I have said this in the past, and I'll say it again: "Read your Bible and actually study it!" Many people, including yourself, treat the Bible as "guilty until proven innocent." It should be the other way around; but anyway.
Isaiah 45:7 reads: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
Problem: According to this verse, God "creates good and evil" (Jer. 18:11; Lam. 3:38, and Amos 3:6). But many other Scriptures inform us that God is not evil (1 John 1:5), cannot even look approvingly on evil (Hab. 1:13), and cannot even be tempted by evil (James 1:13).
Solution: The Bible is clear that God is morally perfect (Deut. 32:4; Matt. 5:48), and it is impossible for Him to sin (Heb. 6:18). At the same time, His absolute justice demands that He punish sin. This judgement takes both temporal and eternal form (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:11-15). In it temporal form, the execution of God's justice is sometimes called "evil" because it seems to be evil to those undergoing it (Heb. 12:11). However, the Hebrew word for evil (ra) used here does not always mean moral evil. Indeed, the context indicates that it should be translated, as the NKJV and other modern translations do, as "calamity." Thus, God is properly said to be the author of "evil" in this sense, but not in the moral sense--at least not directly.
Further, there is an indirect sense in which God is the author of moral evil. God created moral beings with free choice, and free choice is the origin of moral evil in the universe. So, ultimately God is responsible for moral evil. God made evil "possible" by creating free creatures, but free creatures made evil "actual." Of course, the possibility of evil (i.e., free choice) is itself a good thing. So, God created only good things, one of which was the power of free choice, and moral creatures produced the evil. However, God is the author of a moral universe and in this indirect and ultimate sense is the author of the possibility of evil. Of course, God only "permitted" evil, but does not "promote" it, and He will ultimately "produce" and greater good through it (Gen. 50:20; Rev. 21-22).
The relation of God and evil can be summarized this way:
GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF EVIL
In the sense of sin
Moral evil
Perversity
Directly
Actuality of evil
GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF EVIL
In the sense of calamity
Non-moral evil
Plagues
Indirectly
Possibility of evil
Gender: Male Location: Southern Oregon,
Looking at you.
No, the bible is not a person, it is a book. The problem has never been with the bible, but with the interpretation of some people, like yourself. You use circular logic to make your points. Things like the god of the bible created all things, and then you proceed to list what this god did not create. Or, the god of the bible is all knowing, but does not know what you are going to do tomorrow, or if “he” does know, “he” will not accept responsibility for what is supposedly “his” creation. If you met someone like this, I would bet, you would not like them.
KMC Community Forums
Feb 27th, 2008 11:25 PM
