The origin and continued existence of evil has been called the Achilles’ heel of Christianity. Philosophers have contended that the presence of evil calls into question God’s omnipotence or His goodness and love. The argument suggests that if evil exists independently of God’s sovereign power, it logically follows that God cannot be omnipotent. Conversely, if God has the power to prevent evil but chooses not to, this would imply a deficiency in His character, suggesting He is neither wholly good nor loving. Nothing could be further from the truth!
When approaching the question of whether or not God created evil, it is important to start by defining what evil is, or perhaps more accurately, what evil is not. First, we must recognize that evil has no ontological state of being. It is not a “thing” at all, so it was not “created”. Evil, in and of itself, has no power or substance. Evil is a lack of something.
For an analogy, we can look into the science of heat and cold. There is no way to measure cold because cold does not actually exist. Instead, science can measure heat (a byproduct of energy). So when we call something “cold” what we are really saying is that it lacks sufficient heat. Scientists call a complete lack of heat “Absolute zero”. “Zero” is not an actual number, rather it represents the absence of anything to count. Likewise absolute darkness is an absence of light that can be seen, and a hole in the ground is a lack of dirt in that part of the ground. Cold, darkness, zero, and holes have no state of being; they are ways to show a lack of something else that is observable or measurable. The same is true of evil, but what is evil a lack of?
Most of the arguments that I have read indicate that evil is an “absence of good”. However, I think that is not going quite far enough down the path. Just like evil, “good” also has no ontological state of being. Rather, just like degrees are measurements of heat, “good” is a measurement of something else. In order to fully understand what the absence of “good” means, we need to understand not just what the Bible says is good or bad, but why God has decreed that these things are good or bad. Fortunately for us, Christ made that very clear.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:34-40 (ESV)
Jesus is saying here that the entirety of the law – every single thing that God considers good or bad – is based on our love for God, and our love for other people. Any time we do anything that demonstrates a lack of love for God, or a lack of love for other people, we are in sin. Ultimately, Jesus is saying that everything that the Bible calls sin finds its roots in our decisions to value our own egos and self-interest over God and other people. Therefore, sin can be defined as not meeting a standard of love for God and other people. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the only human who has ever achieved that standard of love for God and other people. Everyone else has fallen short (Romans 3:23).
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV)
As we see in this passage, even our good works can become evil and meaningless, if they are lacking in love! Since the scriptures tell us that even things we consider “good works” are nothing without love, we can deduce that both good and evil are measurements of the motivations behind the actions we take, not the actions themselves. At this point, we should take a moment to carefully define what love is. For this, I will turn to one of my favorite quotes from Voddie Baucham:
Love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object.
Voddie Baucham, Family Driven Faith, Crossway, 2007, p. 57.
In our culture, society promotes a false view of love as being just a “feeling” or an “emotion”. As soon as we lose “that loving feeling”, we think the love is “gone, gone, gone” and we abandon the relationship. Any honest survey of how the Bible defines love should dispel us of that notion! In fact, that notion has its roots in our evil, ego-centric prioritization of self-love. “Love is an act of the will”… it is a decision that we continually make. Love is “accompanied by emotion”… there certainly can be emotion involved that can enhance the experience, but the emotion is not the primary driving force. Love “leads to action on behalf of its object”… our decision to love motivates us to do things that benefit the object of our love.
We have a saying “actions speak louder than words”. Our actions often reveal the things we value most, but if you really want to know if an action that you are taking is loving, you must learn to be aware of your ultimate motivation for the action. What is it that you value that motivated the action? Who are you trying to benefit? Is your desire to bring glory God? Is your desire to benefit and edify other people? Or is it ultimately motivated by your egotistical love of self? Are you doing the good thing so that people will see you doing good, thus gaining glory for yourself?
Therefore, just as a “degree” is a unit of measurement for heat, “good” is a measurement of the love for God and others that motivates our thoughts and actions. Likewise, just as “cold” is a term we use when there is a lack of sufficient heat, “evil” is a term that we use when there is a lack of sufficient love for God and others. Just as there are degrees of cold, there are also degrees of evil. The less we love God and other people, and the more we prioritize our own ego and self-interest, the greater acts of evil we will imagine and act out. People who are absolutely lacking in love for God or other people, we call “sociopaths”, and they typically end up incarcerated. If we take this biblical view of “Love” and consider that “Evil” is simply a lack of love for God and other people, then everything becomes quite clear. I propose this definition of Evil:
Evil is an act of the will, motivated by ego or self-interest, that leads to action (or inaction) in opposition to God or the welfare of other people.
With this definition of evil, we can start to understand how God views evil. It is important here to distinguish between acts of evil and the ramifications or results of evil acts. In our own perspectives we tend to only focus on the ramifications of evil. We see people suffering. We see relationships falling apart. We see death and destruction all around the world, and we think: “How can a good God create or allow that?”.
