Thursday, February 14, 2013

Did God Create Evil?

candle

1 John 1:5 "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

If I was to say that someone has a dark heart, you would know I meant he has evil in his heart.  If I said they where light hearted you would think they are happy and joyous with goodness in their heart. Light and goodness have similar attributes, just as darkness and evil do. Knowing this helps us to explain where evil comes from.

God created everything and therefore some people say that He must have created Evil also.  Evil didn’t exist before creation so God must have purposely or by accident created evil.  He created the devil and the devil became evil so God must have created that evil inside the devil.  This of course is not true but on the surface it does look valid.

If you are in a room with a lighted candle in your hand, you have light.  Your friend comes in with an unlighted candle in his hand.  How much of your light is sucked out of the room because of that unlit candle?  None.  In fact is there a device anywhere which can shine a beam of darkness?  No.  Darkness can not be created.  It is not energy or matter to be created or changed.  Darkness is not anything of substance but it is the lack of the substance of light.  To have darkness you must have the removal of light.

Evil is the same way.  It is not something you can create or change.  Evil is not the substance of something within a person but it is the lack of goodness with the soul of a person.  The only way for someone to be evil is for there to be a lack of goodness.  Where God (light) is, there is goodness.  Where God is missing, evil (darkness) dwells.

Romans 5:8 says (in my words) God revealed His love to us, so that while we still lived in the darkness of our evil hearts, Jesus Christ sacrificed himself so that His shining light would fill us with His goodness.

Photo Credit: Light of hope by Santhosh Janardhana

No comments:

Post a Comment