Why Did God Create Evil?
Understanding God - Part 1
We may wonder, “Why did God Create evil?” But a better question might be, “Where did evil come from?”
Did evil come from God? If it didn’t, where did evil come from?
We can see clearly that evil exists. It seems to exist all around us. But when we carefully read the Bible, we will never find any passages telling us that God created evil. God created the heavens and the earth, and everything that lives and breathes, but God never created evil.
So, if God never created evil, where does evil come from?
God is good. He is only good and there is no evil in Him. He is perfect goodness personified.
“Only God is truly good.”—Mark 10:18 (NLT)
There is no evil in Him. He cannot do evil, and so He did not create evil.
God is also Light. There is no darkness in Him. He did not create darkness, but darkness exists.
If we find out where darkness comes from, it may help us to understand where evil comes from.
God is Light
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”—1 John 1:5 (ESV)
On the first day of creation, God—Who is Light—created natural light that is still with us today.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good”—Genesis 1:3-4 (KJV)
But the Bible also tells us that before light was created, darkness already existed.
“And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”—Genesis 1:2 (NASB)
It seems that God never created darkness. Darkness is simply a condition that exists wherever there is an absence of light.
Photographers create this condition when they build a darkroom in which to develop their photographs. They try to make the room totally dark by removing every light source and sealing the gaps in the doors so that no light can enter.
We can bring light into a room, but we cannot bring darkness into a room. In order to make a room dark, we simply remove the light.
Light as Color
We see this contrast between light and darkness when light is seen in the color spectrum.
White is a color that is produced when all colors are blended together. When all colors are blended together in perfect proportion, they produce pure white.
When we see a rainbow, we are seeing the colors that compose pure white light being separated out, or refracted. We can also do this ourselves by holding a prism up to the sunlight.
God is light.
There is even a rainbow around God in Heaven (Revelation 4:3; Ezekiel 1:28).
In showing us the full color spectrum of the rainbow, God is showing us one form of Who He is. He is light. He is pure white light, which includes all of the colors of the spectrum.
In Isaiah, God reveals to us His seven Spirits:
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
—Isaiah 11:1-2 (NKJV)
Each of these seven Spirits of God correspond to one of the main colors of the rainbow.
Red = Wisdom
Orange = Counsel
Yellow = Knowledge
Green = Spirit of the Lord
Blue = Fear of the Lord
Indigo = Might
Violet = Understanding
But if pure white light is the presence of all colors. What is black?
In the light spectrum, there is no black color.
Black is not a color.
Black only appears in the absence of all colors.
In that way, black is like darkness. It is not something that was created as a substance. It is simply a condition that exists in the absence of all colors.
Darkness is the natural result of removing all light. Darkness is the absence of light.
Darkness is the Absence of Light
Knowing that God is Light, the Bible describes Jesus’ coming to earth in this way:
“The people living in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land and shadow of death, a light has risen.”—Matthew 4:16 (ISV)
When Jesus came to earth, He brought perfect Truth. He brought perfect Life. He brought perfect Light to people who had been living in spiritual darkness without this Light.
When God is with us, we have perfect Light, and we can walk in that Light.
This helps to explain what Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light within you has turned into darkness, how great is that darkness!”—Matthew 6:22-23 (ISV)
Here, Jesus links evil with darkness.
Just as darkness occurs naturally whenever light is absent, evil is the natural result whenever God is rejected.
Evil is the Natural Result When God is Rejected
God never created evil. Evil is simply the naturally occurring result whenever God and His Truth are rejected.
God alone is good. He is perfect goodness. When God is rejected, evil fills the void that is left.
This is illustrated perfectly in the story of Cain.
When Cain became angry with his brother Abel, God warned Cain that he was at a critical point of decision. God encouraged him to choose the good path and warned him about the consequences of making the wrong choice and rejecting God’s instructions.
“So Cain became extremely angry (indignant), and he looked annoyed and hostile. And the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed? If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it.”—Genesis 4:5-7 (AMP)
When Cain rejected God’s instructions, evil rushed in to fill the void that was left. Evil filled Cain’s thoughts. Those thoughts then fed his emotions and Cain then became determined to carry out the evil ideas that had entered his heart. Cain killed his brother, becoming the first murderer in a world where murder had never existed before.
The murder of Abel was the result of Cain rejecting God and His instructions. When that happened, evil that had never been experienced before rushed in to fill the void that was left.
Evil is the naturally occurring result whenever God’s Truth is rejected.
Every sin is rooted in a lie.
