What did God say about evil?

Answer 1

Scripture references evil about 568 times, but I will give you some scripture that stands out:

1Sam 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Mat 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

This is only a few but I hope it helps. These 7 verses come from God's Holy word - it is not my word but His.

May I recommend downloading esword... Just search for it and download it, because it is free. You can use it to search for any word in scripture, you can even choose from different Bible versions, although I think it comes with the KJV.

God didn't say anything. The Bible or any other religious tract only contains the words of men. If the Bible are the words of God, then; Evil Spirit is from God.

1 Samuel 16:16 Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.

18:10 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. 19:9 And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand. God created Evil spirits; Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. Was sent by God; Judges 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

Answer 2

== == CATHOLIC ANSWER I would hope that "evil" would give you a heads up that it's not of God. We are commanded by our Lord, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Perfection would call us to avoid those things that are contrary to God. Watching movies that have content that would be considered "evil" would in the best interest of our Lords command be imprudent. Not that seeing evil or watching evil movies will undoubtedly corrupt an individual, for some are more susceptible to corruption than others, but in the best interest of keeping one's mind pure and in conformity to God's will, prudence would say avoiding such known movies would be best.

Answer 3

The problem of evil has been with us since humanity began. Despite Christians believing in a God creating the universe through love, the evidence of life, especially the existence of evil in the world, would seem to contradict this.

One can glibly state that without evil there would be no compassion, no care, and, possibly, no love. However, in scripture we are told that God is the 'Father of compassion' [2 Cor. 1.3] and Jesus himself holds up to his followers the ideal of compassionate conduct, for example, in the story of the Good Samaritan. Yet evil exists in the world, and not all of it can be traced back to the God's gift of freewill to humankind.

Cosmologists agree that the Big bang saw the creation of 'pairs' - matter/antimatter, light/dark and so on. Christians believe that this was a result of God's creation. The problem of evil is alleviated somewhat if one accepts, albeit reluctantly, that, in creating yet another diametrically opposite pair God actually created evil as well as love. This, of course, would create many problems, not least the perceived incompatibility of a God of overwhelming self-giving love actually creating something that in all sense and purpose opposes that very love he gives us.

Logically, then, we must accept one of three scenarios. Either:

• God did not create evil but is impotent to prevent its hold. This is not compatible with a God who is omnipotent. Or:
• God did not create evil but chooses to do nothing as he is not all-benevolent. This is incompatible with a God of love. Or:
• The third option is that God created evil, or at least allows evil to occur for a purpose, as yet unknown to us. This also seems incompatible with a loving God - unless provision is made within that love for God to suffer alongside us.

It is very evident that, despite the act of Creation by an external God, God plays a vital part within creation itself. The formation of humanity - "homo spiritualis", say, rather than a more primitive homo sapiens also created the need for a means of redemption for a humankind that God knew would rebel. We are told in scripture that God is eternal - not 'everlasting' (where God is and always will be), but eternal, existing outside of time. The eternality of God helps explain a great deal about him; firstly it helps explain miracles (he is not bound by the laws of cause followed by effect), how prayer is answered (no in-tray building up over time) and it answers the question 'what was there before Creation?' as both Genesis and Einstein, in his Special and General Theories of Relativity are in total agreement that at the beginning both space (the universe) and time had to be created. Yet, much as a light ray is also 'eternal' traveling at the speed of light, and not experiencing time due to Einstein's time dilation effect, God is also ageless and eternal. However, light rays can easily react with us despite their ex-temporal nature, and so can God - and he does.

The eternal nature of God, then, means that he holds the past, present and future in his sights. He is not only able to look back as we do, but he can also look into the future as well to see the whole picture of Creation. This begs the question regarding Adam's fall. If God is eternal, he would have known the result of Adam's sin and the fall of humankind. He would have known the outcome of that fall and the problems of evil and its atonement, and finally he would have known the answer of the redemption of the world through Jesus, and the necessary events that would be the end of the world and the new heaven and earth. In essence, God saw the whole picture at the moment of Creation and the whole circle from Creation through to redemption and finally to eschatological events.

