If God made everything…
did He make Evil and Hell too?
(please leave your point of view in the comments)
Growing up in a (neo) Baptist church, my childhood perspective of certain things in religion are shapped by what was thought in Sunday sermons. But as we grow older (in age and maturity), we learn more and more about what’s out there in the world…
So some would have the belief that God didn’t make evil, that it was a byproduct or something that came later on after Creation had finished its course in that first seven days. I.e. Satan as the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God, and when they eventually ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Original Sin came about into the world… seperating us from God, and being the start of this eternal struggle to reconnect and have commune back with Him…
I remember having this discussion in a Cell Group in Sabah when I went as a University Student. Some ladies believed that Sin only started at Adam and Eve (so it never existed before that), but her husband on the other hand took my point that Sin existed before the creation of the world. As I gave the explanation that Lucifer rebelled against God with some of the (fallen) angels (Isaiah 14:12–14), whom were then cast out of Heaven (to Hell presumably)
So…. that event should have happened before the Universe was created with the first lines “Let there be light” .. right?
That was what my argument was based on, to give a timeline to sin exsisting before man.
But yeah. I never beleived that Sin or Evil was intentionaly MADE by God Himself. I’ve always beleived that Sin was the ABSENCE of God. Whatever that is apart from Him, or whatever seperates us from Him. i.e. the original Disobedience when Adam and Eve ate from the fruit. (I used to belief that there was nothing physically poisonous about the fruit itself, but it was the spoken command by God to not eat from it…. and it was the act of deliberately disobeying God’s command that was the actual sin itself)
So was the Tree of Knowledge just another tree, that it could have been any other tree.. and nothing inherently special about it physically?
Why did God even create such a tree in the middle of the garden of Eden in the first place? Maybe if He didn’t … there would be literally no chance of humans to disobey God. and with the lack of an alterantive option to choose, there would be no real freedom of choice in this world. And we couldn’t “choose” God, because there would be no other thing to choose from. i.e. one can’t choose A, if there was no B.
So yeah… this question.. then flows on to modern times. Alot of people use this argument to ‘disprove’ God. like… ‘if there was a God, why is there stil war, poverty, pain, suffering, cancer and diseases” . To this I remember the verse about the man being born blind, being no one’s fault, but so that the glory of God could be revealed through the miracle of healing of his eyes and sight (John 9).
God gives a a chance to partner with Him though the shortcomings of this world. That is how we get to know God and be known by Him.
That is how we learn to trust in Him. If the world was already perfect, there would be no need for a God. or for us to rely on God.
Some would say that, Christians are weak. That’s why we need to rely on Someone else above us. And they are proud that they have made it all in life by themselves, all the wealth and health and happiness. (i.e like the rich man with barns (Luke 12:16–21)) … but you could have all the money… climb up on the roof one day and fall to your death the next (which actually happened to the alpha boss!)
So yeah… no one can really save their own souls. by their own. they only way we can save it, is by losing it to Christ. and admitting our own weakness…. for that is when we are strong in Christ. I admit, I would still be in sin if not for Him.
i digress… so inclined to add that salvation part in stories all the time midway
back to the original topic and question.
Did God make evil?
I used to say no. I find it hard to wrap my head around the possiblity of saying “yes”. Did God make the criminals, the blind, the weak and the heathen, Judas? … God knows. God… makes a way out too
let me know your thoughts, so that I can expand mine.
