by Isaac Fineman
written Tuesday, July 25, 2006 from my Blog entitled “Declaring His Glory”

According to a recent editorial in The Greenville News (www.GreenvilleOnline.com) titled “God Created Evil As Well As The Good,” the author responds to an editorial from the previous week where the statement was made that one should “not just read parts of the Bible, but read it all.” It was clearly evident from the outset that the author of the second editorial was certainly not coming from an evangelical, biblical, Christ-honoring perspective. How sad.

Some of the references, taken completely out of context were:

“God saw everything He made and said it is good.” (Genesis 18:22)

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)

“Behold, I will bring evil upon thee…” (1 Kings 21:21)

Another out of context reference was made to Noah and the flood.

The closing statement of the editorial was, “Maybe God does hate evil, but he created it as something good. Strange isn’t it that an alleged perfect, sinless, god[sic] could create evil? Is creating evil, perfection?”

My heart breaks for the author. Unfortunately, he does not have a grasp on the sovereignty of God, nor does he seem to have a grasp on the word of God.

Let’s first deal with the issue of scripture out of context. You can take any scripture out of context, in order to support your position. For example, one could incorrectly use Acts 27:43, which says “But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land,” in some twisted way, to show biblical support for “forced suicide.” Any mature believer is going to be able to spot this argument as unbiblical.

More importantly, let’s tackle this issue of God “creating evil.” In fact, God did not “create” evil. He created man, and it was by man’s choice of disobedience against a holy, perfect God that evil and sin affected all of mankind. (See Genesis 2:16-17 and Romans 3:23) From what I’ve been able to read in the Bible, commentaries, and other sound resources, God did not just decide one day “out of the blue” to send a flood to the Earth for no reason. You can study the account of the flood in Genesis chapters 5-10.

God never does anything without purpose. In His providence, there were warnings about the upcoming calamity of the flood, which was a result of sin and the depravity of man, and then there were results of the flood: blessings for those who were God’s people and curses for those who were not God’s people. In fact, we see that principle still in effect today. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Plainly stated, if you sin (and you do if you have a pulse) and are not a child of God, then you will spend eternity apart from Him. But the flip side of that coin is, that if as a sinner, you recognize your need for Jesus Christ, the God-man, as your Savior and you call on Him by faith to cover your sins with His holy blood and to be your Lord and Master, the Bible teaches that you will be saved from the guilt and the power of sin and as a result will enjoy eternity with God forever. (See John 3 and Romans 5)

In closing, I challenge and encourage you to apply 1 Peter 3:15 to your life and “…in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;…”

Are you declaring His glory?

Connect with us online for more opportunities to discover the goodness of God and His sovereignty on display at http://communityimpactonline.org.

Blessings!

Isaac Fineman

Advertisement