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Transcript 420B — Does God Create Evil? [Isa 45:7]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: The question I would like to ask you is in Isaiah 45. It says, "I form light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil." And I've had a problem understanding this. I know God is in control of everything. But I think that all good things come from God. It's hard to understand that He creates evil. Can you explain this to me.
HC: Yes. The question is raised concerning Isaiah 45:7, where we read, "I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things." What does it mean here that God creates evil? Isn't God a good and holy God? How could He create evil?
The problem is that in the Bible the word evil is used in two ways. Sometimes the word is used in connection with that which is sinful. Evil men are wicked men. And God of course did not create men wicked. God does not create sin in any sense.
But evil is also used in the sense of God's judgment. For example, when Israel sinned God brought evil men against Israel as a judgment. God brought terrible things against Israel as a judgment. These were evil things for Israel. This is the kind of evil that God is speaking of.
When Babylon, which was a sinful nation, came against Judah to destroy it, this was a great evil for Judah. But it was a judgment of God against Israel. Now God was not guilty of creating sin in the lives of the Babylonians, but He was using these sinful men to achieve His purposes. And so it became an evil against Judah.
CALLER: Oh, I see.