Why evil

[SeventhValley]

The Bible says God created good and evil why both?

 

[SeventhValley]

If God created evil how can we be punished for it?

 

[RosaryChaplet9]

You must be talking about the created energies distinct of the nature of evil ... There is a purgative treatment/medicine for it. Grace

 

[ArmyMatt]

evil has no independent existence of its own. there is not a thing called evil, aside from when good is misused. so God created evil in the sense that He created good creatures who do evil things, by misusing what is in them that is good.

 

[Steinbeck]

If God created evil how can we be punished for it?

God did not create evil. Evil is a corruption of good.

 

[softart]

God did not create evil. Evil is a corruption of good.

Why did God allow good to become corrupt/absent (and therefore evil)?

 

[ArmyMatt]

Why did God allow good to become corrupt/absent (and therefore evil)?

good by definition must be free, it cannot be forced or else it is not free. to be truly free means to have a choice. if not, one is not free, and God is therefore not good.

same with love.

 

[SeventhValley]

Isaiah 45:7 YLT98

Forming light, and preparing darkness, Making peace, and preparing evil, I [am] Jehovah, doing all these things.'

 

[SeventhValley]

Isaiah 45:7 KJV

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

 

[MilesVitae]

good by definition must be free, it cannot be forced or else it is not free. to be truly free means to have a choice. if not, one is not free, and God is therefore not good.

same with love.

I'm assuming you mean that to be good in some moral sense one must have freedom (after all, all of creation is inherently good, but it is not all free - only persons are - and therefore not all of creation is able to participate in goodness in the way human beings and angels are). In any case, I don't think our being free or not indicates whether God is good or not. I don't think it would have been evil for God to create a universe without persons.
Rather, I'd say because God does in fact will a universe in which there are creatures which can freely choose to be good, the choice of evil must also be a possibility.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Rather, I'd say because God does in fact will a universe in which there are creatures which can freely choose to be good, the choice of evil must also be a possibility.

yeah, that is a better way of saying it. because He is good and because He is love, when He created us in His image, He created us free (that is part of being in His image we have by nature).

 

[ArmyMatt]

Isaiah 45:7 KJV

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

right, but remember as Christians, we look at the OT through the lens of the New. God only creates good things, but those things can become evil. God created Hitler an innocent baby, but through misuse and by God's allowance, Hitler became a mass murderer. but at his core, Hilter is still in the image of the good God who made him.

 

[Steinbeck]

Isaiah 45:7 KJV

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

The Ethiopian eunuch also needed help understanding Isaiah.

 

[prodromos]

Isaiah 45:7 KJV

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

I think St Basil wrote regarding this passage. He (or who ever it was) says that the word translated as "create" has the meaning in the sense of a builder constructing something else out of something, so God takes evil and uses it to make something good.
Indeed the saints of the Church often suffered through great evil, earning many crowns through their perseverance and patience.

If I have the time I will try and find where this passage is explained and by whom as I'm not 100% sure it was St Basil, plus I would rather give his words rather than my dim recollection.

 

[ArmyMatt]

plus, to a Semitic mind (of which the Prophet Isaiah was one), everything that happens, good or evil, happens from the hand of God somehow. nowadays we have the clarity that God does not create evil in of itself, but by His hand allows and even uses evil for the greater good, and that greater good is often something that only He can see.

 

[jckstraw72]

yes, the Jews did not delineate between the willing will of God -- that which He desires, and the permissive will of God - that which He allows.

 

[RosaryChaplet9]

It seems like evil doesn't even exist anymore [Well, unless you count the evolution of modern history]