WHO CREATED EVIL?

 Christians believe, when God created the universe, “He saw all that He had made, and it was very good”. Christians also believe that evil is not “very good”. Then, from where did evil come? Did a holy God create evil?

Let us begin by examining what God created - especially, the creation of angels and human beings. Both were created with free-will. In other words, we were created with the capacity to choose. We were not created as robots or machines. Neither were we created with mere instincts - meaning, with a natural or inherent impulse or behaviour. Instinct is an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour, in response to stimuli.

To be created with the capacity to choose means that we were created with minds. Minds with which we independently think, analyse, draw conclusions and make choices. We were created with the capacity to understand principles, truths, facts or meanings, acquire knowledge, and apply it to practice. We were created with the ability to learn and to comprehend. It is in light of this capacity to develop, we contend that what God made was “very good”.

That capacity was displayed when God commanded Adam - “… you are free to eat from any tree in the garden …” (Genesis 2:16-17). The truth is, implicit in the capacity to choose is the ability to accept or reject – the ability to obey or disobey.

Like human beings, angels were similarly created. It is that potential to choose that captured the heart of the angel Lucifer. Lucifer wanted to “ascend to the heavens” and be “above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13). He desired to make himself “like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). In other words, Lucifer preferred to use his ability-to-choose, to distance himself from God. God judged Lucifer by removing him from His presence (Isaiah 14:15). That fallen angel is now known as Satan (adversary) or the Devil (slanderer).

In Ezekiel, we learned that Satan was created as a perfect, wise, and beautiful angel (Ezekiel 28:14). But then Satan rebelled: “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you” (verse 15). That’s when the situation changed. Scripture hints at the reason Satan decided to make that choice: “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour” (Ezekiel 28:17).

When creatures with the ability to choose, use that ability to disobey God, that is called sin. Sin is to fall short of God’s expectations. Sin is to miss the mark. In his letter to the Romans, Paul describes sinning as “… falling short…” (Romans 3:23). To fall short implies not measuring up to a standard – God’s standard. Hence, when the angel Lucifer, chose to take a stand against God, he sinned. Similarly, when Eve and Adam took a stand to agree with Satan, they chose to disobey God – that was sin. Sin is the term we use to describe one’s stand against God.

Having taken a stand against God, Adam and Eve had to live with the consequences of their action. One such consequence was to pollute the human race with the sin virus. This is how the apostle Paul described this situation – “… just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12).

By this point it should be obvious that sin was not created by God. Rather, it is a condition that describes the choice made by God’s creatures. A choice that degenerates to another condition we describe as evil. Evil is wickedness, an attempt to cause unnecessary harm. It is an attitude of malice. Evil is behaviour with malevolent intent.

The Bible teaches that the penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23). This is exactly what God said to Adam before he sinned (Genesis 2:16-17). Death was not only the cessation of life, but separation from God. Succinctly, because of God’s holiness, sin must be punished.

But wasn’t that the reason Jesus died? He died for sinners. Christians believe Jesus took the punishment for sin and died on a cross. This is how the Bible puts it – “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In other words, although born a sinner, no one needs to die as a sinner. Jesus died, so that every sinner might live. I conclude with this, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).