Ángel
Manuel Rodríguez
While
reading the Bible I found this passage: "I form the light,
and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil" (Isa.
45:7). Is God the author of evil?
Your
question is easy to answer, but the issues raised by it are important
and difficult ones. Evil could be morally based on the decisions of free
beings that result in the infliction of pain and suffering on themselves,
others, and nature; or as the result of disasters in the natural world.
The question of God's involvement in those expressions of evil has
been debated by Christians for centuries, and I cannot begin to discuss
them here. I will simply deal with three aspects of the problem.
1.
Evil Created by God: The English
term evil tends to designate moral evil, that is, moral wickedness.
Accordingly, Isaiah 45:7 would be stating that God is the cause of immoral actions performed by sinful
human beings. But the Hebrew term rac
has a much broader usage. It can designate moral evil,
misfortune (Prov.
13:17), or harm (Jer. 7:6). In
Isaiah 45:7 the context suggests the meaning "misfortune, disaster."
The whole phrase reads "I bring prosperity [shalom] and create
disaster (NIV)." The opposite of "evil" in this sense is
peace, prosperity, personal safety. The issue here is not moral integrity
versus immoral behavior but well-being versus misfortune. The "evil/misfortune"
here refers to the bitter Israelite experience of the exile, and the "peace"
to their restoration through the work of Cyrus. The evil God created was
the exile, the destruction of Jerusalem.
In
Amos 3:6 the Lord announced Israel's fall through a rhetorical question: "When
disaster [rac] comes to a
city, has not the Lord caused it?" (NIV).
The idea is that the collapse of Israel was not the result of the victory of the pagan gods over the God of Israel; the Lord Himself brought this disaster
on His people. God is not the creator of moral evil.
2.
Evil as Punishment: God seems to relate to evil in several ways. He can
use it to punish or correct His people. This presupposes a covenant relationship
between Him and them. The Israelites chose God as their Lord, and He accepted
them as His people. Faithfulness was indispensable in the preservation
of the covenant relationship. But the covenant itself made provision for
God to bring back His people to covenant loyalty if they violated it. This was to occur through the covenant curses (Lev. 26:14-45):
particular disasters/evils the Lord promised to bring upon Israel in order to provoke His people to listen (verse 18),
to accept correction (verse 23), to confess their sins (verse 40), to return
to covenant faithfulness.
In some cases the Scripture describes God Himself as the
agent of those misfortunes (verse 16). At other times God used the evil
nature and intentions of other nations to correct His people (Deut. 28:25).
At a deeper theological level the covenant curses revealed that shalom was
a possibility for Israel only within the parameters of union with God
in a faith relationship, and that outside the covenant sphere one would
find and experience only chaos, disaster, evil. That God Himself would bring those disasters upon
the Israelites meant that He had not yet totally handed them over to evil;
He had not given them up.
3.
Evil as a Consequence of Sin: In
other cases God related to evil/misfortune
in terms of allowing individuals to experience the natural consequences
of their sins. The principle is stated in Proverbs 26:27: "If a man
digs a pit, he will fall into it" (NIV) (cf. 28:10). We must be careful
not to visualize this phenomenon as a mechanical one in which the wicked
automatically receive back the evil results of their actions and the righteous
ones the automatic benefits of
their obedience. It is God Himself who sets in motion the correlation
between deeds and consequences. "Your wickedness will punish you;
your backsliding will rebuke you," He says (Jer.
2:19, NIV); "I am bringing disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes" (Jer. 6:19, NIV).
God
is not the originator of evil, but He has accepted responsibility for
it in Christ. He is able to use it in the fulfillment of His purpose without
being its cause. And He is able to exterminate it from the universe.
1/10/02
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