Is there a purpose for evil? As Davo mentioned, there is a difference between ordinary sin and evil, although both can destroy. A pair of scissors is made for the purpose of cutting paper. If one is careless, inattentive or inexperienced in using them, he may incur injury. Of course, "never run with scissors in your hand " because there could be an accident. To use the scissors as a weapon is a whole different story. The purpose has been changed by man, and the use becomes something other than what was intended. I see evil as serving man’s purpose, not God’s .

Is there a purpose for evil?

Not evil per se but because it’s a contrast to good and we learn just about everything by contrasting it against it’s opposite.

Ever wonder if God looks down at us and laughs at some of our debates? I do. Surely God has a purpose for everything, even setting it up so we have these debates/discussions. For, if the answer to the question was obvious, the debate would never take place. Or, maybe we are just that dull.

I hope so. I’d be pleased to read that “Jesus laughed”; I have no doubt he had (has?) a sense of humor - he certainly said some witty things.

and thank goodness for that !

I see evil, sin, chaos, all as manifestations of self will, which God allowed in order to teach us His will, love.

The bible says God created evil.

Knowing evil could be an indispensable part of knowledge. If you can’t recognize evil then how can you discern good from evil and choose to overcome evil?

God created all things. So yes, He created evil.

*God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

God is LOVE (1 John 4:8,16)

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears everything, trusts everyone, fondly expects everything, endures everything. (1 Cor:4-7)*

How could God, who is pure LOVE, create evil?
Yes, God created all things, that is all material things. Evil is not a material thing. It is a characterstic of demons and some people. Evil arose from the rebellious angel Lucifer, also known as “Satan.” Angels and people have the ability to choose. They can choose good or evil. God has never chosen evil.

Yes, you can quote Isaiah 45:7 from the King James, where God supposedly says, “I … create evil,” though most modern translations render it as “I … creat calamity.” Calamity is not moral evil. God does not create moral evil, and I doubt that He creates even calamity. “In Him is no darkness at all.”

Jesus said that the Most High God is kind both to ungrateful people and evil people. (Luke 6:35)

Paidion… how do you justify this caviller extrication of “evil” OR “calamity” from your bibles with yet another pejorative “supposedly” WHEN “evil/calamity” IS in the text? What, Isaiah is putting words in God’s mouth too… seriously??

Most of the baffling and/or contentious questions are based on some kind of reading of the O.T. I really think that, if we will look at the greatest revelation of who God is, and what He is like - in Jesus Christ, we can avoid a lot of brain-twisting agony. Let the fullest revelation cast its shadow back on things written in the childhood of the race. Let the clearest expression of faith, hope and love be the guide, not old customs and cultural things that we may never understand.

As for ‘evil’ I think it is very obvious that the word is multivocal, yes? If it is understood in the Manichean sense, that Evil is a power equal to but opposite that of God, then NO - God did not create any such thing.
If we call any tragedy that happens ‘evil’ - sure, God will bring painful things into our life, obstacles, whatever it takes to be a faithful Father. But calling those things ‘evil’ is a poor interpretation, just as accusing our earthly fathers of creating evils when they spank us or correct harshly.
When God brought judgment on Israel, was that Evil? It may have seemed that way to the Israelites, but if so, they were referring to the pain of judgment, the severe correction, that they brought on themselves.

People create evil; because God created people does NOT imply that He created evil; that’s a non-sequitur.

Satan is a created being so yes God created evil.

God has divine omniscience and foreknowledge. Evil didn’t catch God by surprise.

Something doesn’t have to be a part of your nature for you to create it.

A carpenter creates a table but wood isn’t part of his nature.

I never said God wasn’t good to everybody. I just know the bible credits God with creating evil and there must be a big picture explanation for that but big picture explanations are harder to come by than little ones.

I never said God wasn’t good to everybody. I just know the bible credits God with creating evil and there must be a big picture explanation for that but big picture explanations are harder to come by than little ones.
Cloud9 Posts: 12Joined: Sun May 03, 2015 1:06 pm

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God certainly created the knowledge of good and evil together in the same tree which That suggests you can’t have one without it’s contrast.

