I would asservate that God did not "create" evil. This means that, although God's sovereignty states that he cannot be absent of providence from evil being brought into reality, he refrained from initiating the very action of evil. My first contention deals with the question of, "can a maximally great being create evil and refrain from beingevil due to his nature of goodness?" I do not think so. If it were an accident, maybe, but, sense God always acts with intentionality, he cannot claim, "accidence." If I intentionally created a pesticide that could wipe out about 90% of earth's inhabitants and I proceeded to do so, that certainly seems to be a evil action that I must be held accountable for. However, if I know the possibility of this and I refrain from stopping it due to each person’s rights (unreasonable search and seizure) how can that be my fault? Sure, I condoned of the idea, but certainly could not stop it due to our rights. This is how God interacts with his free-will creatures.
Now, if evil is the negation of good, this means that the idea of evil has existed throughout eternity, but it took a creature that was able to act evil (due to his nature lacking benevolence) to actualize evil. To avoid a dualistic idea of evil and good, just know that good always trumps evil because the wielder of good has proved dominance over the wielder of evil, and these two ideas are nowhere similar in power. In the same sense, we could say that the idea of nothing has existed throughout eternity. Nothing is a negation of something, and, due to God's omnipresent attribute, nothing is not fathomable.
Contention 2: Is God sovereign over evil if He did not create it? If we say that God was absent over the ability for evil to become reality, then we have to assert that God is not sovereign, so can the two correlate? However much we confirm that God did not "create" evil, we certainly have to assert that through His providence He did not become solemnly surprised when Lucifer acted the way he did. If God created the angels with an ability to perform choices that opposed God's goodness, they did evil. Now, if the idea of evil has been present for eternity past, we can assert that God might have "created" the potential for evil by implanting free-will into his creations, but this does not hold God responsible for "creating evil." In the same sense, although this might be a bad illustration, Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone, but Mr. Bell is in no way responsible for the horrendous customer service I get from AT&T. This is not the best illustration because God is still connected to all events, but you get the point.
All in all, God did not create evil because this would oppose His good nature, and he is still sovereign over the choices of evil because he innated them the ability to choose in the first place, and he is sovereign over every choice. This does not surprise God (not open theism). Thanks for reading.
The importance of discussing God's providence helps stimulate the ways in which we view, serve, and articulate the good news of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, if evil is the negation of good, this means that the idea of evil has existed throughout eternity, but it took a creature that was able to act evil (due to his nature lacking benevolence) to actualize evil. To avoid a dualistic idea of evil and good, just know that good always trumps evil because the wielder of good has proved dominance over the wielder of evil, and these two ideas are nowhere similar in power. In the same sense, we could say that the idea of nothing has existed throughout eternity. Nothing is a negation of something, and, due to God's omnipresent attribute, nothing is not fathomable.
Contention 2: Is God sovereign over evil if He did not create it? If we say that God was absent over the ability for evil to become reality, then we have to assert that God is not sovereign, so can the two correlate? However much we confirm that God did not "create" evil, we certainly have to assert that through His providence He did not become solemnly surprised when Lucifer acted the way he did. If God created the angels with an ability to perform choices that opposed God's goodness, they did evil. Now, if the idea of evil has been present for eternity past, we can assert that God might have "created" the potential for evil by implanting free-will into his creations, but this does not hold God responsible for "creating evil." In the same sense, although this might be a bad illustration, Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone, but Mr. Bell is in no way responsible for the horrendous customer service I get from AT&T. This is not the best illustration because God is still connected to all events, but you get the point.
All in all, God did not create evil because this would oppose His good nature, and he is still sovereign over the choices of evil because he innated them the ability to choose in the first place, and he is sovereign over every choice. This does not surprise God (not open theism). Thanks for reading.
The importance of discussing God's providence helps stimulate the ways in which we view, serve, and articulate the good news of Jesus of Nazareth.
