God is the Placer of all things. The best definition I’ve seen for the Greek word ‘Theos’ which is translated God is this: Theos refers to One Who appoints everything and gives it a place. Nothing takes place without Him giving it a place.
God means ‘placer’ and if another being PLACED evil in God’s creation then that would make them the ‘placer’ or God.
God is ultimately responsible for ‘every evil’ done in His universe. If He wasn’t, then He would not be God and Whomever created evil would be just as powerful as God. After all, according to popular religion, the one that created evil is not only a creator (something only God can do), but one that has thwarted God’s plan.
However, a close study of ‘evil’ in scripture shows that God creates it in order to eventually serve a good purpose. So, evil is a part of God’s plan to perfect His creation and not something foreign to His creation that can mess things up. For years, religion has taught the lie that God created a perfect universe and ‘sin and evil’ has entered and destroyed His creation apart from His plan.
However, the truth is this: Evil is created by God in order to play a part in perfecting His creation. It is an ongoing process, this perfecting all creation thing, and it will not stop until God is All in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). Once it does stop, once Christ perfects all creation through His death for sin, His entombment, and His resurrection, then will evil be done away with. Once it has served its purpose and all creation, including Christ, is subjected to God, then evil and every enemy will cease to exist.
Like the ugly but necessary scaffolding on a mighty skyscraper, once the building is complete, once it has served its purpose, the evil and the scaffolding are gone forever.
But wait! What about these evil beings that exact evil on God’s creation? Do they operate separately from God or do they actually do God’s work?
To the scripture in 1 Kings 22: 19-23:
19 Micaiah replied, Not so! Hear the word of Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on His throne and all the host of the heavens standing by Him, to His right and to His left. 20 Yahweh said, Who shall entice Ahab, so that he may march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? Now this one said thus, and another was saying thus. 21 Then a spirit came forth, stood before Yahweh and said, I myself shall entice him. Yahweh asked him, By what means? 22 He replied, I shall go forth, and I will become a false spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then He said, You shall entice, and, moreover, you shall prevail. Go forth and do so. 23 And now behold, Yahweh has bestowed a false spirit into the mouth of all of these, your prophets, for Yahweh Himself has decreed evil concerning you.
Do you see what is going on here? God gave a spirit permission to become a false spirit in the mouth of these prophets. A false spirit is a liar. But, look at what verse 23 says: And now behold, Yahweh has bestowed a false spirit into the mouth of all of these, your prophets, for Yahweh Himself has decreed evil concerning you.
It was Yahweh that did this, scripture says, even though it was the spirit that became a false spirit. This false spirit was attributed to Yahweh because God does all. This spirit is God’s action because no part of creation can operate separately from the Almighty.
So if a spirit, Satan, or any part of creation does evil, it is God doing it. However, God is not evil and does not sin because He works this evil to an eventual good purpose. The evil spirits and beings are still evil, but God is not. Just like my previous example of God, according to His plan, having killed Jesus by the works of evil men actually produced the salvation of all mankind. This is how God works evil done by his creation to an eventual good done by Him.
This is exactly why Job, with all the evil done to him by the adversary, never acknowledges anyone but God. In the book of Job, the adversary entered the throne room and God gave him permission to afflict Job. Why then does Job only acknowledge God and not the adversary?
It’s because the adversary could do nothing apart from God’s plan. Job knew this and so he never addresses Satan. Job knew that Satan could only do what God had planned for him to do. God doesn’t allow anything but does everything.
The adversary killed Job’s children and Job said: “Yahweh, He gives, and Yahweh, He takes away”…(Job 1:21). Then, verse 22 says that in all this, Job neither sinned nor ascribed anything improper to Elohim. So, Job was right in attributing what Satan did to Yahweh.
The adversary did everything to hurt job physically, mentally, and spiritually except kill him and Job responds by saying, “Indeed should we receive good from the One, Elohim, and should we not receive evil (Job 2:10).”
In all the evil being done, Job acknowledges God and ignores the adversary. This is because everything the adversary does is God’s intention. All is of God and every creature can only do what God Himself has planned. Even when these evil beings do evil and appear to be opposite of God, they still can only do God’s will. They will eventually be judged for the evil they do, but God will not because this evil will be turned to good by the Creators hand. This is the purpose in all evil.
After all, God Himself created the ruiner to harm:
Behold, I Myself created the craftsman, Who blows into the fire of coals And brings forth an implement for his work; And I Myself created the ruiner to harm. - Isaiah 54:16
The Creator of and the ultimate end-game purpose of evil and vanity (a form of evil) is explained perfectly in Romans, chapter 8:
19 For the premonition of the creation is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God.
20 For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation
21 that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now.
23 Yet not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the spirit, we ourselves also, are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body. - Roman 8: 19-23
First, let’s recognize that creation is subjected to vanity, not voluntarily, but by Him Who subjects it. This means that it is not a human being’s action or free will choice that results in vanity. We experience vanity against our will, NOT VOLUNTARILY. God subjects us to vanity or in other words, The Almighty PLACED vanity on His creation on purpose.
Here is Strong’s definition of the Greek word ‘mataiotes’ which is translated ‘vanity.’
Strong's Concordance
mataiotés: vanity, emptiness
Original Word: ματαιότης, τητος, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: mataiotés
Phonetic Spelling: (mat-ah-yot'-ace)
Definition: vanity, emptiness
Usage: vanity, emptiness, unreality, purposelessness, ineffectiveness, instability, frailty; false religion.
So, Why? Why would the Almighty God choose to subject His creation to vanity apart from the creature’s will nor based on anything that creature has done? Why would God subject creation to emptiness, purposelessness, ineffectiveness, false religion, and all these evil things?
Well, Paul answers this in verse 21 of Romans, chapter 8:
21 that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Creation is subjected to vanity by God so that God will one day free creation from it. This is the very reason we have an experience of evil. God uses evil to shape us and hold us down so that we enjoy and understand the experience of freedom from this evil to the highest possible degree.
Paul says that ‘we ourselves, are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body.’ He is referring to believers here, however, in verse 21 Paul says that this deliverance is not just for believers, but eventually for all of creation.
In conclusion, God creates and subjects His creation to evil and vanity in order to set that very creation free from it, each in their own order. Evil shapes us and is a part of the plan. We must experience evil, sin, death and separation from God in order to understand and enjoy goodness, sinlessness, immortality and being filled with God forever. Once God is All in all, then evil, sin, and death are abolished forever. All of this is accomplished through Christ’s death for sin, His entombment, and His resurrection!
Grace and peace to you all.
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Great analysis Scott, thank you, lots of heavy thinking here. In my simple world, I see the universe as a dichotomy, a Yin and Yang, or debit and credit, if you will. Everything has an equal and opposite counterpart as far as I can see. Thus for good to exist, there has to be an evil counter. Once the promised perfect world is complete, it has to remain bifurcated to stay balanced.
But then, I am an accountant by training, and my psychiatrist told me there is no cure for it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrsB1RfksEA