It is therefore of immense comfort that the timeless nature of God has enabled us to grasp a possible solution to the problem of evil and its creation. One must first look to the story of the Garden of Eden. We are told in Genesis that the Tree of Knowledge was planted in the garden and of all the trees from which Adam and Eve could eat, this was the only tree which they were forbidden. This begs the question why the tree was placed there in the first place. If God indeed wished to create humans in his own image, with the knowledge and freedom to choose good over evil and love over hate, then it is a logical assumption that Adam's fall was also part of the plan - to grant us free will to choose to love God, not because we know no different, but because we choose to. Paul makes it clear that the wages of sin is death [Romans 6: 23] - and we must therefore conclude that as a result of God's outpouring of his love, resulting in the creation of humans who have the freedom to truly love God because they want to, death and suffering is a necessity and must be part of the equation in this created world. This does not mean that God is unable to stop it; it does not mean that God is indifferent to its effects, but it means that God, in allowing death and suffering in the world, has to have developed a plan to cope with that necessary evil. And that plan, of course, must be the Cross. No wonder St Augustine remarked "O blessed sin of Adam". For without Adam's fall there would be do redemption through Christ, his suffering and his salvation through the Cross and resurrection.

So it seems evil is a necessity, but there is also an answer to it. We do not see the whole picture, but Christians believe that God does see the picture - hence the Christ liferaft that he provided for us in a world where bot good and evil exist.

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Without evil we have no choice to but to love, and it is only humane to be able to make decisions in life. We're not robots.

AnswerIsaiah 45:7 in the King James version says that God creates evil.

Isaiah 45:7 in KJ version:-

Isa 45 (v.7) I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

However, other modern Translations (ie not paraphrases!) render "evil" as "Calamity" or "disaster" instead:-

HCB [Holman Christian Bible]:-

Isa 45 (v.7) I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, Yahweh, do all these things.

ESV [English Standard Version]:-

7I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.

NASB [New American Standard Bible]:-

7The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORDwho does all these.

NKJ [New King James]:-

7I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.'

Comments on Isaiah 45:7 by three Commentators follow.

(1) by Commentator David Guzik:-

d. "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, theLord, do all these things:"

Simply put, Isaiah knows, Cyrus would know and declare to the whole world, and we should know today, that God is in control. Since this prophecy was given long before God's people went into the captivity Isaiah now announces deliverance from, they could be comforted through the captivity by knowing God is in control.

i. Isaiah's point is that there are not two gods or forces in heaven, one good and one bad, as in a dualistic "yin and yang" sense.

"Cyrus was a Persian, and Persian had a dualistic concept of God and the world. Their good god they called Ahura-mazda and the evil god Angra-mainya. The former had created the light, the second the darkness." (Bultema)

ii. But God has no opposite. Satan is not and has never been God's opposite. There is one God. He is not the author of evil; evil is never "original," but always a perversion of an existing good. Yet God is the allower of evil, and He uses it to accomplish His eternal purpose of bringing together all things in Jesus (Eph. 3:8-11and 1:9-10). If God could further His eternal purpose by allowing His Son to die a wicked, unjust death on a cross, then He knows how to use what He allows for His eternal purpose.

iii. "Undoubtedly the Lord is no representative of evil as such, but He does make use of evil so that it may bring forth good." (Calvin, cited in Butlema)

iv. When God does great, miraculous things, it is easy to believe that He is in control. When times are hard and the trials heavy, we need to believe it all the more.

(2) Comment by Scofield on Isaiah 45:7 ( KJ translation) :-

create evil

Heb. "ra" translated "sorrow," "wretchedness," "adversity," "afflictions," "calamities," but never translated sin. God created evil only in the sense that He made sorrow, wretchedness, etc., to be the sure fruits of sin.

(3) Footnotes of "NET" Bible on Isaiah 45:7 :-

45:7 I am the one who forms light

and creates darkness;14

the one who brings about peace

and creates calamity.15

Footnotes:-

14tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God's sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that "light" and "darkness" symbolize "deliverance" and "judgment."

15sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).

Evil came about as a result of sin: God did not create evil. People are bad, not God. We have the free will to choose our ways of and paths. That is why we were given the 10 Commandments that we must respect or we aren't doing God's will.

