Evil...from God?

1Sa 16:14 Now the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah troubled him.

I am simply a Christian seeking an answer for this question: How can something evil come from God who is perfect?

Another reference like this is made in Judges 9:23

Demons (fallen angels) simply do God's bidding.

1 Kings 22:19-23

Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”

There are couple of threads that touch on such subject.

Evil Spirits and Origin of Evil. Perhaps one of these threads may answer your query. Then again, maybe it's impossible to answer. I had the same trouble with grasping the concept of God being "good", and yet send "evil spirit" to do his bidding.

I think it's because we think God is good. And Evil is bad. Maybe there wouldn't need to be Evil if God didn't exist. On requires the existence of the other.
If God knows the begining from the end. Why did he create Satan knowing that Satan would be Evil (bad). Unless Evil wasn't such a bad thing after all. God created all.
God is not Good or Bad He simply is.

This is what he said to Moses. "I AM" nothing more and nothing less. Was god "evil" to the egyptians? Or Evil to the philistines?

Mystic-als said:

I think it's because we think God is good. And Evil is bad. Maybe there wouldn't need to be Evil if God didn't exist. On requires the existence of the other.
If God knows the begining from the end. Why did he create Satan knowing that Satan would be Evil (bad). Unless Evil wasn't such a bad thing after all. God created all.
God is not Good or Bad He simply is.

This is what he said to Moses. "I AM" nothing more and nothing less. Was god "evil" to the egyptians? Or Evil to the philistines?

Click to expand...

Nice answer; I think the base is that there must always be a 'return to nil' balance between Good and Evil, but I never thought of the "I AM" in this context. It actually clarifies something from my way of looking at things.

Mystic-als said:

I think it's because we think God is good. And Evil is bad. Maybe there wouldn't need to be Evil if God didn't exist. On requires the existence of the other.
If God knows the begining from the end. Why did he create Satan knowing that Satan would be Evil (bad). Unless Evil wasn't such a bad thing after all. God created all.
God is not Good or Bad He simply is.

This is what he said to Moses. "I AM" nothing more and nothing less. Was god "evil" to the egyptians? Or Evil to the philistines?

Click to expand...

Both of these concepts can be rejected if there is a good in itself.

Evil is a terrible thing, and we should work together against injustice, disease, and every other type of evil to make our lives better. How terrible it is to think that evil is constructive!

Mystic-al said:

God is not Good or Bad He simply is.

Click to expand...

Could be. Could be.

But the other possibility is that God is both good and evil.

After all, he has shown himself to be both creator and destroyer...if you were to believe in what the bible had to say about him.

This is what he said to Moses. "I AM" nothing more and nothing less. Was god "evil" to the egyptians? Or Evil to the philistines?

Click to expand...

Or to the Hebrews/Israelites?

He seemed to have punished Hebrews and Israelites as much as he do to the enemies of Israelites. Both individually and collectively.

If God is considered to be "ultimate being" then how could this being allow for the creation of anything that is not good? If such a concept stems from the divine, then the divine is not ultimate or all good. I suppose that "God" however you define or identify, could still be all good and such if everything else came into being but evil is simply the actions of humans.

Quote: "Mystic-als" "On requires the existence of the other."

In the book of Genesis, you will find that good did actually exist without evil. This is because evil is the perversion of good. Its not an opposite. Just like cold is the absence of heat not the opposite. -Albert Einstein (supposedly)

quote: gnostic "But the other possibility is that God is both good and evil.

After all, he has shown himself to be both creator and destroyer...if you were to believe in what the bible had to say about him."

As far as God annihilating people off the face of the earth, He is just, not evil.

Arrow said:

1Sa 16:14 Now the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah troubled him.

I am simply a Christian seeking an answer for this question: How can something evil come from God who is perfect?

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saul may have had a mental health problem and that was how they explained it thousands of years ago.

Arrow said:

1Sa 16:14 Now the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah troubled him.

I am simply a Christian seeking an answer for this question: How can something evil come from God who is perfect?

Click to expand...

This is where that Knowledge of Good and Evil steps in. We weren't supposed to know what is Good or Evil, for how are we to understand what God is doing? There is a story about a man who lost his horse, and the towns people said that was 'bad' but the horse came back with a herd of mares, and the townsmen thought that was 'good'. But while breaking the new horses, the man's son broke his leg, the townsmen thought that was 'bad' but the army came around a took all the able bodied young men, and the boy got out of going to war because he was crippled.

God knows what he's doing, and we have got to realize that whatever is done to us is for our benefit, regardles of wether we call it good or evil, it's still for our benefit.

EnhancedSpirit - I like this best. To answer some of the other coments.

Maybe God is Good and Evil. Maybe God is none. But he certainly has aspects of both. Thats why over and over the bible says "be still an know that I am God."
Is healing from God? Yes. Is murder from God?...Yes. Is Aids from God? Yes. But because it is fro him he should (and does) have the power to heal these things. Otherwise where is his Omnipotence.