Evil Came From Somewhere?
Evil came from somewhere, right? Scripture says that God created everything and He saw that it all was good in Genesis 1:31, all that He had made was very good. Even in the gospel of John 1:3, nothing exists that God did not make. So if God created all things, seen and unseen, and all things are good with no evil or sin, how is it that evil and sin are in the world? We know that evil and sin are in the world and that God made everything, so how can we say that God didn’t create evil? God did not create evil, so where did it come from?
God is holy, He is perfect, and so everything He created is holy and perfect. God also in His great love gave humanity the power of free choice. Yes, to choose is a power. We call it free will. Adam and Eve were to trust in God, put their faith in His word and to believe He had their best interest at heart. To live under God’s commands is to live from the best of God. We call it God’s favor. Adam and Eve used this good power of choice, and chose against God by breaking His command. What Adam and Eve did was a direct attack on God’s sovereignty. They had everything they need for life and godliness. It wasn’t until after the choice that they realize they had been deceived and brought evil into the world. There is no choice with God’s law.
Here is where we fully don’t understand, the possibility of evil did initiate from God, but not directly. God made it possible for evil and sin to enter the world, but by choices mankind allowed evil and sin to enter. God made it conceivable, but mankind made it tangible. It is this way today, by the act of our free will we allow evil and sin to flourish or by free will and Godly choices, evil and sin decline and deteriorate.
When man was made in God’s likeness, in our nature, mankind was given the ability to know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, before sin. This is somewhat a mystery, other than to say it reveals to us that God is real. We by nature reflect Him in some degree and it also discloses the nature we will have when Jesus returns.
It is God who establishes right and wrong, it’s not mankind’s entitlement. God created, so it is His privilege as creator to set boundaries as to how mankind should live, and it is mankind’s duty to honor and follow the laws of God. I close with a scripture:
Isaiah 24:4 – “The earth dries up and crumbles away, the world dries out and crumbles away, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. 5 The earth also is polluted by its inhabitants, because they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer the punishment of their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned [under the curse of God’s wrath], and few people are left.”
Bruce Hines – churchinoneaccord.org