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Summary Point

What is evil, from a Christian perspective?

Subpoints

Since God created everything, evil is not a substance or thing, but rather the corruption of what was intended to be good.

  1. Evil is not a substance or thing.

    • Atheist may try to argue that since God created everything, He must have created evil. Geisler summarizes this line of thinking:

      • “God is the Author of everything.

      • Evil is something.

      • Therefore, God is the Author of evil.”1

    • Christians can respond to this challenge in the following way:

      • “God created every substance.

      • Evil is not a substance (but a privation in a substance).

      • Therefore, God did not create evil.”1

  2. Evil is the corruption of something that was intended to be good.

    • In other words, everything was created with order and goodness. However, when humankind rebelled against God, all of creation was corrupted, both the (1) natural order and (2) the nature of humankind.

      • In God’s punishment to Adam and Eve, He says the ground is cursed.

        • And He said to Adam, "Because you listened to your wife's voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'Do not eat from it': The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust." (Genesis 3:17-19 CSB)

      • Mankind now has a sinful nature – a propensity to sin.

        • For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. (Romans 7:18-19 CSB)

    • The picture is one illustration to make this point:

      • Infection on arm: The infection is not a ‘thing’, but rather something that happened to the original arm.

Links to external resources on this topic:

Anchor 1

Context:

  • Given that evil is clearly evident in the world, any religion or worldview must provide a realistic definition for what evil is and explanation for why it exists. It is NOT a question just for Christians.

  • There are two types of evil:

  1. Moral: “…evil that arises from human or angelic actions…”2 A being with free-will makes decisions to act in a manner contrary to God’s character and will (e.g. murder).

  2. Natural: “…includes various phenomena like pains and diseases, earthquakes, fires, floods, pestilences, hurricanes, and famine.”2 Basically, all other forms of evil & suffering that come about not by making a moral decision (e.g. volcano eruption).

Anchor 2

Sources (complete reference information provided on SOURCE PAGE):

  1. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, p.220.

  2. Feinberg, The Many Faces of Evil, p.22.

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