Did the Christian God create evil?

Question

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

I'm posting this as many Christians responded to a previous question by saying that god did not create evil. I got this from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Atheist's nightmare(?)
By your logic, killing isn't evil.
I love your gun, by the way.

gg28
That's all well and good, but allowing evil to exist means it does exist, doesn't it? If god created everything, it must follow that he created evil. Did evil come about of its own accord? Was the tree of knowledge a freak of nature that god had no control over?

Mmmm
Nice story, but the Bible condemns evil from the outset, rather proving its existence (at least as far as the Bible is concerned). By saying that if you cannot study something, it doesn't exist, you really are closing a lot of doors on scientists and Christians! Especially those inspired by Einstein, who, I believe, studied things which he then said do not exist.

Answer 1

hmmm it's an interesting one. Didn't he put the snake in the garden? wasn't that meant to be evil?

There's the whole story about lucifer turning bad - which is put down to freewill, but surely if god had created lucifer then he created him with the capacity for evil. The same goes for us. It seems logical that he *must* have created it.....

Answer 2

The "horse's mouth" is from a King James Version of the scriptures and when the first Bible translators were translating, they were then unaware of the "tense" on the verbs in Hebrew that did NOT mean "to create" in a causitive sense. Since that time we know there are two other tenses of verbs in the original text and this particular verse more accurately worded would be: "I form the light and allow darkness: I make peace and allow evil to exist; I the LORD do all thses things.
Now, if you are dogmatic and demand to "prove your point" with what you have written rather than accept the facts as I am telling you, then stick to your guns. What I have shared with you IS the truth.
Also, God does NOT create or condone evil and in the book of James (N.T)we are 'specially told that God is the 'father of lights' and every good and perfect gift comes down from Him.
I suspect there are more folks than me who know this fact about the early translators not know or understanding all we know and understand now about the original texts.
Why do you need to make this indictment against God. He is "the GOOD GUY"!
Repeat this 10 times: God=good/light; devil/evil=bad/darkness,

Answer 3

God created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Center of the Garden Genesis 3. But Man released evil by eating the forbidden fruit. You must get a newer bible because the newer translation make some of your quotes clearer like Lamentations 3:38 in my bible says "Good and bad each happen at the command of the Lord most high" CEV, which tells me that god made and controls good and evil. About every ten years we get a new bible with better translations as we learn more about the ancient texts so get a newer Bible and you get a clearer picture of an interpretation of God's word.

Answer 4

I'm not sure which version you are reading, but the version I am does not say that but rather, "form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things." NIV or

NASB version, "The One (A)forming light and (B)creating darkness,
Causing well-being and (C)creating calamity;
I am the LORD who does all these."

Which is true of God, he brought the flood and so forth. This verse is God proclaiming His power.
God did not create evil. He cannot create evil, He is perfect.
2 Samuel 22:31
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

Again I don't know which translation you got your verse from, but I if you check other translations you will see that it is not intended to be evil but rather disaster or calamity.

Answer 5

Hey if the Bible says it it must be true, right? And yes he did, a nice little proverb that I thought up..."What is the Good, if not the teacher of the Bad? What is the Bad, if not the task of the Good?" Which means that nothing was evil in the first place, but was corrupted along the way, now, God created everything and everybody (according to Theists.) which evil is part of "everything" now isn't it? Besides, you can't have Absolute Good without Absolute Evil.

Answer 6

Ok my friend good question.
I will first say that I have been broght up a christian but am also familiar with Jewish Belief.
There is a clash of belief because we have input from both Judaic and Greek belief.
The scripture you quote is from the Torah which is hebrew (mostly) Jewish belief is that God does create evil and sends Satan (the adversary) to test and try us, ths is illustrated by the story of Job who suffered great suffering but did NOT curse G-d.
Now greek belief is originated from earlier belief systems which contain a form of dualism (Good versus Evil), a prime example is zoroastrianism.
Where these two meet is where the confusion starts because what you have is a sandwitch of two religions and there in lies the problem.
Hope that has shed some light on the subject.

Answer 7

Interesting literature I read a while ago - maybe no answer for your question, but it surely made me think....
- Does evil exist?
- One day, a professor of a university decided to defy his pupils
- He asked: Did God create everything that exists?
- A student bravely answered: " Yes, He did!"
- Everything? asked the teacher.
- Yes, everything. Was the answer of the student.
- In this case, God also created evil, correct?
Because evil exists. - said the teacher…
-To that, the student had no answer and remained in silence.
-The teacher was delighted at the opportunity to prove one more time that faith was only a myth.
-Suddenly, another student raised his hand and asked: “May I ask you a question , professor?”
- “Of course” , was the answer.
- Does cold exist?
- Of course, answered the professor
Did you never feel cold?
- Actually, sir, cold does not exist. According to studies in Physics, cold is the total and complete absence of heat.
An object can only be studied if it has and transmits energy and it is the heat of an object that transmits it’s energy .
“Without heat, the objects are inert, incapable to react. But cold does not exist. We created the term cold to explain the lack of heat”
- “And darkness?” , continues the student.
- ”It exists”, replied the professor
- “Again, you’re wrong sir, darkness is the total absence of light.
You can study light and brightness, but not darkness.
The prism of Nichols shows the variety of different colors in which the light can be decomposed according to the longitude of the waves.
Darkness is the term we created to explain the total absence of light”
And finally, the sudent asked:
“And evil, sir, does evil exist?”
God did not create evil. Evil is the absence of God in people’s hearts, it is the absence of love, humanity and faith.
Love and faith are like heat and light. They exist.
Their absence lead to evil”
- Now it was the professor’s turn to remain silent..

The name of the student was :
ALBERT EINSTEIN

Answer 8

Actually the word evil there, can also mean calamity or destruction. We assume that is correct meaning, since other verses do indicate that God is not the author of evil. Plus it fits better in context. I create peace, and destruction. Those are polar opposites. And that also makes sense. We do know that God creates destrction. Like the flood and sodom and gemorrah. Those are all righteous judgments.
Anything else?

Answer 9

The only creature we know of that is capable of great evil is MAN, every other creature on this planet operates to a program set by nature (with the exceptions of those creatures trained and directly affected by man).

Religions don't know how to convey the true horror of creation, so they lie to everyone saying that God is only good.

For the most part, good and evil are only points of view

Answer 10

Can the sun produce darkness? Is God capable of creating evil? No, man is the author of all evil and sin that exists. By giving man free will, God did create the stage for man to sin if he so chose.