Another perspective:

In Isaiah 45 we read: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make Peace, and CREATE EVIL: I the LORD do all these things." (Isa.45:7 KJV)

In the "Literal Bible" [LIT] with "Strong's Definitions"... the inspired word for the King James translation "evil" is "ra'." Which the King James translators translated elsewhere in the Bible: "adversity, affliction, bad, calamity... grief(-vous), harm... hurt(-ful)... mischief... wretchedness..." (Strong's Definitions).

The [LIT] passage says: "Forming light and creating darkness. Making peace and creating TROUBLE; I, Yahweh, do all these things."

The "New Living Translation" [NLT] says: "I AM the One who creates the light and makes the darkness. I AM the One who sends good times and BAD TIMES. I, the LORD, am the One who does these things."

This "evil" that God creates doesn't translate as "SIN" [and is never translated "sin" throughout the Bible]. It's to be read in the sense that "adversity" creates life's "CHARACTER-BUILDING personal challenges."

The "RA'" God creates for His Children is, in the end -- A BLESSING! As Paul tells God's church:

"We can REJOICE, too, when WE RUN INTO PROBLEMS and TRIALS - [RA' -- adversity, troubles, hard times, etc], for we know that THEY ARE GOOD FOR US - they HELP US LEARN TO ENDURE. And endurance DEVELOPS STRENGTH OF CHARACTER IN US, and CHARACTER STRENGTHENS OUR CONFIDENT EXPECTATION OF SALVATION. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God Loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His Love." (Rom.5:3-5 NLT)

God did NOT create SIN! SATAN DID! God set man in the midst of a Perfectly Made world... upon which Satan and his angels had been previously cast down and restrained until the Day of Judgment [see Jude 1:6 & II Peter 2:4]. It was Satan [the father, originator, of sin - John 8:44] standing in the Garden with Eve, who introduced her to sin [disobedience to God's Commandments - I John 3:4]... who in turn introduced it to her husband... who subsequently experienced "RA'"!

They hadn't lived Life, yet. They had NO EXPERIENCE in living. Their character development was ZERO! They were neither "good" nor "bad." Their personalities were as blank as that of a "newborn babe." They "trusted" in what the Serpent told them, like a child takes what a parent tells them ON FAITH -- they "believed" what he said with "child-like innocence and trust."

God "created" RA' in the sense that "He allows it" to occur in the midst of His creation for the purpose of establishing, developing and molding within His Children the [spiritual] "Godly Character" they will need to overcome the pulls of the flesh and this evil world... and the temptation to sin -- through His Son and His Power.

It's been asked, "Can God sin?" And the answer is YES! But, because of His Divine, PERFECT, RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER -- God CHOOSES NOT TO SIN!

That's what "ra'" [life's adversity, troubles and woes] that "God created" does for His Children; as Paul addresses above. This mortal [temporary] first phase of our life is providing man his "first experiences" at living. Experiencing both the evil and the good in life... and building within each of us the type of character, good or bad, that we each CHOOSE TO EMBRACE. And if we choose the good: Eternal Life through Jesus Christ [Rom.6:23] awaits us.

That's the "evil" God created.

Answer 4

Opinion 1:

Well look at the world today, there is evil going everywhere. So yeah, I would say God allows evil.

Opinion 2:

Well, nobody knows if God exists. So, I guess if he/she exists, then they don't exactly allow evil, but there's so much going evil going on in the world that they can't fix it all. Go talk to a priest because evil is a strong word...

Opinion 3:

Yes, God allows evil. Often the evil is used as tools to help people mature. Another motive would be to store up the wrath for later.

Or, maybe God is putting celestial beings (angels, demons, etc.) on trial for following Satan. So He creates a world to use as a lab experiment, courtroom exhibit, or like a Chess game. God makes a move, Satan makes a move, and everyone watches. Then everyone can see who's way is best.

