I'm asked the following question regularly...
"How can God be both all-good and the creator of everything when He has also created the evil things of this world?
And if He didn't create the evil things of this world then He is not the creator of everything..."
I always answer this by asking these questions:
"What is darkness? What is cold?"
I will then present the answers as:
"Darkness is the ABSENCE of light, and cold is the ABSENCE of heat"
So darkness and cold aren't actual things in themselves, they are merely the name we give the ABSENCE of something...
And then I will answer the initial question:
"Evil is the ABSENCE of goodness..."
So God didn't CREATE evil, He only creates good things.
But where His goodness is rejected an ABSENCE of goodness is created, and the ABSENCE of goodness is called evil...
I would like to know your thoughts about this...
I really don't understand why some still ask the question.
God is --- God.
There is nothing that exists that He did not create. He created Satan. He created us with a mind, a soul, a body and a spirit.
Our mind, spirit and soul inhabit this nice little vehicle which is a vehicle built for two. Our spirit and His spirit. When we do not ride with Him we have this sense of something missing. A lack of direction. A desire for answers. A longing for home.
Isaiah 45:5
I am the Lord and there is no other;
there is no God besides Me.
I strengthen you,
though you have not known Me,
6 so that they may know from the rising of the sun
and from the west
that there is no one besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
7 I form the light and create darkness;
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.
Colossians 1:15
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
This earth is where humans are perfected in Christ. We accept or deny His gift. We chose to submit to His cleansing and washing of our souls. His new white robes that we may stand boldly and unashamed before the throne, clean in Christ.
God created it all, yet He does not support evil in His children. He does not propagate it, "nor tempt any man."
True love requires the ability to chose or reject love.
We journey in this vehicle down our roads. We turn where we please. We stop at different places for necessity and entertainment. We listen to who we want. And we give account for our actions while in this vehicle.
We can't blame God. He is blameless. If we can't accept or understand this, we don't understand Him.
9 Woe to him who strives with his Maker,
the potsherd with the potsherds of the earth!
Shall the clay say to the potter,
“What are you making?”
Or the thing you are making say,
“He has no hands”?
10 Woe to him who says to his father,
“What are you begetting?”
Or to the woman,
“To what are you giving birth?”
Accept His grace and grow in grace. Those who refuse are stunted and destroyed.