How Evil Came Into The World

• ‘If God Created Good, Definitely There Will Be Bad’
• ‘The Origin Of Evil And Temptation Is In Our Own Hearts’
• ‘Every Man Created Has A Will Power To Do Right Or Wrong And That Is How Evil Emanated’

‘He Created Everything You Can Think Of’
(Abdullahi Akinbode, Chief Missioner, Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) Worldwide)
EVIL is the design of God. This is very clear in the creation of Adam, the first man on earth. God instructed the angels that He wanted to create a kalifar, an ambassador that would manage the world, those who would manage the earth, a global village and so, He created the earth. He set up the manuals for managing the world and what is this manual? It is the obedience to God and justice. He warned man not to corrupt what He had set in motion, what He had created righteously. So, corruption is as old as man himself and that was why God warned us not to corrupt what He had set right. And Satan deluded man, who fell short of glory. The error of forgetfulness of the warning of God, not to corrupt the land, by eating the fruit is part of corruption of the global village. When God had warned you to do this and not do that. I have given you this and you now commit the error of forgetfulness, not flagrant disobedience. Man disobeyed God and after the error of forgetfulness, man retraced his way and God forgave him. From there, God warned man that if he wants to live peacefully in his creation, he has to seek for guidance and obey His law. He also has to understand the manual of managing the universe. This is the historical background in brief.

God created everything and in everything you must have the good and the bad. Every system is in pairs. There are always two sides to a coin. Man was created in pairs. So, if God created good, definitely there will be bad. God didn’t originate it, but He created everything you can think of.

A publisher always has the ethics of profession. He/she knows the good and other side of the ethics. And if somebody disobeys the ethics of the profession, he/she has committed a crime. And that ethics was man’s creation because those are the things that will help and enhance the performance of the profession. If some journalists go against that ethics, they have committed a crime against the lawful performance of the ethics. I cannot associate God with evil just because evil was created and anything that was created cannot be compared to the Creator.

The motorcar is not the driver, who is the controller. You cannot say that a motorcar is the driver or that the driver is a motorcar. It is the driver that drives the car. If the driver does not drive the car, it will stay fixed in a place. So, God created evil for those who would want to disobey evil. If you decide not to obey evil, you’ll be of God, but if you decide to obey evil, you will be of Satan for God Himself created Satan, which means the person that obeys Satan or Devil prefers him to God. So, it’s a matter of choice. God created the devil, but He has not instructed human beings to obey the devil. Rather, He even warned them: ‘Do not obey the devil; he will lead you astray.’ It’s like saying don’t drink when you drive because if you do so, you’ll have accident and die. If this happens, it’s not God that killed you. Or because you have the money you feel like smoking and you forgot the warning that “smokers are liable to die young.” These are definite statements and if somebody disobeys the instructions of scientists and in the process he/she dies, the inventor of that cigarette is not liable because the warning is there. Any creator can create anything he wishes.

‘Man’s Misuse Of His Freedom Brought About Evil’
(Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo/Chairman of the Communications Office of the Catholic Bishops of Africa and Madagascar)
THE question of evil or sin is one that has haunted man for as long as human beings exist. As Christians, we know from the Bible that God created all things and saw that all He created was good. He put Adam and Eve in the garden with clear rules. The Bible’s account of Genesis shows us how evil came into the world through man’s disobedience. Even if we do not literally accept the mention of the snake and the fruit, the fact of disobedience and pride, as the source of sin and evil cannot be discounted.

Saint Paul said in his letter to the Romans. “It was through one man that sin came into the world, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.” (5:12). This answers the question in an even clearer way. Strangely, there are a few people, who would like to hang the source of evil at God’s doorstep; asking why He created evil, since He made everything.

Well, God made man and gave him the greatest gift possible, which is freedom. It was man’s misuse of this freedom that brought about evil. That is why some thinkers say that man is the ‘mistake’ of God. I am, however, sure that God makes no mistakes. If He had not given man freedom, human beings would not have been what we are today. Thankfully, God also brought greater grace out of man’s evil in the person of Jesus, if only human beings would embrace Him. “Where sin increased, grace abounds even more (Rom. 5:20).

The only reason evil occurs in the world is because human beings do not listen to God in their conscience. We can prevent evil from happening through us, if we obey God’s Voice inside us, just like Cain heard it: “Sin is crouching at the door, hungry to get you. You can still master him” (Gen 4:7). Evil persists also because we avoid doing the “mea culpa” and admit our responsibility and guilt and make amends. Whenever we blame someone else and mitigate our responsibility for a fault of ours, we fuel the fire of evil, wherever we are and wherever it is found. Jesus came and took our sins upon Himself to show us the way to conquer sin or evil, namely to take the responsibility for it and change. “Just as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience are many to be made upright” (Rom 5:19).