Opinion 4:

Jewish answer: The question refers to the issue of theodicy. Consider the two following quotes, which seem to clash. One is Isaiah 45:7, which clearly states that God "creates evil." The second is Eichah (Lamentations) 3:38, which says "from the mouth of the Most High, evil...did not result." The answer to the contradiction may be seen in a third verse, Proverbs 19:3, which says "the foolishness of a man corrupts his way, yet his anger is directed against God." Meaning, that while some evil is undoubtedly created by God (such as the death of an infant), a lot of evil is the result of humans' choices. The Torah reminds us that we have free-will (Dueteronomy 30:15-20); and without the possibility of bad results, free-will would be vitiated.

Further discussion of theodicy is beyond the scope of this answer, and entire books (such as Job) have long ago been written about it. Suffice it to say that Judaism sees the existence of evil as a test, and/or the result of our own (humans') bad choices, and/or a warning (such as pain, which shows you what part of your body needs repair) or a message (Genesis 42:22), and/or mere misinterpretation (such as the bee's sting, which to a child is unmitigated evil but which adults recognize as a protection for that insect which pollinates all fruit-bearing trees).

Also, when viewed in the context of the afterlife, when worthy people who suffered may be recompensed and the prosperous wicked will have the opposite, the apparent injustices of this world become easier to understand.

Answer 5

No, I do not think so. I do not know for certain, but what I belive is that God created the world without evil or sin. Satan was an angel in the beginning, but when God created man and woman, he thought, since he was created first, he should be better and at a higher level than mankind. He rebelled against God and became a fallen angel, taking many angels who agreed with him down also. That is where you see the Devil as a serpent, tempting Eve, the first woman. When Adam and Eve chose to listen to the Serpent instead of what God had commanded them, there was corruption in the world. That is why I think there is evil among us and with us every day, tempting us away from God.

Another view:

Yes. If God is responsible for all of creation then obviously he is also responsible for evil. God is responsible for the evil act of punishing an innocent child by placing him/her in the home of uncaring and evil parents.

It is only an evil God who would discriminate against those who don't follow his prescribed doctrines and the attendant dictates of the religious leaders. It is only an evil God who would punish anyone who dares to challenge his absolute and dictatorial authority with eternal damnation in a dungeon called Hell. It is only an evil God who would also create numerous disasters and plagues to annihilate those who do not find his favor, but makes no effort to eradicate the scourge of vicious criminals who continue to terrorize good people in society. It is only an evil God who would blame his vicious and oppressive actions on some fake character called Satan.

Another view:

It depends on your perspective. Assuming there is a god, God certainly created the capacity for evil since God created laws and mankind. Nobody would know about darkness unless light also existed. A case can be made that it isn't so much God creating evil as it is mankind. In more pagan faiths and Eastern religion, there is reincarnation, and much of what we suffer comes from decisions we made in past lives. If there is a Higher Power, then it could be that this Higher Power is allowing evil for the sake of a higher good.

In defense of the actions of any god, if God makes the rules, then God cannot technically be evil. If there are no rules or commandments without God, then God is above them and thus cannot break them.

Answer:

Consider the two following quotes, which seem to clash. One is Isaiah 45:7, which clearly states that God "creates evil." The second is Eichah (Lamentations) 3:38, which says "from the mouth of the Most High, evil...did not result." The answer to the contradiction may be seen in a third verse, Proverbs 19:3, which says "the foolishness of a man corrupts his way, yet his anger is directed against God." Meaning, that while some evil is undoubtedly created by God (such as the death of an infant), a lot of evil is the result of humans' choices. The Torah reminds us that we have free-will (Dueteronomy 30:15-20); and without the possibility of bad results, free-will would be vitiated.

Further discussion of theodicy is beyond the scope of this answer, and entire books (such as Job) have long ago been written about it. Suffice it to say that Judaism sees the existence of evil as a test, and/or the result of our own (humans') bad choices, and/or a warning (such as pain, which shows you what part of your body needs repair) or a message (Genesis 42:22), and/or mere misinterpretation (such as the bee's sting, which to a child is unmitigated evil but which adults recognize as a protection for that insect which pollinates all fruit-bearing trees).

Also, when viewed in the context of the afterlife, when worthy people who suffered may be recompensed and the prosperous wicked will have the opposite, the apparent injustices of this world become easier to understand.