If God created everything where did evil come from? How could an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful God create evil? Why would an all-powerful, loving God allow evil to continue to exist? The problem of evil is one of those topics that is among the hardest to answer for a Christian apologist. This is an issue that has been debated for centuries and will continue to be debated until the end of time.

The argument goes like this:

• God created everything that exists
• Evil exists
• Therefore God created evil

The argument continues by pointing out that if God were all-powerful He could end evil any time He wanted to, and if God were good He would want to end evil right now. Therefore God is either all-powerful and not good, or he is good and not all-powerful.

On the surface the logic seems sound. The premise that God created everything is true and the fact that evil exists is true, but then the logic breaks down because it does not include the human factor in the equation.

God created mankind with potentialities. People have the potentiality to love or hate, do right or wrong, or to be good or evil, and the list goes on. We call these potentialities free-will but from this point on I prefer to use the term “freedom.”

The potentiality for evil exists in all people, but it does not exist on its own. Evil is not a tangible “thing” to be created but a choice to be made. God also created Satan with these same potentialities, but God did not create Satan evil. Satan was not evil until he used his freedom to rebel against God. And now he uses that freedom to entice people into evil, but without free people evil would not have a conduit to existence. Satan’s plan could not be carried out without willing participants.

Why would God create mankind with the potential to commit evil? Because He loved us enough to set us free. There are three great gifts given to us by God and they are life, freedom, and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In order to have freedom we have to have the ability to choose to do the wrong thing, we cannot have one without the other.

God wanted people to use that freedom to choose to love and worship Him. Without freedom there can be no love, for coerced or forced love is not love at all, in fact it is hateful. It would be like being in an abusive relationship, “loving” a person because you are afraid not to. What type of God would create a population of slaves or pets to be used for His own amusement? That wouldn’t be a loving God.

God gave us the freedom to love him and we used that freedom to rebel against Him. He gave this freedom to us even though he knew we might would use it to turn away from Him, and that’s what we did. If anybody “creates” evil it is us every time we choose to disobey His laws. Satan whispered into Eve’s ear but it was her choice to eat the fruit, Eve told Adam and Adam also chose to eat the fruit. They chose to “create” evil by disobeying God.

But where does the very idea of good and evil come from in the first place? How do we know right from wrong? It was written on our hearts and on our souls by God. God gave us a conscience to know right from wrong, good from evil, and yet we do what we know is wrong.¹ And we want to turn around and blame evil on God? Even Adam tried to blame God for his sin:

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12 (emphasis mine)

So this concept of blaming God for our actions has been with us from the beginning. Adam did it, and people still do it today and that’s why we are having this debate right now, it is all about blaming God for man’s failings.

In God’s great love for us He gave us freedom, but with that freedom came responsibility, and with responsibility came failure.

As for the question of why God doesn’t end evil right now if He is all-powerful? We only know that His ways are higher than ours.² I admit that is not a very satisfying answer, but God is so much bigger than we are.

We see things from a linear perspective and from our own point of view. We see where we have been, where we are headed, and where we want to go. But God doesn’t see things from a linear perspective as we do because God is outside time. He is above it all and around it all, He encompasses it all, He sees everything and He knows everything. He sees the whole picture while we are caught in a moment in time.

We can rest assured that while we cannot see it, and we cannot understand it, and we cannot explain it, that if our good God sees evil and does not stop it then there must be a good reason for allowing it to continue. Again, this is not a very satisfying answer but we have to have faith that God is working toward the good.³

It’s not that God doesn’t want to end evil, it is just that the time isn’t right. But the day is coming when there will be judgement. God will end evil, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth⁴ for those who commit evil, and we won’t be able to blame God for our actions because as C.S. Lewis said:

“I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.” How could a loving God send sinners to hell? He doesn’t. They volunteer.⁵

But as for God’s elect in the New Jerusalem, “its gates will never be shut by day.”⁶ Evil will be destroyed, there will be no more tears, death, mourning, or pain.⁷ We have these promises…⁸

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1. See Romans 7:15-20 ↩︎
2. Isaiah 55:9 ↩︎
3. Romans 8:28 ↩︎
4. Luke 13:28 ↩︎
5. The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis ↩︎
6. Revelation 21:25 ↩︎
7. Paraphrase of Revelation 21:4 ↩︎
8. 2 Corinthians 7:1 ↩︎