Where did evil come from?

[pugsly]

Most people, understandably, have a serious problem with evil in a place created by a good God. Having read a lot of confused posts over the year...I know that there is a number of people who are caught up on this question. (please allow me to help you a bit)

Everything about evil hinges on how we view the act of creation. There is one way of viewing creation (I believe it is the correct way) wherein a good and holy and pure God ALLOWS light/good to birth out of darkness/evil. The key word is ALLOWS.

For example, let's pretend you are God....unlimited good.....but the reason you are an eternal God is because you always follow a certain way of doing things.....eg.....Wisdom. However, via your imagination, you visit a dark place of limited good....wherein you imagine people....and you want to "rescue" them.
[Note......Did evil always exist in God's imagination....yes...but only as a potential.]
God portrays for us this potential evil as a vast, dark sea of chaos in the begining of the Bible....Why a "vast" sea? Because, like a sea, it seems to us that potential evil is almost unlimited....but not life giving like fresh water. Why "dark"...because He is not actually there yet.
Now, let's further pretend that you want to rescue ALL limited good from that sea of chaos.....How could you do it without contaminating your own goodness?

The short answer is that you freely choose only perfect goodness..(your Perfect Act of Mercy--Jesus)..knowing that all things will come crashing into being...and you can then rescue the limited good within the larger choice of perfect goodness.

Hence a Perfect God ALLOWS his Perfect Son to travel through the dark sea of chaos...(picture Moses at the Red sea....or Noah.....or the Jordan crossing...or baptism...etc) which "momentarily" brings existence to the non-existent. Those temporarily existent beings can complain and moan about the dark chaos of their neighborhood (evil) or they can cry out to the Lord of Life--Jesus as he passes along the path of Wisdom.
"Today is the day of salvation."

 

[Guest]

Stupid Lucifer had to fall from heaven and mess things up. His ego was bigger than God's apparently.

 

[clark thompson]

Man did not have to fall for satan tricks but since man did God made a Way at that is His Son Jesus Christ death on the cross.

 

[BadOlPuttyTat]

Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

God is truly in control of everything and this is something I myself believe and even according to the Bible is stated. All things are willed by God obviously.
Obviously mankind is given the beautiful gift of free will as one can tell and it is truly a great thing but it is still God who has 'permitted' evil to occur.

Mankind's degradation is of our own fault and not of God.

 

[handy]

Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

God is truly in control of everything and this is something I myself believe and even according to the Bible is stated. All things are willed by God obviously.
Obviously mankind is given the beautiful gift of free will as one can tell and it is truly a great thing but it is still God who has 'permitted' evil to occur.

Mankind's degradation is of our own fault and not of God.

Isaiah 45:7 pretty well nails it.

 

[YosefHayim]

http://carm.org/does-god-create-evil
http://biblehub.com/isaiah/45-7.htm
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7451