Here's what I am saying... all evil is the result of Adam's sin. His sin brought mortality or death,
and because we are born in death we sin (Romans 5:12). The evil was already created by God before
Adam sinned, but it didn't effect anyone until Adam sinned. As someone said in another post, sin is
defined by missing the mark. Evil is only sin if it misses the mark.
God creates evil... but He does not sin. He hits the mark on everything He does. He has a purpose, and
that purpose is sometimes accomplished by God using the evil that He has created. For example, God
used evil to give Job a higher understanding of His purpose Job 42:11-12 says,
11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and
all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread
with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him
over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also
gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning:
for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a
thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. 13 He had also
seven sons and three daughters.
This shows us the basis of the purpose of evil, it is to bless us in the end after God has exposed us to
it. This is in line with Rom. 8:28,
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
As we mature in God, and understand He does nothing outside of His purpose and will, then we can begin
to see and grasp the hard things knowing that God knows what He is doing.
Let's get back to the missing of the mark. What mark do we miss? Rom. 3:23 says,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
There it is... the Glory of God... our goal is to hit the mark of the Glory of God. When we treat our neighbors
badly, we miss the mark of loving our neighbors as ourselves. We break the divine law and because we reap
what we sow, we expose ourselves to evil, so we can experience the effects of our neighbors feeling. Evil is
not bad within itself, but doing evil is sin. God doesn't sin, but He uses evil to correct our character.
In other words, if you are using evil to hurt someone, you have just sinned. But if you are using evil for the
purpose of correcting someone, you have not sinned (1st Cor. 5:5) (1st Tim. 1:20). Paul's purpose in these
two scriptures was not to hurt them, but to release them from the bondage that they were in. That's why he
exposed them to the Serpent, so they could be saved in the Day of the Lord. It had PURPOSE.
Now let's go back to the Garden. God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and told Adam to not
eat of it or you would die. We know the story... but did God know that Adam was going to disobey? Sure He did.
Adam's sin didn't take God by surprise. God knows the beginning from the end before He created anything, He
knew that Adam was going to sin.
Why didn't God say, "I know Adam is going to sin so I will not create him this way." Because it wasn't His Plan!
That is what we can't accept. God could have made us perfect, but He had a different Plan. Man says... God is
going to put a lot of people in hell forever because of Adam's sin. If God knew Adam was going to sin, and He
knew that most of mankind was going to be lost forever... how responsible is God in this decision? The only way
God could be just in this situation is by reading (Col. 1:20), and believing what Paul is actually telling us.
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things
in earth, or things in heaven.
Now there's some justice! All things will be reconciled to Him! That makes sense now!
God has taken credit for everything under the sun. If it is here He has created it. Our job is to understand the
Purpose of His creation, so we can know why God has done the things He has done. By faith, we understand God
has created all things for His Purpose (Proverbs 16:4).
4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for
the day of evil.
What a God! What a Plan!
Logabe