The Origin Of Evil Have you ever asked yourself, Where did evil come from?

I mean if God is good and He created all things, then how was evil introduced into the world? Or maybe, because God is the Source of all created things, then evil must be His creation as well. Before there was anything, before anything existed, there was God, so maybe evil is Gods fault or even worsemaybe God is evil. Right at the onset, I want to say that my writing is not an exhaustive fact-fact or truth, but my own 3:40am thoughts. Some people get awoken by nightmares; I believe God wakes me up to think and converse with me through my thoughts. So again, in no way am I claiming to have the absolute truth or answer to the origin of evil, but at least I pray this will give you a starting point to help you engage with God in your own thoughts, prayer and study of Scriptures about this very important topic of evil. The Scriptures clearly teaches us that God IS love. (1 John 4:8) Not that He loves, but that His very essence and nature IS love. Now love in essence is void of any and all evil. As a matter of fact, I believe that in the beginning before anything existed except God, evil was non-existent. (1 Corinthians 13) Now here some may argue with the infamous objection, Well if thats true, then who created God? But that would just deter us from the subject at hand. Suffice to say that if time, space and matter all had a point of origin (Genesis 1) as science has discovered and confirmed, then it is logical to conclude that that starting point of necessity was timeless, space-less and immaterial. It would be reasonable to think that in order for time to have a beginning, something or someone transcendent outside of time or timeless had to cause time to begin. The same principle would apply to space and matter. In my mind this describes and postulates the Judeo-Christian God Yahweh as Creator. Okay lets get back on track. So we know that the Scriptures reveal Gods very nature as being that of love. We also know that God is self-sufficient (Colossians 1:16) and needs nothing and no one to sustain His existence. But at some point, He decided to create heavenly beings or angels. Angels arent little cute cupid-like, diaper-wearing looking babies with little wings, bows and arrows. The Bible describes them as powerful warring creatures. (Revelation 8) Now pay attention, please track with me so that we dont get distracted or lost. God Who IS love created the angels. Love in essence is void of evil. But when love creates, it must give creation the freedom or free-will to say no and reject love. In other words, love cannot exist unless the object of ones affection can freely say no to being loved. Otherwise, creation would just be a manufactured robot functioning to the commands of a program, not to free-will or the ability to freely choose and make decisions for itself. Another way to see it is, that yes would not exist, unless we could also freely choose to say no. I then believe that when God created the angelic creatures, because His nature IS love, the ability to reject love had to be readily available as part of their creation. Now remember that evil is still nonexistent. God has not and did not create evil, but He knew full well that evil was going to be an option for a creation created out of love. But that is the risk that love takes, the risk of love is that you may be rejected, refused and your love may not be returned. The Scriptures again give us the amazing back-drop scenario of a heavenly angel named Lucifer who was beautiful and majestic in all its ways. Some Bible commentators have said that he was probably the worship leader in heaven because musical pipes came out from within him. Others disagree, but thats

neither here nor there. The fact is that according to Scripture, Lucifer was one of the high-ranking angels in heaven. (Ezekiel 28:11-19) Let me remind you that I believe that because love created Lucifer along with all the other angels, and in order for love to exist, the freedom to freely reject and refuse love must also exist; love did not create evilbut creation now had the free-will to exercise the right to either receive or reject love. So what then is evil? I believe that evil is everything that is against or in direct violation with Who God is namely love. So if God is love, then evil would be the rejection and refusal of His love. Now this may sound then like we dont really have a choice or say in the matter, but we absolutely do. Here are your choices: 1. Receive Gods love and receive eternal joy and peace or; 2. Reject and refuse His love and receive eternal suffering. Now no matter how philosophical you want to get, as a son myself, if my father told me, Heres your rich inheritance, you and your family will never lack anything ever again; Id be overwhelmed with joy and peace. But if I received a letter advising me that my Dad had passed away and all his debts had now been passed onto to me and I was responsible to satisfy each and every one of them, Id be suffering for a very long time. Its really a no-brainer, if I had a choice, Id freely choose the rich inheritance not the debts that lead to suffering. We then read that Lucifer was able to influence (logically implies free-will, the ability to choose) a third of the angels to betray God (they also had free-will), reject Who He IS: love; and stage a heavenly coup. (Revelation 12:3-9) Now before Lucifer convinced a third of the angels to rebel, he first had already rejected and rebelled against God himself. Remember that evil is anything that violates Gods nature of love, Lucifer willfully rejected and refused love and chose prideful and arrogant hate instead this was the origin of evil. Evil was conceived the instant Lucifer rejected God as God in his heart and decided that he would be God himself. The God of love is NOT the source of evil, the source of evil is the rejection of the God of love. In essence, Lucifer rejected and refused Gods promise of eternal protection and provision. Now lets fast-forward to the Garden of Eden. God lovingly created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden. (Genesis 2:15) He created man, not because He needed man but because He desired to love. Remember that God doesnt just love, He IS love. To simplify the meaning of love we will use five words: To Protect and To Provide. Thats the whole idea behind love. Love out of necessity will always seek to protect and to provide. So while Adam and Eve were in the garden, God protected and provided their each and every need. But as we have already discovered, Lucifer gave birth to evil as a result of his rebellion which was the rejection of love. As a consequence to this rejection, Lucifer was stripped of all titles and cast out of heaven to a lower heaven surrounding a small place called earth. It is here where the plague of evil infects mankind and goes viral, but wait evil has not yet infected mankind. Lets take a step back. How did it all begin? Lucifer now Satan, played mind-games and deceived Eve by getting her to, in pride, doubt Gods love. Why do I say that? Because as stated before, love simplified and defined is to Protect and Provide. Satan directly attacked the integrity and validity of Gods love for Adam and Eve. Satan somehow got Eve to believe that she could do better for herselfherself. Or better yet be God herself by knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:1-7) Satan planted an evil-seed that said, God is holding

