Did God Create Evil?

Last October I posted a blog titled with the question: Is God Evil? This was based on my discovery that communism had its roots in a few medieval Gnostic sects that believed the Creator was fundamentally evil, His creation was also evil, and therefore only man could save it. Crazy!

But did God create evil? The question would seem almost ludicrous if it were not for the fact that I’ve heard it asked by good Christian people more than once! This idea comes from the same distorted Gnostic underpinning, that because God created Lucifer, and Lucifer was evil, that God must have created evil and that therefore God has both good and evil within Him. Let me tell you why this is a lie from the pit of hell!

Scripture affirms for us that evil is not found in God (Psalm 5:4, James 1:13, 1 John 1:5). Just last week I posted a blog titled “Father of Lights” where I noted that the book of James tells us God is steadfast and unchanging (James 1:16-17).

In case you are now wondering about sovereignty, if God is in complete control then is He the cause of everything that happens on earth? If you have ever thought to yourself “everything happens for a reason” or “nothing happens unless He allows it”, then you might believe that sovereignty means complete control. But is it?

The dictionary defines sovereignty as having dominion, supreme power, and authority. We know from Revelation 4:11 and many other passages that God is indeed sovereign! But for one to be sovereign does not mean one has to always demand full or complete control. In His sovereignty, God Himself chooses not to be in control over everything that happens on earth. Why?

• Because He wants us to choose to love out of our own free will – and has calculated the risk at the cost of His own Son.
• Because out of that choice to freely love, He wants us to choose to partner with Him in what takes place on this earth.

Although it is popular to blame God for all the evil in this world or to think that He is the cause of your pain, or to see Him as some control freak puppet master who orchestrates everything, this is simply not something scripture supports. To think that God has evil within Himself or that He would intentionally visit evil upon His redeemed children, is to see Him as flawed.

It is important for us to comprehend that, just because He is able to use trials and tribulations to our benefit, does not mean that He is behind them or the one who causes them. After all, who could ever fully trust in a God that was the source of all of their problems?

In my post Is God Evil, I noted that it is debatable that evil is a thing that can be created. I want to wrap up this post by taking this a step further today. Knowing that scripture affirms evil cannot be found in God, think of it like this:

Everything God IS is pure, light, love, good, righteousness and perfect. Knowing that these things are WITHIN God – that’s who He is, that’s what He does, consider with me what is OUTSIDE of God? Everything OUTSIDE of God is the opposite – UNrighteousness, darkness, hate, evil, and so on. God created Lucifer, yes. Lucifer, of his own free will, decided to separate himself from God. Being no longer found in God, Lucifer became the embodiment of everything that was found outside of God, which is evil.

In the Garden of Eden, Lucifer (now called Satan) entices man for the first time to take a bite of the fruit that will reveal to them also everything outside of God. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was the door, and Adam and Eve stepped through it. It is now up to us one by one to come back into fellowship with God through a different door, the Tree of Life! The Father knew we needed salvation, and He gave us Jesus, the door, to help us get back to Him.

Rest well, beloved. God is not the cause of your pain. You can trust Him to heal you and give you life.

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