Good and Evil

In a discussion with a friend the other day - a good Christian friend - I noted a lack of understanding for the word "sovereign" as we apply it descriptively to God as one of His attributes. (Sovereign is defined as having supreme rule. Note: a synonym is autonomous).

My friend in trying to come to grips with the concept of evil (the eternal problem in the mind's of men) he is confronted with the thought that God had either given Lucifer full and autonomous thought, and power, or God had created evil. My friend cannot wrap his mind around the idea of a loving God creating evil.

The problem of evil, as anathema to a righteous god, is a man-made categorical problem which has existed as long as men have existed. Evil is not a problem for God. It is part of His overall redemptive plan for his Universe and everything in it. We are the ones who have the problem as we struggle to understand with our limited capacity for thought.

Our human problem begins with this thought: God created an entity, Lucifer, who rebelled and became evil. Because he is imortal as an angel we think he was autonomous. He isn't and never was. Is 14:13, "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Clearly Lucifer's remarks are nothing more than wishful thinking because that didn't happen.  Omnipotent, autonomous, sovereign power has been reserved by the LORD God to Himself alone. (1 Ch 29:11)

I agree with Scripture and centuries of Church dogma, (Rev 19:6) God is sovereign/omnipotent therefore, Satan has only limited power and like us what he has is given him by God. He even had to ask permission to attack Job. (Job 1:11,12) Moreover, scripture tells us (Col 1:17) that it is God who keeps both Satan and his limited power in existence.

What that means at its most basic is that for reasons we may never know, God willed to create a universe in which evil would exist as part of His overall redemptive plan. Gen 3:9 tells us "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Bluntly, Scripture says God created evil. Jhn 1:3 explains it this way, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

This means God created a Universe in which His Holy plans will be carried to completion regardless of what we think about the category of evil. In the mind of God and in light of what He has revealed of His universal plan for redemption of His creation - the use to which God puts evil is good. Joseph told his brothers, "You meant it for evil but God meant it for good." (Gen 50:20)

Our problem as modern, sophisticated, "religious" people with limited abilities is that we loose sight of the universals; we can't see the forest because of all those trees. By that I mean rather than try to understand the categories -good and evil- the way Scripture tells us God uses them, we assign our own wishful thinking to them. Having done that for centuries we come up with nonsense statements such as "...a righteous loving God cannot create evil."

 

We have conscripted two attributes which belong to the universal that is God's redemptive plan and in our mind's we have separated them in such a way we view them as universals in themselves. They are not universals, they are just attributes of something else, just as bark and leaves are not the tree.

God's plan is good and for it too come to fruition it must have a tension or a counter-balance, that is how the universe is made. That tension is good vs. evil. Just as we cannot know light without its opposite dark, we cannot know good without evil. We loose sight of the fact that in the Garden of Eden just after God had pronounced everything "very good," evil was already present in the form of the Serpent. We like to think about the "very good" but never stop to ask how the Serpent came to be in the neighborhood.  

Do we understand why God made the universe to operate in this manner? Of course not, we are not God. We only have a limited knowledge about God's plan of good and evil because Eve disobeyed God in the Garden and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:9)

So as my friend wrestles with the idea that God has created what Christians abhor - evil, I can only suggest that we should carefully think about, examine, test, reason through, pray about, and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance as we tackle the really tough issues God has left us to deal with. Evil is one of those issues. God made it,, named it, and it exists. In God's mind and plan he has categorized it as good because it is used by Him for His good purposes. (Gen 50:20). We must learn to deal Scripturally with this tension and not with our cliches and slogans.

Jos 23:15 Therefore it shall come to pass, [that] as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Still the constant question is how could a Holy God allow evil to exist? Perhaps we will get to ask Him someday, but in the interim we must accept that He does what His will demands. Judges 9:23 is very explicit that if it is part of God's plan He uses evil - "Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:"

Christ has given us our hope. He died so that we might live. Thus we know that someday, regardless how much we distort the concepts in Scripture Christ will make us alive with Him as part of His Church or Bride. When that day arrives there will be no more evil. (Rev 21:4).

If we deny God's sovereignty over absolutely everything, we are in fact denying God Himself. There is no middle ground on this issue. God is either keeping me in existence, making my synapeses fire as I type, or He isn't. If He isn't there is no such thing as god.

So, although we are maudlin about the idea that a loving God can't use evil because somehow we have gotten the mistaken notion that He is like us and dislikes bad stuff it is emminently clear God created evil, told us about it via the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and uses it for His purposes when He wills it to be necessary.

In the interim some heavy-duty thinking using the brains that God gave us helps a lot. Wishful thinking and sentimental nonsense about who our God is helps no one. God is God and He is sovereign over all that He has made.