Did God create evil?

Suffering, Evil & Hard QuestionsIn theological review

The short answer

No. Scripture says God is light, with no darkness in him at all, and that he tempts no one to do evil. The one text often quoted against this, Isaiah 45:7, uses a Hebrew word that in its own context means calamity and disaster, the judgment God warned he would bring, not moral wickedness, which Scripture consistently traces to rebellious creatures, not to its Creator.

The fuller answer

The question usually rests on one verse, so start there and read it whole. In Isaiah 45 God is speaking about Cyrus and about his own rule over light and darkness, peace and calamity. The Hebrew word translated evil in older versions sits in parallel with peace, and in that pairing it means disaster or calamity, the trouble God brings in judgment, not sin. The same prophet also calls God the Holy One of Israel, and the rest of Scripture is blunt about where moral evil comes from.

I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.

Isaiah 45:7 (BSB)

James says plainly that God cannot be tempted by evil and tempts no one. Each person, he explains, is drawn away by their own desire, and desire gives birth to sin. Those sentences leave no room for a God who authors wickedness and then punishes people for performing it. When Scripture lists what God creates, it names heavens, earth, peoples and nations. Sin is never among his works. It is always described as a turning against them, by creatures who were made good and chose otherwise.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.

James 1:13 (BSB)

John's sentence sets the boundary in a single image: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. So where did evil come from? The Bible gives an account rather than a mechanism. A serpent tempts in Eden before any human sins. Human beings, made good and genuinely free, choose the forbidden thing, and corruption spreads from that choice through every generation. Later writers describe angels who rebelled and fell. None of this makes evil a created substance with its own standing. A lie is real and does real damage, but a lie is truth bent, and evil is good bent.

And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5 (BSB)

One distinction clears most of the confusion. God does, in Scripture, bring calamity: flood, exile and judgment on persistent wickedness, openly and as a judge. Bringing disaster on evil is not the same act as doing evil, any more than a just sentence is a crime. What God never does is sin, tempt people to sin, or delight in wickedness. The cross shows the two truths together. Human beings did evil in crucifying Jesus, God brought salvation out of it, and Scripture never swaps those two sentences around.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil?Evil exists because God's good creation has been genuinely damaged, first by rebellious spiritual beings and then by human sin, and God has chosen for now to permit what he hates rather than unmake the world and everyone in it. Scripture never calls evil good or necessary. It says God will judge it, has entered its worst in the cross, and will remove it from a renewed creation.Does God cause suffering or allow it?Scripture holds both words, and flattening either one distorts it. God is sovereign: nothing reaches his people outside his rule, and he can bring judgment and discipline directly. Yet Scripture also says he permits human evil and Satan's malice without authoring them, and works through suffering he did not delight in to ends he does. Joseph's sentence stands over the whole question: what people meant for evil, God meant for good.Why does God allow suffering?The Bible does not give one reason for every instance, and anyone who offers you one is overselling. It does give a frame: the world is fallen and groaning, human evil does real damage, God is patient toward a world he intends to judge and remake, and in the meantime he has entered the suffering himself in Jesus Christ. The final answer is not an explanation but an ending: a day when he wipes away every tear.What is God like?God is spirit, eternal, unchanging, all powerful, holy, just, good, and true. And he is love. Scripture gives his character in his own words and deeds rather than in our guesses: he is the I AM who always is, the Maker who never tires, and the Father who so loved the world that he gave his Son.Bible Character: AdamThe first man, formed by God from the dust of the ground and placed in the garden of Eden.Bible Character: EveThe first woman, built by God from Adam's rib, and the mother of all the living.Bible Character: IsaiahThe prophet who saw the LORD high and lifted up in the temple, volunteered to be sent, and foretold the child to be born and the servant pierced for our transgressions.Lesson: Context changes everythingTwo of the most quoted verses in the Bible are usually quoted wrong. Read them in context and watch what changes.