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GotQuestions.org is tremendously excited to announce the launch of our site for teens - www.412teens.org! Please spread the word and let us know what you think! Question: "Did God create evil?" Answer: At first it might seem that if God created all things, then evil must have been created by God. However, evil is not a “thing” like a rock or electricity. You cannot have a jar of evil. Evil has no existence of its own; it is really the absence of good. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be separated from the dirt. So when God created, it is true that all He created was good. One of the good things God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So, God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or reject good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a “thing” that required God to create it. Perhaps a further illustration will help. If a person is asked, “Does cold exist?” the answer would likely be “yes.” However, this is incorrect. Cold does not exist. Cold is the absence of heat. Similarly, darkness does not exist; it is the absence of light. Evil is the absence of good, or better, evil is the absence of God. God did not have to create evil, but rather only allow for the absence of good. God did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want “robots” that simply did what He wanted them to do because of their “programming.” God allowed for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him. As finite human beings, we can never fully understand an infinite God (Romans 11:33-34). Sometimes we think we understand why God is doing something, only to find out later that it was for a different purpose than we originally thought. God looks at things from a holy, eternal perspective. We look at things from a sinful, earthly, and temporal perspective. Why did God put man on earth knowing that Adam and Eve would sin and therefore bring evil, death, and suffering on all mankind? Why didn’t He just create us all and leave us in heaven where we would be perfect and without suffering? These questions cannot be adequately answered this side of eternity. What we can know is whatever God does is holy and perfect and ultimately will glorify Him. God allowed for the possibility of evil in order to give us a true choice in regards to whether we worship Him. God did not create evil, but He allowed it. If He had not allowed evil, we would be worshipping Him out of obligation, not by a choice of our own will. Recommended Resource: If God, Why Evil?: A New Way to Think about the Question by Norman Geisler. What's new on GotQuestions.org? What does it mean not to give the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22)? Are we living in the end times? What are the laws of thermodynamics and how do they provide evidence for creationism? What are the names of angels in the Bible? What does Paul mean when he writes of the natural man? What does it mean to lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6)? How can I believe in the goodness of God when there is so much evil in the world? What does the Bible say about the possibility of Bigfoot/Sasquatch? How interested are Christians supposed to be in the spirit world? What is the origin of Christmas? How did Jesus interact with children? What does it mean to give a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15)? Why should I get married? What is hyssop? What was hyssop used for in the Bible? Does the Bible mention the lost city of Atlantis? Is there any evidence for Atlantis? What is the Passover Lamb? How is Jesus our Passover Lamb? What roles can women fill in ministry? What is Taizé worship, and is it biblical? GotQuestions.org seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by providing biblical answers to spiritually-related questions. To continue in this mission, we need your support! For more information, please visit our Support Page We apologize, but with over 205,000 QOTW subscribers, we simply cannot handle email replies to our QOTW. If you have a question about the QOTW, please submit it on our website. Thank you. :