God created Evil

[(Q)]

God inspired them. Righteous inspired them. this divine spirit that connects us all, inspired them to see how wrong life was and how it needs to be rightened.

So, these men were inspired by a god to 'right the wrongs' in a world created by a god?

Here are a few quotes from Martin Luther, which were also inspired by god:

"A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted solely through the malice of the demon. And one must in no wise doubt that plagues, fevers and every sort of evil come from him."

"An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects."

"As to the common people, ... one has to be hard with them and see that they do their work and that under the threat of the sword and the law they comply with the observance of piety, just as you chain up wild beasts."

 

[iwilliam]

So you are saying that we are our own gods

 

[Surrealgurl]

How about this Bible verse...

Isaiah 45:7 - I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Actually. given the context, it should probably be translated as 'conflict' or 'calamity'.

 

[Surrealgurl]

You're probably right Deut. 32:8. I guess one needs to know ancient Hebrew language in order to be able to interpret the bible properly.

 

[Surrealgurl]

And perhaps Aramaic and Greek also...

 

[Ceridwen018]

Even if it is 'conflict' and 'calamity', the argument stays the same I think.

 

[Truth101]

Genesis 2


To me, this states that God gave "discernment" of good and evil but not actually good and evil. It implies that good and evil preceded God. If that is true, then it also indicates that eternal life was "passed along" by God, therefore eternal life preceded God as well.

-pah-

Agreed in part!
The scripture says that He placed a tree OF KNOWLEDGE of good and evil, not a tree that WAS good and evil. Big difference yes. As for your assumption that evil and eternal life preceded God I am lost as to how you figure this from this passage or any for that matter. God always had the knowledge of good and evil and that knowledge was passed THROUGH THE TREE, NOT THROUGH God. Therefore preexistant from God being passed THROUGH God is not what is being applied here. And eternal life is not mentioned here at all. Infact Adam and Eve were warned that they would certainly DIE if they took part in that tree. Eternal life was offered THROUGH God, but from God, THROUGH the tree of life in which case Adam and Eve took no part of. When they failed to eat of the tree of life, we were then given the cross (tree) to recieve life from it.

God Bless, Dave

 

[Truth101]

Actually. given the context, it should probably be translated as 'conflict' or 'calamity'.

Ive heard this view a million times. If calamity and conflict are not evil they must be good. See how this sounds. Theres no way around the fact that God is the creator of all things. I have heard in this thread that evil and darkness are not things and therefore they are not created, well calamity and conflict are no more things than darkness and evil infact they are one and the same yet we are told in scripture that they are created. Evil is the proper translation for this context. If you look it up the word "Ra" is used and is always used when describing evil. It is the same word in Genesis "tree of knowledge of good and EVIL(Ra). So are you saying it should really be the tree of knowledge of good and calamity? Or good and conflict? Again, see how this sounds?

God bless, Dave

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Ive heard this view a million times. If calamity and conflict are not evil they must be good.

First, you've resurrected a thread from August of 2004. Secondly, your statement is nonsense. "Evil" is a judgement: there is nothing inherently good or evil about, for example, natural disaster and predation.

 

[Mystic-als]

Inhearent evil is a myth. It does not exist. You can quote all the scriptures you like.
I know and you should that just about anything can be "proved" useing scripture. And when you do people say "lets look at the Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic." Get real.
Who, out of the millions of people who read the bible, does that. Maybe a few hundred or thousand?

 

[sojourner]

This particular concept has come up in other threads, and has been bugging me for awhile. I say that if god created everything, then he created evil as well. Even if evil entered the world through somthing else, such as Satan or Adam and Eve, god is still the one who created the concept of evil and created the ability to perform evil within his creations. He also allowed evil to be performed.

What do you think about this? Is it possible that god DIDN't create evil?

Evil is not part of God's creation. When God had finished, God looked at what God had created and proclaimed it "good." Evil is not a created thing. it is not defined positively (by what it is), but negatively, by what it is not: Evil is the absence of good.

Evil is not necessarily defined by its performance. One does evil only if one is not doing good.

 

[sojourner]

Genesis 2


To me, this states that God gave "discernment" of good and evil but not actually good and evil. It implies that good and evil preceded God. If that is true, then it also indicates that eternal life was "passed along" by God, therefore eternal life preceded God as well.

-pah-

God (and God's creation) are defined as "good." Humanity was designed to know God -- to know "good." What was forbidden to humanity was to know how to divide God's good creation into good and evil. Which we did on our own account.

God didn't create good and evil. Good is the property of God's creation. Evil is what we created when we turned from God.

 

[sojourner]

I would like to ask you Pah did God create the devil? If so then he created evil according to the Bible and Quaran

If you remember, Satan was not inherently evil. Satan chose (like humanity) to turn away from God.

 

[sojourner]

Good and evil are human concepts, it's all the same to that which we call "God".

Good is the property of God's creation. Evil is the turning from the true nature of the creation.

 

[sojourner]

good and evil exist as thougths and actions and words. thats it. no person or thing is evil or good. only what we do can be considered by society's standard for morality as good or evil. its all a matter of opinion, really. look at osama. most people think his actions are evil, but there are people who hero worship him, because they think he fought for them.

That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God's creation is inherently good.

We humans have a limited capacity to understand the quality of good, just as we have a limited capacity to understand God.

 

[sojourner]

dan,

Did Lucifer create the concept of evil? Because rebelling brought evil into existence, and because god created the concept of rebelling, GOD CREATED EVIL. Either that, or Lucifer created it all by himself, and therefore has 'creation' powers just like god. Maybe we should all worship Lucifer.

God didn't create the concept of rebelion. Humanity did. Part of the space that must be allowed in order for us to choose to love.

 

[sojourner]

God is eternal, He has no beginning and has no end. Truths are also eternal God did not create them they have always existed. there must be opposition in all things, good can not exist withought bad, because good is the lack of bad, if there is no bad to lack, there can be no good for all things would be compound in one. Hence evil is also eternal as is truth and God. So God did not creat good, he did not creat evil, but God is good because He has no evil. He did not create bad on this world. He created a world where we could dwell where evil and good both had the possibility of existing, He also created people who could choose to be good or evil, evil is brought about when someone chooses it as opposed to good. withought both good and evil there is no choice, because again all things would be compound in one.So God has taught us what is good, that is why He gave us the prophets and kept their writings in sacred books of scripture, so that we could, by being faced with opportunities to choose, learn by are own experience to distinguish between good and evil. We get to decide if evil or good will exist in us, God just created a way for us to have that choice

This theology is inconsistent with the Bible.
In fact, good did exist without evil, until humanity fell. Good is not the absence of evil. Good is the nature of creation.

Without love there is no choice.

This sounds a whole lot like predestination.

We get to decide if we will love God or not.

 

[sojourner]

So, good things only happen because "God" intervenes?

And when good things happen that is proof that "God" exists?

I found $5 in my pocket, that's a good thing, but it doesn't change my views about "God".

Good things only happen because God acts.

 

[sojourner]

So, do people have to devote themselves to or be inspired by "God" in order to do good things?

People can only choose good by acting in accordance with God.