Where did evil come from?

What made the first created people decide to disobey God? What about the angels who were created to serve God but rebelled against Him? Where did evil come from? Fortner attempts to answer that question in today’s devotional yet his answer seems to fall short. It seems true that God was not surprised by evil, but to say that God ordained makes me think we are puppets.

Would an Internet search provide the answer? I took seven hits and found these results:

1. Unlike God and the angels, we have no power to resist evil and will always yield to its attraction. This fits the biblical descriptions of fallen humanity, but it was not true of Adam and Eve before the Fall. Sin entered the world then, not before they sinned. It suggests God created them with a propensity to sin, but they were made in His image so that isn’t right either.
2. God created evil. This page quotes Isaiah 45:7 as saying: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." However, this is a misinterpretation of the word “evil” which actually means “calamity” and usually refers to events resulting in loss or misfortune. Yet God can use calamity for His good purposes. We might call them ‘evil’ but biblically, evil is totally destructive and anti-God. This website also says that evil originated with Satan, and asks why God didn’t nip it in the bud by destroying Satan. However, that does not explain where the devil got the evil idea to rebel against God.
3. God created humans with the power to choose so there was always the possibility that we would choose to do evil. This seems closer to a good answer. Alvin Plantinga says, "To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, (God) must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can't give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom; this is the source of moral evil." In other words, evil happened not through nature or nurture, but choices.
4. Evil is the absence of what should be. God said His creation was ‘good’ and His intention was that we love Him and one another. However, love involves making a choice (otherwise we are robots). The opposite of choosing love is evil and it must exist if love is to exist. This short video explains better than my short paragraph. 
5. God created the ability to choose, from another short video that sounds almost like a pat answer. It focuses our God-given capacity to make choices and says Adam and Eve exercised that freedom and made a wrong choice. By doing this, sin entered the world. Yet the rebellion already existed for the angel Lucifer — who was also allowed to choose, and he decided he wanted to be god, to usurp his Creator. So evil in humanity is the fault of a wrong choice, and before that happened, evil came into the world because of another wrong choice. (Dr. Woodrow Kroll)
6. God allows evil for a time to test us. The sixth page is a cult definition, similar to those above but shallow. It falls short in explaining where evil comes from and has a non-biblical idea of redemption. However, it does show that all ‘religions’ struggle with this question about evil.
7. Evil evolved. The last page takes the idea that evil gradually evolved because of human fear and jealousy. The author does not believe the Bible is the Word of God, and his ideas are fanciful but without substance or based on any authority but his own ideas.

Reading these helped me understand the diversity of opinions. Some of them took verses out of context to explain their point of view and that is always unwise. Others did not consider the entire biblical message, also unwise. I landed on #4 and #5 as ringing true to the purposes of God. We cannot fully grasp this and other inaccessible answers because we do not have a full capacity to understand God. One thing is certain:

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I know that You can stop sin. You did that with a pagan king (Genesis 20:6) and have done it many times for me. Yet You did not create robots. We are people with the ability to choose. Sin messes us up, even that ability to choose is messed up. However, redemption through faith in You restores our God-given faculties. Without You, I cannot do anything good, but with You I can obey You. Evil does not have to win — because You defeated it on the Cross.

Nature? Nurture? Choices?

Psychologists and the wise of this world debate whether nature or nurture has the most influence on the outcome of a person’s life. Christians know that both have influence, but would put ‘choices’ above either one. Why else do children in the same family differ, even to extremes? Each grew up with similar genetic makeup and environment, yet one may become a drunk and the other a doctor.

However, when it comes to spiritual matters, a fourth option enters the equation. Nature is dismissed. The Bible is clear, by nature, no one in interested in God or in serving and praising Him. Romans 3:10–12 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Because we have a sin nature, we turn from God and are not able to choose anything but our own way, including how we wish to think about Him.

Nurture, or the environment in which we grew up, can vary but I’ve known godly parents whose children serve the Lord and godly parents whose children are like the above verses. We can do our very best, yet must remember God was a perfect Father to Adam and Eve and they still fell into sin.

When I think of that third option, choices, verses come to mind like “Choose this day whom you will serve” yet almost all that speak of my choices are in the Old Testament. The New Testament offers dozens more that put choice strictly into the hands of God. Because by nature I would not choose Him, and because by nurture my options are iffy at best, God turned my destiny around by choosing me. 

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)

Of all the references to God’s choice that changed my destiny, I am drawn to this one. It does nothing for my ego and everything for my joy. No reason here to pat myself on the back, but plenty of reason to praise God.

Spurgeon’s devotional today is about praise. He writes of its value to our spiritual lives, yet when I read this verse, I noticed one word, “will.”

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1–2)

This word, used four times, shows that praise is a choice. However, It does not flow from my old nature for that dead and wretched thing does not understand or seek God. If does not come from my nurture either, for praise to God was a rare commodity in our home while growing up. Even if I could choose based on an example set by my parents, my nature would not allow it. For praise to happen, to be a choice on my part, God had to change me. That process began when He put me in Christ Jesus. Because of that . . . 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Regardless of what is happening in my life, and even regardless on my emotional state on any given day, the fact of being a new creation does not go away. Because of what God has done in me, I have the capacity to praise Him. I can praise Him for the good things, and the not so good. I can praise Him when I feel like it, but even when under the pressure of negative feelings. This and other choices are possible because He put me in Christ and Christ in me. I have a new nature. He also nurtures my heart with truth from His Word, renewing my mind, changing how I think and choose. Because of Jesus, I can choose to obey and to praise God. 

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Father, You are worthy of all praise. Imperfect as it is, I offer it to You. Yet even in praising You, I also marvel — for when I praise You, You give back to me. As I lift You up, You lift my burdens. You increase my faith and stir up hope in me. I am recharged to serve You. Not only that, when I praise You, others are blessed. The humble hear and are glad. Weak hearts are strengthened and those who struggle are encouraged. We praise you together and you bless us because of it. Your Word even says that You inhabit the praises of Your people! Praise draws us nearer to You and in Your presence there is great joy.

I’m thankful for Jesus. Because of Him, I can magnify You and because of Him, all praise becomes songs of deliverance for me and for Your people. Praise Your holy name!