Did God create evil?
The question comes straight out of Isaiah 45:7, where God says He forms light and creates darkness, makes well-being and creates calamity — a sentence that has troubled readers who also believe God is entirely good. The answer turns on what the word translated "evil" actually means there, and on where Scripture places the true origin of moral evil.
The Word Itself
Commentators point out that the term in this verse does not carry the sense of wickedness at all. It belongs to the language of trouble and disaster:
William KellyRegarding the alleged link between evil and creation, note that in Isaiah 45:7 "evil" means adversity.
Another writer, answering the same question, ties the phrase to God's judicial dealings rather than to an act of making something new:
H. B. CoderIt is not an essential creation as in Genesis 1, for out of Him who is Light and Love nothing evil can proceed. It is a summoning of the suitable evil powers already in existence for judgment on those who deserve judgment at the hand of God.
The Setting
The verse was not spoken into a vacuum. It was aimed at a specific religious idea current in Persia, where light and darkness, good and evil, were treated as rival divine powers:
F. G. PattersonWe are told that the Persians were famous for a two-fold system of idolatry — Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. So Jehovah declares His supremacy over all these principles which the Persian mind had made into gods, and with which it was familiar. It does not convey the thought that Jehovah directly creates evil; it establishes His divine supremacy as God, above principles that are mere creatures or abstract qualities, which the Persians held as gods, and to which he might credit his victories.
The Source
Away from this one verse, the writers speak with one voice: the ruin we see around us did not come out of God's hand.
William KellyBut earth and sea and sky just as plainly show traces of some dreadful evil that has passed over everything — of an enemy's hand that has been there and sown evil... And where does this come from? From God? Never. A being of perfect goodness and power, who would make the world and man as they now are, is morally an impossible thought. But God never made the world as it now is; He did make it, but He made it good. God did not create anything unworthy of Himself.
Another writer traces the responsibility to a named person, and refuses to let God's full knowledge of events be turned into authorship of them:
James BoydEvil could not enter the creation without His knowledge and permission, but He is not the author of it; the devil is. He did not remain in the truth. "He is a liar and the father of lies."
Why Evil Was Possible
If God is not the author, why was evil even an option? One answer given is that a creature able to choose is worth more than a creature that cannot:
A. J. PollockThere is only one answer to be given. God is not the author of evil, but He has allowed sin for His own glory. He did not create creatures who were incapable of choosing between good and evil, otherwise He would have created mere machines — infinitely more wonderful than motor cars and aeroplanes, but still on the same level.
Where the Answers Stop
Honesty about the limits of what we know is part of the answer too. One writer marks the exact point where Scripture falls silent:
F. B. HoleThere is plenty of light about the origin of evil and how it entered this world... But as to why God, knowing all that would ultimately be involved, ever created Satan or man, and why He permitted evil to invade any part of His fair creation, Scripture is silent, and we know nothing.
What God Does With Evil
What God does not author, He does master — and the pattern runs from the cross down to the trials of ordinary believers:
F. B. HoleHe makes the malevolence of the devil, as well as the wrath of man, work out to His own praise as well as our good. The great example of this, unmatched by all others, is of course the Cross. To accomplish that, Satan entered into Judas Iscariot... Yet he was helping on his own overthrow, for referring to His Cross the Lord Jesus said, "Now will the ruler of this world be cast out." A further example is in 2 Corinthians 12, where the "messenger of Satan" sent to harass Paul was overruled for Paul's spiritual preservation. When afflictions come on us, let us remember these things, and profit by them.
Summary
- Word — In Isaiah 45:7 "evil" carries the sense of adversity or calamity, not wickedness; God sends trouble in judgment, and out of Him who is Light and Love nothing evil can come.
- Setting — The declaration answers a Persian belief that light and darkness were two rival gods; God asserts that He alone is supreme, not that He manufactures moral evil.
- Source — Evil began with a creature, not the Creator. God made everything good; the devil is the author of sin, and man let it into the world.
- Silence — Scripture explains how evil entered, but never why God permitted it. Where the Bible stops, we stop.
- Sovereignty — What God did not author, He overrules. The worst crime ever committed became the cross that saves, and lesser troubles are turned to His praise and our good.