Where did evil originate?

Question

Where did evil originate?

Answer

This question is asked quite often by persons who say blasphemously that as God is the creator of all things He must in the first place have created evil. To back this up they might quote such verses as Isaiah 45. 7, ‘I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things’. However, this verse is in the context of God’s sovereignty in judging Israel by sending Gentile nations against them, and in the sense that He made sorrow, wretchedness, etc., to be the sure fruits of sin.

The origin of evil can be traced to Satan’s rebellion. In Ezekiel 28. 11-15, the Lord speaks to the King of Tyre, but quite clearly the words are addressed to the power behind the king, Satan himself. ‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee’, Ezek. 28. 12-15.

These verses tell us that Satan had still not fallen until after the garden of Eden came into existence, that he was apparently the highest created being and yet at some point iniquity was found in him. The possible explanation is found in Isaiah 14. 12-15, (again it is addressed to the power behind an earthly king), ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 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: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit’.

Satan tried to take the throne of God in pride and covetousness against His creator. The effect of this was the outbreak of evil in the universe. Thank God that He had anticipated this with the plan of salvation through the sacrificial death of Christ and that for all those that trust Him by faith there is made available for all eternity the certainty of the complete removal and annulling of evil and it’s effects.

Thank God that He had anticipated the choice of Satan and men with the plan of salvation through the sacrificial death of Christ and that for all those who trust Him by faith there is made available for all eternity the certainty of the complete removal and annulling of evil and its effects. It has been said that every twist of the serpent’s tail merely serves the purposes of God. In the beginning there was a man and a woman in innocency. Evil came in but God will in the end have a man and woman – Christ and His bride on a much higher plane, in heaven itself – completely free from the presence and power of sin and evil.