July 4th

God Created Evil

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

(Isaiah 45:7) KJV

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

(Genesis 1:31) NKJV

The fall of man and the corrupted state of creation aren’t the same thing. The universe had to be created in a corrupted state so that the fall of man could take place.

God created the best Earth he could and gave it the best chance of success that he could give it. However, it’s part of a process of separating light from darkness during which it will be destroyed and replaced by something better. We have to get from that initial state to this:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

(Revelation 21:1-2) KJV

Our creation is a process. The only way to get from point A, God being alone in space and desiring companionship, to point B, God having companionship with people who desire his fellowship, is through creation. The Earth has two functions in the process.

The function of the Earth has two parts: a) to provide a place for sentient beings to make a choice between light or darkness, good or evil; b) to serve as the collection point for all those who choose darkness and evil.

– The Function of the Earth

Something that you may hear if you discuss religion with other people are questions like, Why does God allow evil to exist? It’s a really good question, but do we have a really good answer? God allows evil to exist so that we can have free will. If I have free will, then I can choose to be evil.

One outcome of this is that some people take this to mean that God is evil, or how else could evil exist? That’s also a good question, and we need to have a good answer. This is the best that we’ve come up with, an interpretation of Isaiah 45:7 which is congruent with God’s nature as kind and loving, and with the reality that we see around us.

• Darkness forms in response to the light God created,
  • but God isn’t darkness.
• Evil forms in response to the peace that God created,
  • but God isn’t evil.

Indeed it was Very Good – Navigation

ection	Title	Scripture
1	Introduction	Genesis 1:31 Revelation 21:1
2	Purpose and Reason	2 Timothy 1:9
3	God Created Evil	Isaiah 45:7
4	Corruption and Free Will	1 Peter 1:3-4
5	He Became Sin for Us	2 Corinthians 5:21 Revelation 13:8
6	Sin and Corruption	Genesis 2:17 Romans 5:12
7	Entropy and Thermodynamics	Genesis 3:17
8	The Beginning of the End	Romans 6:23 Romans 3:23
9	Salvation	Romans 10:9-10

Read through the Bible in a year

Reading plan	July 4
Linear	Psalms 132-134
Chronological	2 Kings 9-11

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Salvation

1. Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
   • believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
2. confess your sin.

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