part of Him that He rejected and separated from Himself, and by separating it, He created it. For it to become a separate entity from Himself, would be by some kind of definition, "create". The way our body "creates" waste. Most do not like this concept because they don't like to think that God might have had a "bad" aspect of Himself prior to being what He is, but the loophole is that it wasn't "bad" until He defined it as bad.
By defining evil, He created it.

 

[Karraster]

Genesis 47:8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? 9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.


Maybe evil is calamitous, sometimes brought on ourselves, sometimes God tests us, sometimes God allows satan to tempt us.

God created everything. Nothing is apart from God does or allows.

 

[nathan3]

God dose Not create evil. The verse people enjoy pointing to as if they found some great nugget of truth is the word " Calamity " ( not the poor English word evil )

Natural phenomena is what is being discussed there.


Haven't you read and listened to the scriptures that teach :

James 1:13


Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

- King James Bible. ( keep. Reading. )

Keep reading and learn evil comes from men who think up evil.....


All scripture says God is Holy... Anyone saying otherwise has no conception of the word.

 

[fredjames]

Peace be with you, please note the word used carefully that HE 'create' darkness and 'create' evil and not HE 'created' them. HE 'create' them means HE can 'stir' them up to manifest.

In Biblical history, we learn that the seed of evil took root from it's founder satan and his followers the branches from the beginning.itself.

Why?

GOD created everything, even Lucifer and called all of them Good, as they were pleasing to HIS sight.

When one opposes HIS rule, even after knowing HE is the creator of all of them, becomes evil (the opposite of HIM). Then that one can stir up the same evil on and in others who can be influenced easily. HE hoped mankind in their free choice would choose only to listen to HIM but we love a stranger's juicy voice instead.

So when mankind fall into the trap of the deception of evil, HE create evil consequences. Before all of these things take place, HE has reminded in advance to HIS created Good.

Just for a moment think carefully whether what you have confessed makes sense;

'A Loving GOD created evil and later destroys that evil.' (the perfect GOD makes something and then destroys it).

'Is HE then who is just, is just to be called a perfect and righteous GOD?'

GOD has the Power to stop or create (stir) evil and darkness here on earth. That is their very roaring lion nature ready to devour someone, also a thief who only comes to rob, kill and destroy, all that is good in a Good family, even to the restored ones now.

That is why someone who continuously commits wrong against GOD's righteousness, are not punished immediately by the Living GOD but until one destined day HE creates (stirs) the darkness and evil to come and manifest upon such person or such community's lives. They will end up being worst off than before.

Be alert and stay awake, for the LORD's return is like a thief who comes surprisingly during in the midst of darkness..

 

[Atwood]

Lying.
But you must distinguish calamity evil from moral evil.

 

[BlackPlatypus]

Isaiah 45:7, as you posted, answers your question.

God is the alpha, the beginning, and the omega, the end of all things.
There is nothing that exists that is not created of God. Including his adversary, or the antithesis of his goodness.

It is part of the meaning in the creation epic in Genesis. God created the darkness. And the light. The darkness came first and that is what allowed the light to be identified.

Evil is simply the extreme antithesis of righteousness or the good. And God made it all possible in the beginning.

People sometimes become upset to think God created evil. But God created all things. Contrasts, diversity. Evil is simply the contrast of benevolence.

We can't believe God is creator of all things and then argue evil is not his creation too. To do so says that evil is a greater power than God because it created itself and is outside of God. And that is quite simply impossible.
Evil

I've read in many other threads that God is not evil nor is it His will when evil occurs. Also read in posts He did not create evil. So what is evil and how did it get here? Here are some Bible verses that I see that support God created evil. Surely though they must mean something than what they appear to be saying. God created evil. God created nothing to hard to make. God created everything there is. So how did evil get into our world and how could God allow this when nothing is too hard for him? (wanted to hear what others have to say, for now I am convinced God created evil and it is the like God create light and dark, up and down, and sea and land, valley and mountain, male and female...good and evil, too. There are lots of scriptures that make statement regarding evil and running away from it, so I hope you don't post those. Also God created all living things, yet we are taught to run away from several animals because they will tear you apart. So is evil anything like the animals that God made that are harmful to others?

Isaiah:45

5I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
6That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.



Jeremiah 32:17
Ah Lord GOD! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and outstretched arm; and there is nothing too hard for Thee.
Ephesians 3:9
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,

 

[AnnaBou]

evil is not before God or outside of God. but it was before people because the serpent was there to tempt eve and the knowledge of good and evil and the free will to go against God but if there was nothing before God then the things that tempt us come from God and the punishment for giving in to things that tempt us come from God and it gets very confusing. I get sinful thoughts and is it me or the things outside like on TV and I resist the thoughts which is me but not just me it is the strength God gives me to resist. If I create a pot and it falls apart it might be me doing it wrong or it might be something wrong with the clay, but if God creates everything and some of it goes evil and is punished and theres more evil where does it come from?

Sometimes it seems that goodness is hard work but better after but sinfulness can be more enjoyable and easy but harmful after. Like eating chocolate is nicer then eating an apple but when u have no teeth and are fat u will wish u had eaten apples.

 

[ThomistColin]

As I've said on many threads before. Evil is the privation of Good. Evil is no thing, it has not existence. Like darkness and cold, they are not of substance or being but are the lack or absence of a substance.

 

[gkroo]

Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day