by Marcelle Cooper

Created on: April 22, 2010   Last Updated: April 24, 2010

An ancient Roman philosopher once wrote on the nature of the universe. He was an atheist, and the following quote echoes his beliefs. It reads as follows:

“Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam
Naturam rerum; tanta stat praedita culpa”

This translates, “Had God designed the world, it would not be a world so frail and faulty as we see.”

While I'm not an atheist, this quote does sum something every Christian thinks about at one time or another, and we seldom come up with answers that truly satisfy us. One can imagine that truer words than the ones above have never been spoken. We see it today more than ever: Sickness, deformation, death, war, poverty…the list goes on for miles. If God is truly the powerful, loving, kind, patient, just and merciful God we claim He is (that the Bible says He is) then why would He allow such things in a world that He created? Better yet, being the Creator of all existence, why would He even allow them to exist? Why did he not just make everything perfect? The answer is surprisingly simple.

He did.

The account of the creation in the book of Genesis is a clear indication that the world was created perfectly. God even took the time to stop and look at everything just to see how awesome it was. Man was no different. Evil and imperfection happened with the fall of man, when Adam sinned and gained the knowledge of good and evil.

This is where biblical proof meets personal theory. I am not trying to pass this off as doctrine, so do not look at it as such. I am simply offering a logical answer to a proposed question.

Everything comes from something, and if you trace it back to the beginning, that something is always God. That includes evil.

So did God create evil? Of course not, at least not in the technical sense.

The only reason anyone knows good is because of God. Things that make human beings feel good both inside and out are all godly things, even if those things are being abused. Anything God created, if used properly, can be used for our benefit. This makes us comfortable, which feels good. Simply being in the presence of God feels good. Knowing that you even know God feels good. That is because, as the Christian cliché goes, "God is good". And if that statement is true it would also mean that good is God. By this set of facts we can discover the origin of evil, and thus all the bad things in the world.

God is good. Therefore

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>