‘God Cannot In Any Way Be The Author Of Evil’
(Pastor (Mrs.) Ngozi Oluwagbemiga, Famous Gospel Proclaimers Ministry, Ojudu, Lagos/CEO, Charity Mission Empowerment Foundation in Africa)
GOD is sovereign and He is not responsible for evil. The origin of evil and temptation is in our own hearts.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (James 1:13-15).

It is helpful, I think, to understand that sin is not itself a thing created. Sin is neither substance, being, spirit, nor matter. So, it is technically not proper to think of sin as something that was created. Sin is simply a lack of moral perfection in a fallen creature. Fallen creatures themselves bear full responsibility for their sin. And all evil in the universe emanates from the sins of fallen creatures.

Genesis 1:31 ends with God pronouncing His creation “very good.” James 1 says God is neither the instigator nor the source of sin; He does not tempt, nor can He be tempted (verse 13). Rather, every good thing comes from God. Many Scriptures affirm that God is not the author of evil: “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33)—and if that is true, He cannot in any way be the author of evil.

In the original world formation, it appears likely that Satan and mankind had the power of contrite choice. In the Garden of Eden, the woman was influenced by her own craving (the tree was desirable to make one wise—Genesis 3:6). Satan had not entered her before then; she was enticed by her own desire even before Satan spoke.

God is not the author of sin; our desires are. God did not trick or deceive Satan into becoming full of pride. God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13), and it would not be in His character to cause one to become prideful. Nor was He the One that deceived Eve. Deception and lies go hand-in-hand (Psalm 78:36; Proverbs 12:17), yet God does not lie or deceive (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18).

Note that since Satan’s own desires caused his pride, the blame for evil’s entrance into creation cannot be God’s. To clarify, this doesn’t mean God was unaware this would happen, but God permitted it to happen. God is sovereign and acted justly by casting Satan out of heaven, after he rebelled against the Creator.

Consequently, when God sent Jesus Christ to His creation to destroy evil and the work of the devil (1 John 3:8), it was truly an act of love, not a gimmick to correct what He “messed up.” He was glorified in His plan for redemption. The tried Christian shall be a crowned one. The crown of life is promised to all who have the love of God reigning in their hearts and those who resisted sin powers in their lives. Every soul that truly loves God shall have its trials in this world fully recompensed in Christ’s promised heavenly kingdom, where life is made impeccable.

‘But He Uses The Bad Choice Of The Wicked To His Own Glory’
(Rt. Rev. Nnanna Odege, Moderator, Synod of the West of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria)
GOD cannot be associated with sickness. He cannot be associated with wickedness or evil. However, everything He created, God cannot manipulate them. Everything He created has a free conscience, a free will, just like you and I. We can do whatever we decide to do. So, it is man’s decision to do whatever he likes. Just like He said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes, whosoever chooses to believe, then he will have eternal life.” God did not create hell for anybody, but there are people that will choose not to belong to God, not to do righteousness. So, they will do wickedness because they have chosen to and they will not bother with the consequence. That is how evil came about. So, God cannot be associated with evil, but He uses the bad choice of the wicked or the enemy to His own glory.

For example, Joseph’s brothers in Gen 37, conspired together, betrayed and sold him, even though it was not something good. But in the final analysis, God still allowed Joseph to be sold, riding upon the wings and the will of man in order to glorify Himself.

Later on, Joseph was able to attain a height in life that benefitted his brothers and in Genesis 50:20, he said “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” But God turned it around for good. So, God will always use evil and wickedness to bring glory to Himself; that is how evil came into the world. He is not the originator of evil. Lucifer was one of the cherubs given special place to worship God, but at a time, his heart began to think in another way. He thought of overtaking God, saying why should it be God alone that should be worshipped or venerated. He said, ‘I will make people to worship me just as they worship God.’ That is more or less planning a coup. So, in the cause of planning that, God knew and He said, ‘I knew what is in your heart. I’m going to bring you down from that your lofty place.’

So, every man created has a will power, a conscience to do right or wrong and that is how evil emanated. Let’s say you have some money, it is not God that will tell you how to use the money. God has given every man conscience. You are the one to decide on what to do with your conscience. It is either you use your money to worship God or idol.

For instance, a married man with two hands, would either you use those hands to beat his wife or to bless her. The choice is yours and that is the way it is.

