Here at G42 we talk a lot about challenging issues that we as Christ followers face in perspective to God’s word. Recently we were given an assignment-Did God create evil? You should have seen the shock around the room at such a thought, yet as I began to search out this word “evil”, I was surprised at what I found. I have always been told in my years of church experience that evil entered the world at the fall of man but my question remained, then why did God put that tree of knowledge of good and EVIL in the garden before the fall? I had to seek out my own answer from God’s word. We are encouraged to seek out the truth in the Word, prayer and our hearts…so I did my own investigative research and this is my personal reflections of what I found.
I read through every passage containing the world “evil” in my new Scofield Study Bible. Now of course, no where does it say that God DOES evil acts or is evil but my question remained, could He have created it? I soon realized that my biggest dilemma was not so much limiting God’s ability to do anything but with the word EVIL. Evil in my mind has always been associated with horrific acts ranging from killings, to rapes to war, down to the little things like lying, cheating and stealing. Then it brought me back to my definition of GOOD. Well, beyond a “good” cup of coffee in the morning, the word “good” comes from ALL things of GOD (and yes—God did create the coffee bean and drank wine-yum!) So if God is good and the cause of the “fall” was pride and rebellion (both Satan’s and ours), then COULD evil be equated with the radical concept of SELF. Let’s replace the words Good and Evil with God and Self. Did God create the ability to choose Hiim OR “self”? Come on now, let’s not give Satan more credit than he deserves. So he chose to disobey God through his own pride and rebellion. That was no surprise to God nor was our choice to choose self in the garden. One of the Wikipedia explanations characterizes evil as a malignant type of self-righteousness. By choosing ourselves, we then bring in SELFish acts we see in this world such as pride, lust, greed and a very “me” mentality. So why then would God allow us to choose “self” or evil I asked myself.
My answer in a nutshell, it was the only true way to allow us the freedom to choose Him! He wants a people who LOVE Him back. For we all know that true love can’t exist against someone’s freedom to choose it. “For it is His will that none should perish but that everyone would have eternal life (2nd Peter 3)”. He had the answer to our “self” problem before the creation of the world in Jesus. It remains our choice to choose self or Christ. I bet one of the hardest things He ever did was to create “evil” aka the ability to choose self—hence giving His creation the freedom to rebel and knowing in advance the heartache that would ensue. Yet, no greater love exists to create a being and know that they are free to make their own choices. All you parents out there, think about raising your own children. You knew bringing them into this world that there were times they would get hurt, feel pain and rejection, yet you still chose to create them. Why? Because you love them and want them to experience life. God, I feel, did the same and more when creating us. He knew we would not have to live with this “self” forever…and He gave us in advance a way out! So who should we blame for all this evil in the world, sorry to burst your bubble, but in my opinion-OURSELVES! We are the answer to the hunger, the homeless, the orphans, the widow, the alcoholic, and the prositiute! Our love, presence, and resources! God wants to use US! Why? Amazingly because we are God with skin on. Have you ever heard someone tell you that you have a different “presence” to yourself? That is it! That is God’s spirit living in us! From the moment we asked Jesus to enter our hearts and lives, we must no longer live for “self” and start living for God. That’s why “evil” no longer has a hold on our lives. We are called to die to self and start living in the freedom of Christ. When is the last time you copped out and let yourSELF get the best of you? That is EXACTLY what the enemy wanted all along since the garden of Eden and he is still playing the same stupid game—trying to get us to choose “self” over God’s perfect way for our lives!
So back to my original question, Did God create the choice for us to choose evil aka “self”. Why you ask? In my opinion, because God wanted us to choose Him! Let’s start taking responsibility for our lives, our attitudes, our choices. We are not the victims but we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37). Take that Satan!