My friend Jamie Lash said that every willful sin is the result of convincing ourselves that there is something good for us apart from God.
Beginning with Eve in the Garden of Eden, every willful sin has been the result of believing a lie. In order to sin willfully, we must first reject the Truth of God.
It is impossible to sin willfully if we fully accept and believe the Truth of God.
The Berlin Declaration of 1909
In the months and years following the powerful moves of God during the Welsh Revival and Azusa Street Revival, the same powerful move of the Holy Spirit spread to Germany, beginning in the city of Kassel.
In response, many of the established religious leaders of Germany rejected this move of the Holy Spirit. These leaders detailed their rejection of the Holy Spirit’s move in a document known as the Berlin Declaration of 1909. In this document, they actually declared that this Pentecostal movement was “not from above, but from below.”
In doing this, the German religious leaders echoed the Jewish scribes who accused Jesus of operating under the influence of Satan. In response to them, Jesus said this:
“I assure you and most solemnly say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and all the abusive and blasphemous things they say; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit and His power [by attributing the miracles done by Me to Satan] never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin [a sin which is unforgivable in this present age as well as in the age to come]”— [Jesus said this] because the scribes and Pharisees were [attributing His miracles to Satan by] saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”—Mark 3:28-30 (AMP)
Just a few short years after this Declaration was signed by the religious leaders of Germany, Adolph Hitler came to power with the Nazi party, and millions of people were slaughtered in World War II and the Holocaust.
Evil is the naturally occurring result whenever God and His Truth are rejected.
When the religious leaders of Germany rejected the move of the Holy Spirit, evil rushed in to fill the void that was left.
Restraining the Antichrist
We are told in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that there is a force in the earth now that is restraining the Antichrist. When that force for good is removed, then the Antichrist will be revealed and unleashed onto the world.
“And you know what restrains him now [from being revealed]; it is so that he will be revealed at his own [appointed] time. For the mystery of lawlessness [rebellion against divine authority and the coming reign of lawlessness] is already at work; [but it is restrained] only until he who now restrains it is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one [the Antichrist] will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by the appearance of His coming.”—2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 (AMP)
In the last few years of this age, God’s force for good will be removed, or “taken out of the way.” That is all that will be needed for evil to fill the void that is left. Then the darkest evil will fill the earth.
And as we keep reading in this passage, we see that the forces of darkness will reign though deception because every willful sin is the result of first believing a lie. It is impossible to commit willful sin or to knowingly do evil without believing a lie.
“The coming of the [Antichrist, the lawless] one is through the activity of Satan, [attended] with great power [all kinds of counterfeit miracles] and [deceptive] signs and false wonders [all of them lies], and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all the deception of wickedness for those who are perishing”—2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (AMP)
Finally, in verse 10, we see the root cause of the evil that will lead so many people down the paths of destruction.
“because they did not welcome the love of the truth [of the gospel] so as to be saved [they were spiritually blind, and rejected the truth that would have saved them].”—2 Thessalonians 2:10 (AMP)
God did not create evil, but he did create all of us with free will. We have complete freedom to choose our paths in life.
When God and His Truth are rejected through our choices, then evil rushes in to fill that void, bringing with it the destructive consequences of rejecting God’s Truth.
“For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie. Then all who have not believed the truth but have taken pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.”—2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (ISV)
Choose the Good!
God does not lead us into temptation. God is only good. It is not possible for God to do evil. God does not lead us into evil, but He gives us complete freedom to make our choices in life. Whichever path we choose, God allows us to pursue and experience the desires of our hearts.
“I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live”—Deuteronomy 30:19 (AMPC)
“Dear friend, don’t be like those who do evil. Be like those who do good. Anyone who does what is good belongs to God. Anyone who does what is evil hasn’t really seen or known God.”—3 John 11 (NIRV)
“Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!”—Psalm 14:1 (NLT)
“But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God; I have made the Lord God my refuge and placed my trust in Him, That I may tell of all Your works.”—Psalm 73:28 (AMP)
When we come into agreement and alignment with God and His instructions, we come into perfect harmony with the unalterable laws of the universe.
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.”—Psalm 143:10 (NLT)
“Carefully obey all the commands that I give you. When you do what is good and right—what pleases the Lord your God—then everything will go well for you and for your descendants forever.”—Deuteronomy 12:28 (ERV)
References:
Color Matters. (2026). Are black & white colors? https://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/are-black-and-white-colors
Creeds and Confessions. (n.d.). Berlin Declaration. Creeds and Confessions. https://creedsandconfessions.org/berlin-declaration.html