‘God Created All Things Both Good And Evil’
(Bishop Isaac Olawuyi, Bishop, Diocese of Lagos Mainland, Methodist Church Nigeria)
THIS is both philosophical and theological. Philosophically, we know it is a statement of fact that God is love. He is also powerful and omnipotent. But if God is omnipotent, which means He can do all things and He is love, then why evil? Firstly, God created all things both good and evil and it was written in the book of Isaiah that ‘I am God. I created both good and evil.’ But again, how did evil come into the world? The Bible has an account of how this happened. Evil is sometimes not synonymous to Satan because the book of Isaiah or Ezekiel told us about the genesis of the whole thing and how Lucifer fell from his position of honour. He was a very highly intelligent being, but he exalted himself above God and because of this, God brought him down and he was sent into the world; and he became the symbol of evil.

You can relate that to what happened in Genesis 3, where the serpent, which symbolised evil, deceived the first man and woman. Those are the symbolic pictures of evil, which was embodied in Satan or devil, but evil itself had been seen as part of creation. It’s like the light and darkness. If there is no darkness, you won’t be able to appreciate light. It’s like white and black, cold and heat. So, the opposite of good is evil. There is no way you can appreciate good without evil. If everything is good and there is no presence of evil, we may hardly recognise good. So, one makes us to recognise the other, but one thing that has been and will continue to be is that God allows good to prevail over evil. And when there is light, darkness vanishes, but we will not appreciate light if there is no darkness. So, I want to say that God deliberately allows the existence of evil so that we may appreciate goodness.

Today, if everything is so perfect and good, and everything goes well, people would even forget to serve God. But people would begin to appreciate God, when the devil begins to act or torment them, because it’s a way of pushing people to call on God. God created evil. God Himself said so.

Allowing evil in the world, is part of the corrective measure. That is the wisdom of God. If nobody corrects a child, he/she will get spoilt. The way to put us right, make us to appreciate God and get closer to Him is through the existence of evil. God is not evil, but He can allow evil. He is holy, He’s good, He’s pure, but He allows the existence of evil for a purpose. He would have removed evil from the world, but He deliberately allowed it.

‘We Cannot Pinpoint The Source Of Evil’
(Rt. Rev. Johnson Akin Atere, Bishop of Awori Anglican Diocese)
IT depends on the angle you want to look at it. But I want to look at it this way: we know that the origin of life is God. And so, it was God that muted the idea of creating this world. According to the Bible record, He created Adam and Eve, our first parents. And He blessed them that they should go into the world and multiply and from generation to generation, the world continues to increase.

Pertaining to evil, we also have the genesis of evil in the Bible. It was through Satan that evil came into this world and the knowledge we have from the book of Job shows that even Satan himself was once a member of the heavenly council, before he rebelled against God, after which he was cast down. The origin of the devil can also be traced to the Garden of Eden, when the Serpent manipulated Eve. When God created everything, the Bible says they were good and so, God did not create evil. But man’s disobedience gave room for evil to enter into them. And so, we cannot say that God created evil and the manifestation of evil also in the garden shows that it was man that permitted evil and not that God created evil.

Maybe evil itself has been part of the world because you remember in the Bible, when God created the world; we were told that before the creation, the world was already in place and void. We were told that there was a spirit hovering on the surface until God started His creation. So, we cannot pinpoint the source of evil, but we know that at a point during creation, evil surfaced. And the two occasions that we noticed was when through the Serpent, Eve was deceived. Through that disobedience to God, evil came to the world and from there it began to manifest. The devil wanted to be like God and God sent him into the world.

Finally, I want to say that evil itself is a spirit and that is why even up till now, while we have the Holy Spirit of God leading and directing people, so also we have the devil in the spirit also condemning and leading people to sin. It must be that the spirit that is called the devil had been in this world even before it was created. There is what we call free will. Our God is not the One that will force you to do anything. Rather, He would instruct you, but if you fail to do what He asks you to do, then other powers would take over. If you don’t believe in God, automatically you must believe in something else. If you don’t allow God to use you, something else must use you, since you are an instrument. So, I believe that those who allow the devil to use them cannot say that it is God’s fault. Because if you choose to allow evil to take over your life; then so be it, it is your own choice. But if you choose God, then He would protect you.

In fact, the Bible says you shall face tribulation in the world. All the tribulations that people are facing in the world today are coming from the devil. In this world, people are struggling to either serve God or Satan. That is why God wants you to be born-again so that you have the power to be able to contain the devil and conquer it. But if you allow yourself to be used, then you cannot blame God. Rebellion had been in the world and the moment you rebel against God, Satan takes over. God will only be watching because it is your choice.