Where did evil come from?
Q: Hello, I am a student at a Christian school. Our recently assigned Bible homework was that I contact 5 churches and ask them the following two questions and record their replies.Where did evil come from?
Has it always existed?
Please include any references and a quick reply would be much appreciated. Thank you.
A: I’m sure that many churches will answer that evil came from man’s free will. This is an attempt to protect God from appearing evil Himself. But according to my own reading of Scripture I would reply in the following way:
God is the Creator of all things and upholds, directs, and governs all creatures, actions, and things from the greatest to the least. This is called the doctrine of providence. See Hebrews 1:3; Daniel 4:34-35; Psalm 135: 6; Acts 17:25-26,28; Job 38; 39; 40; 41; Matthew 10:29-31; Genesis 45:7; Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 103:19; 104:24; 145:17; Isaiah 45:7; Romans 13:1.
God’s providence extends even to the first fall of man. See Romans 11:32-34; 2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1; 1 Kings 22:22-23; 1 Chronicles 10:4,13-14; 2 Samuel 16:10; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28.
God by His providence created angels and permitted some of the angels, willfully and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation. See Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4; Hebrews 2:16; John 8:44.
God did not create evil, but did create creatures who would do evil. Evil is not independent of God but dependent on God and His activity in the world. It is controlled by God. See Proverbs 16:4; John 1:3; Romans 9:20-23; 11:36.
The sinfulness proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who being most holy and righteous, cannot be the author or approver of sin. See James 1:13-14,17; 1 John 2:16; Psalm 50:21.
Therefore, what this means is that God is not evil but good, BUT God created, directed, and upheld creatures that did evil without Himself being evil.
Evil has NOT always existed, because there was a time before the creation of angels and man. Genesis 1; John 1:1-3.
For more information and Scriptures on this point, see:
The Sovereignty of God and Tragedies by Gabe Sylvia.
Who’s In Charge Here?
Questions on Free Will
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