However, the Bible clearly teaches that evil begins in the heart. It may not even have any obvious ramifications or produce any outwardly observable negative results. When we allow our pride and ego to deceive us into thinking that we know what is good for us better than God does, we make decisions that are evil. We can even do evil that no one else will perceive as evil because they cannot see the intent of our heart. However, God searches our hearts and minds, and that is the way He determines how to judge our actions.
I the Lord search the heart
Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV)
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.
The origin of evil occurred the first time a created being made a choice to prioritize their own self-interest above their love for their creator. Prior to that, there was no lack of love for God in any created being. As soon as there was a lack, evil was measurable (presumably with the fall of Lucifer where we see pride entering into the heart of Lucifer where he desired to be like God – Isaiah 14:12–14 and Ezekiel 28:12–18). When Adam decided to disobey God, that was the first point in his life where his will led to an action that prioritized his love for self over his love for God. Thus, sin entered into humanity and the curse followed which pre-disposed all of us to prioritize self and to lack love for God and other people.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
James 1:13-15 (ESV)
So, even if He didn’t create evil, how can a good, just, and all-powerful God allow us to keep being evil?
There are two main teachings in scripture that I believe sufficiently answer this apparent contradiction. The first is that God allows evil to exist because He uses it to work out His good purposes (Romans 8:28). God sovereignly uses our evil, our un-loving actions, to work out His perfect and good will. Joseph gave us an excellent example of this in his statement to his brothers who had selfishly sold Joseph into slavery.
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
God has a long-term plan that many people will believe in Him and be saved by grace through faith in the work of Christ. It is for the joy that was set before him that Christ endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). God used the great evil and unloving actions of the Jewish leadership, who were motivated by their pride and jealousy to have Jesus crucified, to accomplish the greatest work of good humanity has ever known. When we are all united in love with Christ for eternity, the fullness of that joy will be realized.
The second point from scripture to remember is that God is not bound or limited by time the way we are. Jesus said: “before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). God is not just omnipresent (everywhere all at once), he is omnitemporal (every “when” all at once). God is just, and he certainly does punish sin. He doesn’t tolerate evil, nor does He ignore it, or condone it. He punishes it! However, we are so limited by our own perception of time and space we cannot see or comprehend what God is doing.
Habakkuk chapter 1 illustrates this concept plainly. In verses 2-4, Habakkuk complains about how God is doing nothing about all the evil that Habakkuk sees going on from his perspective. Then in verses 5-11, God replies that he is indeed already working out His justice against that evil and explains how He is orchestrating that judgement in great detail.
Look among the nations, and see;
Habakkuk 1:5 (ESV)
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
God’s reply to Habakkuk basically starts with: “You wouldn’t even believe me if I told you!”. This is because we simply cannot fully understand the mind and perspective of God. For those of us that are saved, God justly punishes our evil actions through the sacrifice of Jesus. For those who are not saved, God justly punishes them in hell for all eternity. Since God is not bound by time, His perception of “when” He punishes sin is very different than ours. It is entirely conceivable then that, from God’s perspective, every time we sin, He immediately pours out His just wrath upon either His own Son on the cross, or upon the unsaved transgressor in what they perceive as their future hell. Therefore, the paradox of a good, just, and omnipotent God allowing evil to continue unpunished throughout time is due to our limited perception of God and time.
The law of non-contradiction is “A cannot be both A and non-A at the same time and in the same relationship.” When we combine the realization that God is not bound by time, with the awareness that God is sovereign over every unloving, evil action we do and He uses them to accomplish His good and perfect plan; we are able to deduce that there is no contradiction with a wholly good, loving, and omnipotent God allowing evil to continue within the context of what we call time.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
It is because God loves us that he allows us to experience hardship and difficulty. He does this to build character in us. He does this to mold us, shape us, and restore us back into His perfect image. He does this for our benefit, just as a parent allows their children to experience and learn from the consequences of their unloving actions, so our heavenly Father does with us.
The whole Bible is full of scripture that promotes and encourages us to pursue love. The book of 1 Corinthians is dedicated to arguing for the preeminence of love above all other spiritual gifts. The entirety of the law shows us how we fall short of God’s perfect standard of love, and the message of the gospel is that through the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can be redeemed from our state of self-love and transformed into people who can enjoy a loving relationship with God, and be united in love as one body with our fellow believers. Sanctification is the process of growing in our ability to love God, and love others through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Our lives as Christians should be marked by the pursuit of greater and greater depths of love for our God and for our fellow man. This is an impossible task for anyone outside a loving relationship with Christ.
26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26 (ESV)
Just as Jesus was able to take an insufficient amount of food and make it sufficient to feed thousands of people, so too Jesus is able to take our insufficient love for God and other people, and make it sufficient.