out on me, He really does not love me now nor will He love me in the future as He promised me. If He really loved me then He would make me like Him or like this snake who seems to know more than I do. WAIT A MINUTE! Did you catch that? Now this is interesting. How was Eves eyes deceitfully opened, or should I say spiritually blinded and shut tight to the truth of what was good and evil? When she intentionally decided to rebel and then reject Gods promise of love for her in her heart. The eating of the fruit was just sealing the deal of self-sufficiency that she had made with herself as being the new god in her life. Isnt that amazing? Now along comes Adam, the one to whom God specifically told NOT to mess with the tree. Adam then was responsible to communicate this to Eve as well as enforce this and was therefore accountable as well. (Genesis 2:16-17) But instead of putting a stop and final end to the blatant rejection of Gods love that was occurring, he not only tolerated, but participated and then also celebrated it by also emancipating himself from Gods love. Evil is the spawn of Satans loins in heaven, but on earth; I believe it was man who birthed and populated it with evil. Mans blatant rejection and refusal of Gods eternal protection and provision was traded for a pipe-dream that they could not only be like God, but become gods themselves. Evil in its purest form is the rebellion, rejections and ultimate refusal of God and the full-benefits covering of His love. Evil is the consequence of creation rejecting its Creator. Evil is already having everything and all thats needed to live in a home, to go unprotected, cold, naked, hungry, homeless and alone. Evil is trading an eternity with love for an eternity with hurt, pain, suffering and hate. Evil is to dethrone God from our hearts and enthrone ourselves as gods. Evil is everything that is now unnatural because it is contrary to Gods nature. Evil is man being offered unconditional love and unconditionally rejecting and refusing it. Evil is the betrayal of love in order to love the one that hates and betrayed us. Evil can be described in an infinite amount of ways. As we have discussed, evil is the axis of arrogant rebellion and loves willful refusal and rejection. Therefore the origin of evil in heaven is Satan, but on earth man is the one to blame. (Romans 5:12-21) If Adam would have trusted and correctly responded to God and His love; and protected and provided for Eve, he would have stopped the rebellion and rejection that was ensuing once and for all. God would have most likely made completely different arrangements and provisions for mankind and Satan to co-exist. Evil would have still existed, but it would not have existed in the heart of mankind or on earth. Humanity would not have been infected with this cruel terminal disease. The terminal cancerous tumor of evil would have been permanently cut-out removed ad vanquished never to return again. Why? Maybe because then man would have freely chosen to receive and accept God as his one and only Source for all. Regretfully mankind did willfully do back then what we still are willfully doing today, rebelling, rejecting and refusing God and so by defaultalso rejecting His love. Creation now more than ever lusts after Gods sovereignty and position. (Romans 1:18-32) This is evident is our current Atheistic cultural rise. Men have become lovers of themselves, rather than lovers of God. (2 Timothy 3:1-4) Humanity has said in their heart the same words that Satan did, I will ascend to the heavens I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthrones on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like most high God. Isaiah 14:13-15 Now while pain and suffering is a harsh reality that touches each and every single person regardless of race, creed, age or gender, in Christ there is a wonderful hope. There is an anticipation and expectancy that even though we may temporarily suffer for a while now, the joy we will soon receive will far out-

weigh it all. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) The only solution to pain and suffering is the cross of Jesus Christ where God clothed Himself in flesh and died for us. You see God did not remain distant from us as a suffering race. He disrobed Himself of Royalty and took on the mantle of a servant to suffer through every hurt and pain imaginable. (Philippians 2:5-8) He identified Himself with pain, grief, hurts and suffering to demonstrate His love for us. God not only saw the agony and consequence that our rebellion and rejection of His love brought, but instead of abandoning usHe joined us in our deepest pains and most intimate suffering to redeem us from them all. (4:14-16) He took upon Himself our pains and sufferings when they beat, tortured and crucified Him over 2000 years ago. God the Creator of the universe spread His arms and died all just to say I still and forever will love you, THIS MUCH! (Isaiah 53:3-5) God is not a distant God Who left us here on earth to fend for ourselves. He became part of our pain and suffering even though He had nothing to do in causing it. He invites each and every individual even now, to receive Him and His love. There is a time and place that is coming where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. (Revelation 21:1-4) Where every injustice will be net with justice and every wrong will be made right. There will be no escaping the passion of Love and the consequences for willingly rejecting and refusing it. (Matthew 25) No senseless pain and suffering will go uncompensated. No evil will go unpunished. We may not have all the answers to our questions in the here and now, but there will come a day when we will be face to face with the Creator and well finally understand all that has taken place. But today he question is still the very same one that was made in the Garden of Eden, Will you willingly choose to trust me with your life? As it happened back then, we can still freely reject and refuse or receive and return Gods love, the choice is ours to make.