Apr 26 2010
Is God the author of evil?
Our simple answer to this question is no, God is not the author of evil. The Bible makes it very clear that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). The Bible also says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, ’I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire" (James 1:13-14). So we would say that there is no evil in God, and God cannot be the direct and immediate source of evil, because that would make him evil.
Our more complicated answer is that although God is not the direct and immediate source of evil, God does ordain everything that happens in this world, whether good or evil. That is, God is in charge of this world, and nothing happens if he doesn’t will it to happen. That is why God can also say, "I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things" (Isaiah 45:6-7). So evil will not happen if God does not choose for it to happen. Although Satan and wicked people are the direct source of evil, God rules over everything, and in this way, nothing evil happens unless God wills it to happen.
This can be confusing, and it may sound at first as if we are speaking out of both sides of our mouth. Maybe we can provide an illustration that can help you understand. Imagine a sun that was a living thing - a sun that had the ability to shoot out rays of light from itself, but also had the ability to the draw those rays of light back, so that the sun had the choice of where its light would be and where it wouldn’t be. Now we may ask, does this sun create darkness? And we will have to answer yes and no. The sun is the sun, and consists only of light. There is no darkness in it, rather darkness is the opposite of what the sun is. But when this sun chooses to withdraw or pull back its beams of light, in its wake darkness falls. The absence of light is filled with darkness. So in that way the sun has complete control over the darkness, but is itself not darkness nor the cause of darkness.
We hope that this illustration can help you to begin to grasp how God, who is light, can both preside over all things and at the same time not be the author of evil. This may be the best way we can explain God’s relationship to evil, but eventually we have to face the fact that our finite and corrupt minds cannot fully comprehend these things. So we believe God and God’s word when he says that he "works all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11) and yet is in no way evil.