Someone sent me this [little account] for my thoughts on it. Whether it is an actual happening or something someone made up to illustrate a point---it is still something I had never considered before. I wrote back to my friend with the following post. Then, I thought it might be something you could use... so I'm sending it along. If you don't find anything useful in it, that's okay, my feelings won't be hurt. If you can use it, that's okay too!
***Note: Any comments? Send direct to Vondi, if you like---at aspen@tusco.net

Where did "Evil" come from?

Do evil things come from God? Did God make evil to punish people? I was just thinking about people wanting to blame God for things that happen. One of the wonderful things about the Lord is that He has given us a free will, the freedom to choose our course of action, the freedom to choose to serve Him or not. And He does not infringe on that freedom of choice. If we choose to love Him and serve him there are blessings untold for us and He is happy. But if we choose not to love him and serve him, He is still faithful to His Gift of Freedom of Choice. I've heard it expressed as we are "free moral agents".

Consider: God created the universe and everything therein. He made the heavens and the earth and all of the creatures, EXACTLY as He wanted them. He made them to do His Will in everything. But something was lacking--they had not chosen to love Him and do His will. It is like your child, when he is young you can make him obey, but as he grows older you find more happiness in the fact that he choses to obey because he loves you. So for the same reason God made Man. And He put within us the freedom to choose our course of action. Just as we choose our course of action, God holds Himself faithful to let us do that and also to suffer the consequences. Because to do otherwise would mean being unfaithful to His Promise of freedom.

So when evil things happen, it is due to some person choosing to pursue a path contrary to that of God.

I was talking to someone about war this week---God doesn't heap slaughter and suffering on innocent people. He is only being faithful to His promise to allow all men to choose their own way. So when evil men chose to build weapons of destruction and subjugate their own people or wage war, He has to allow it or He would be doing to man exactly what he has done to the animals---imposing His Will on them.

Then comes the question of evil. This illustration presents a very insiteful way of considering the concept.

DID GOD CREATE EVIL?

This [little account]will make you think for awhile: [ At a certain college, there was a professor with a reputation for being tough on Christians. At the first class every semester, he asked if anyone was a Christian and proceeded to degrade and mock their statement of faith. One semester, he asked the question and a young man raised his hand when asked if anyone was a Christian. The professor asked, "Did God make everything, young man?"

"Yes he did, sir," the young man replied.

The professor responded, "If God made everything, then God made evil, and if we can only create from within ourselves, then God is evil."

The student didn't have a response and the professor was happy to have once again proved the Christian faith to be a myth.

Then, another man raised his hand and asked, "May I ask you something, sir?"

"Yes you may," responded the professor.

The young man stood up and said "Sir, is there such thing as cold?"

Of course there is, what kind of a question is that? Haven't you ever been cold?"

The young man replied, "Actually, sir, cold does not exist. What we consider to be cold, is really only the absence of heat. Absolute zero is when there is absolutely no heat, but cold does not really exist. We have only created that term to describe how we feel when heat is not there."

The young man continued, "Sir, is there such thing as dark?"

Once again, the professor responded "Of course there is."

And once again, the student replied "Actually, sir, darkness does not exist. Darkness is really only the absence of light. Darkness is only a term man developed to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally, the young man asked, "Sir, is there such thing as evil?"

The professor responded, "Of course. We have rapes, and murders and violence everywhere in the world, those things are evil."

The student replied, "Actually, sir, evil does not exist. Evil is simply the absence of God. Evil is a term man developed to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. It isn't like truth, or love, which exists as virtues like heat and light. Evil is simply the state where God is not present, like cold without heat or darkness without light."

The professor had nothing to say. ]

I liked this explanation of evil so well, because it explains the kind of Men that do the things we were just talking about. These Men have shut out the light from entering their souls. It is not that God doesn't love them but that they have refused to accept that love. They have taped blackout paper over the windows of their soul and sealed the crack at the door, so that the light of God's love cannot enter and they can pursue their own selfish way. God's love will reach to the farthest parts of the earth and into the deepest caves. The only thing that will prevent that from happening is when a Man seals his heart from receiving it.

We like to quote John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. It is nice because it implies that everybody on earth is going to be "saved" through the death of Christ.

And it is a beautiful verse, but Jesus didn't stop His teaching there. There are several verses that follow it that people, by and large, want to ignore because it puts the responsibility for Salvation directly back on them and nothing in this world can make it other wise.

God's love is great. But it does not supercede His faithfulness to his promise of our freedom to choose. Christ goes right on after his statement of God's great love to say: He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

I've heard preachers and others say,"Oh God is a God of Love, He won't send anyone to Hell." This verse teaches very plainly that God doesn't send anybody to Hell. They choose to go there through their unbelief.

They exercise their freedom of choice and as a faithful and just God, our Lord can not countermand that Choice.