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We can say that "God sent this evil to me", only if we understand that God does not make evil.
God can have nothing to do with evil...
God can not be part evil.
There is nothing of God that is evil.
However there are things that are very very bad for us that God is behind and some of these things are mistranslated as the word 'evil" in the king James..
Going to jail because I was in a car drunk is a very bad thing...
It is 'evil" in that it is a nasty bad thing to have to have happen...
But as God can not be blamed for EVER making evil I cant blame God for creating a moral evil...but I can credit him for being the cause of much calamity.
Biblical School of World Evangelism - Does God Create Evil (http://www.bswe.org/content/view/301/1/ - broken link)
If you want to know what stuff God made and can be blamed for making, look at the story of creation in Genesis.
There we have all that God has made.
Is it called good or evil?
The Bible calls all that God made 'good'....everything!
Yet in the story of Genesis we see clearly that there is already evil.
How can this be?
If God made all things, and there is evil, does this not mean that God also made evil?
the answer is "no"
The answer is found in the fact that evil is not a thing...like a bird or a fish.
Birds and fish are creations of God
Evil is a perversion of something that was good.
There is evil in the story of Genesis because God made humans with free will, and that means that we are made with the potential for doing evil.
So to review.
The verses where the KJV says that God made evil, are to be understood as meaning "trouble and calamity"
The trouble that god may bring into a person's life might be huge!
But it would be an error to call it by the same term as a moral evil.
But it would be an error to call it by the same term as a moral evil.
None of the verses I quoted say God created moral evil, but they do say God "raised up", "moved", "hardened his heart so that", "put in their hearts to" do things that were against God's will which makes those things sin or moral evil. So I will believe that God did so. In each case there was someone besides God making the choice to do those things.
Everything God does is good. God moved David to number Israel. So God moving him was good. Yet David numbering Israel was evil. How can the mover be good while the moved be evil? Is that a contradcition? No. First, it does not say that God took over David's body and forced him to do anything. It says "moved". My wife can "move" me but I still choose. Second, what was in God's heart, His intention, His purpose in doing so was not the same as David's heart and intention.
Similarly, in Job, God's intention for Job was miles apart from Satan's intention. Satan hurting Job was evil. God putting Job in Satan's hand to try his faith was good.
Last edited by Thy Kingdom Come; 08-28-2009 at 07:13 AM..
God cant do evil
God cant make evil
God can not even tempt us to do evil...
But many things God can do, and many things God can make can also be seen as trouble and calamity to the people they effect.
As such, and really only as such, they are so-called "evil"
But they are not evil in moral character.
They are just messy...
Look it up in the STRONGS....
There you will see that there are two old words that we see translated as Evil.
One word means a real moral evil
The other word, (The word in your verse) means "calamity".
In other words...
The Lost go to hell.
Going to hell is a "bad thing"
Bad things are "evil"
I didnt come up with the idea for Hell.
Hell (as far as I know) is a very bad place.
Bad places are evil.
Do you see how you can string things along and get to "evil"?
The truth is that God does judge us, and some of God's judgments do cause a calamity.
From a human point of view, such calamity as going to Hell are evil.
But in God's eyes that are just, appropriate, and good.
Remember "evil" is not a thing
(see this GOOGLED article: Did God Create Evil - Does the Bible Say So? it has a good review of this question of evil)
God did not create evil...you can look all over the Book of genesis at all the things that god made and not one was termed 'evil'
This is because 'evil" is a not 'thing"
It was never made, rather Evil is a perversion of something that was good.
Now, go back and read the verse you quoted again, and notice it in a fuller context. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7, KJV)
Light....darkness , the two terms are connected.
The oppsite of light is darkness.
Peace...evil?...the two terms do not connect with each other??????
However the term the STRONGS points us to "calamity" does connect with "peace"
because the opposite of peacefulness is such calamity
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The same word "evil" is Strongs 7451 in both of those verses:
H7451
רעה רע
ra‛ râ‛âh
rah, raw-aw'
From H7489; bad or (as noun) evil (naturally or morally). This includes the second (feminine) form; as adjective or noun: - adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (-ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief, (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, + not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong. [Including feminine ra’ah; as adjective or noun.]
Co-Savior Theology is the term I used to describe any doctrine whereby someone believes that in order to be saved it requires your own choice to accept Jesus Christ as savior.
This is a theology that is contrary to God's Word. Is your theology - co-savior theology?
Paul
My view...
If there is no way I can do something, there is no point in asking me to.
There is no point in asking me to flap my arms and fly like a bird...because I cant do that.
However , You can ask me to move my leg, because I can.
You can ask me to drive over to your house, because I can.
In the same way, the Bible again and again asks men to repent and to turn to Christ and find salvation.
The Bible asks us to believe, because we can do that.
The bible does not ask us to do things we cant do...
When Jesus went up to a guy and said "Follow me", the person could do that.
Jesus never asked anyone to do something that beyond their ability in order to be a believer.
Jesus never asked anyone to do something that beyond their ability in order to be a believer.
How do you know that?
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