Cloud9 - I’d really like you to critique/respond to my post above, from earlier today.
Thanks
Dave

And therein lays the rub Dave because THAT’S exactly what evangelicalism has given us. It’s what I said back here… “The problem as I see it is the term “evil” has been infused with an almost ethereal or mystical presence as though IT (evil) has a power of its own standing. IT is then personified in such language as ‘devil’ ‘Satan’ ‘Lucifer’ and all manner of dark meaning attached to it.”

IF “evil” had this magical life-force that Christendom has given it then why is there not likewise a “good” life-force DISTINCT FROM God, as per “the evil” (relative ‘the tree’) – see how logic and consistency makes a nonsense of such things.

Yep, and THAT’S the self-defeating non-sequitur argument you’re left with…

Thanks Davo, I’m with you.

Just because Satan is evil and was created by God does not mean that God created evil. It doesn’t logically follow on. To make a very limited analogy, the parents of a murderer are not responsible for creating murder just because they created their child. The fact that evil didn’t ‘catch God by surprise’ again does not mean that God created evil; it means he was well aware it would happen.

That analogy doesn’t work though because the wood the carpenter is using does not come from himself. Everything God creates though DOES come from Himself; it originates from His being, from His nature, from His thought, from His intentions, from His heart. He is not using any outside materials - He is creating by Himself and through Himself. And He Himself has created human beings with the capacity to make choices, just as He does, even the capacity to do evil. That’s where evil comes about. He might sustain the existence of evil, He might choose to use evil but He does not create it.

No it doesn’t. At all. Isaiah 45:7 gets translated calamity because evil does not fit there - evil is not the technical opposite of peace or well-being, calamity is. If the comparison was ‘good’ and ‘evil’ you might have a case. But it’s not.

I don’t really have an answer and maybe I don’t understand your point above. I don’t spend a lot of time on meditating why evil exists or assigning blame for it. If you notice right off the bat Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent and the serpent has a forked tongue. I am guessing that tongue could stand for the negative and the positive or for good and evil.

In the Wilderness the Israelites spend a lot of time blaming and complaining and God doesn’t like it.

I think people are really God’s works in progress and we are supposed to be working towards solutions towards Earthly problems instead of playing pin the blame on the donkey. Then we are closer to being overcomers like Christ.

Sometimes we get too caught up in philosophical questions and it wastes our constructive time. Once something bad happens why do we waste time assigning blame? Isn’t that really evil? Why don’t we just redeem the time and fix the problem?

Johnny95 - good post, thanks.

I am starting to think people baulk at God creating evil because they are afraid it makes God look evil. Because people are almost always fooled by appearances just like God said in the bible.

But personally I think God can have a good purpose for creating evil.

Look at Adam and Eve. When they were made they were good but they didn’t have knowledge. They had to eat of the tree before they received knowledge and Eve wanted to be like God. Adam means man while Eve means living.

Adam got his priorities shuffled and put Eve ahead of God when he ate the apple. He could have stopped her. He was the head but the head let itself be ruled by his heart.

Eve always knew she wanted to be like God but she wouldn’t know how to become Godlike not without God’s help.

So God who wants to have children like Himself let them eat of the tree of knowledge so that they would know everything like He does.

Only they have spiritual trouble handling all that knowledge with their lack of experience and the evil knowledge results in death and human weakness.

Then we flip over to the New Testament and we find some of the descendants of Adam and Eve after multiple generations and thousands of years have passed are becoming Christlike which is a synonym for godlike.

So who is kidding who here?

God used evil to serve the purpose of educating His children so they could be all knowing and all loving just like He is.

Love conquers all even knowledge of evil.

Oh isn’t God great!

His children get to be all loving and all knowing!

Only God can work all this out for our good.

No wonder He’s always waiting for us to stop blaming and complaining and catch up to Him.

Hallelujah…we have a great future ahead of us…all knowing and all loving.

Can anyone beat that?

God is the greatest chess master of all time.