Did God create evil? Some people say no. They argue that man’s free will is the source of evil. But didn’t God create free will? And doesn’t that make Him the ultimate source of evil? Doesn’t that make Him responsible for our sins? Is that why the Lord says in Isaiah 45:7 (KJV), “I make peace and create evil”? If God isn’t the source of evil, what can the Bible possibly mean when it tells us that “an evil spirit from God” came upon King Saul (I Samuel 18:10)?
To begin with, it’s misleading to think of evil as a “thing.” Evil isn’t a “substance” that has a traceable “source.” Biblically speaking, evil is an aspect of relationship.
As your question implies, the real issue is not “How could God create evil?” It’s “How could God create another self separate from and independent of His own Self?” This is the real miracle of Creation, especially the creation of mankind. Man had to be an entity entirely separate from God. He had to be a creature with a genuine will of his own. Otherwise, there could be no such thing as relationship or love. The possibility of love between man and God springs directly out of man’s freedom to choose. But this possibility also entails an element of risk. It includes the potential for pain. Through the exercise of free will, man has broken his relationship with God. That’s what evil is all about.
What about Isaiah 45:7? Let’s take a closer look at this passage. There are two different words for “evil” used in the pages of the Old Testament. First, there is “evil” in the sense of “calamity,” “disaster,” “misfortune,” or “hardship” – in other words, those aspects of existence in this world that we consider “bad” because they hurt us or inconvenience us in some way. The Hebrew word for this type of “evil” is ra’ah. It should be sharply distinguished from the second word for “evil,” rasha’ – “wickedness” or evil in the moral sense.
When the Lord says (in the King James Version), “I make peace, and create evil,” the Hebrew word employed is ra’ah. The New King James Version makes this explicit with the translation, “I make peace and create calamity.” The same word is used in Lamentations 3:38 (KJV), where the prophet Jeremiah declares that both “evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the host High.”
By way of contrast, the Bible never attributes the creation of rasha’ or “moral wickedness” to God. On the contrary, it tells us over and over again that He alone is good (Mark 10:18). It says that all the works of His hands “are verity and justice” (Psalm 111:7). He is light, says the apostle John, “and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). If He creates ra’ah, or “calamity,” it is always for a good and righteous purpose within the all-embracing scheme of His eternal and sovereign plan. For example, He sometimes uses affliction to compel people to seek His face (Hosea 5:15). Similarly, He works all things, including trials and troubles, “together for good to those who love [Him]” (Romans 8:28, NKJV). God may have any number of reasons for weaving ra’ah, or hardships and difficulties, into the fabric of human experience. But He is not and cannot be the author of rasha’.
So far so good. Now let’s move on to your final question. In light of everything we’ve said, we know that when I Samuel 18:10 asserts that “an evil spirit from God came upon Saul,” it cannot possibly mean that God is the source of wickedness or sin. What, then, is this verse saying? Let’s find out.
The Hebrew text states that ruach elohim ra’ah came upon Saul. Ruach elohim is the phrase normally used in the Old Testament to denote the Holy Spirit – see, for example, Genesis 1:2. The word for “evil” here is ra’ah – “unfortunate,” “disastrous,” “hurtful.” The New King James version translates this as ” … a distressing spirit from God came upon Saul.” It might also be translated, “The Spirit of God came upon Saul in a distressing or troubling way.”
Why would the Spirit of God come upon Saul “in a distressing way?” The answer should be obvious. Saul was locked in a profound inner conflict. He was wrestling with the Lord and with his own bitterness and resentment toward David. In the midst of this crisis, the Spirit of God was prodding him, pricking him, stirring him up, and driving him to deal with his emotions and his misguided quest for personal significance. His response was unfortunate. Instead of yielding to the convicting influence of the Spirit, he snapped under the pressure and gave vent to his hatred.
It might be fair to say that God pushed Saul to this point. After all, the Bible affirms that He also hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:3). But it’s equally clear that Saul, like Pharaoh, was responsible and accountable for his reaction to the situation. Herein lies yet another illustration of the mysterious relationship between human free will and the sovereignty of God. As The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, the Lord “freely and unchangeably ordain[s] whatsoever comes to pass: yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established” (Chapter III, section 1).
source: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/what-the-bible-says-about-the-origin-of-evil/
TAKENOTE! BEFORE READING ALL THESE VERSES SEE THE “HEBREWS TRANSLATIONS ABOVE”
Isaias 45:7
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
7 Aking inilalagay ang liwanag, at nililikha ko ang kadiliman; ako’y gumagawa ng kapayapaan, at lumilikha ako ng kasamaan; ako ang Panginoon, na gumagawa ng lahat na bagay na ito.
1 Samuel 18:10
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
10 At nangyari nang kinabukasan, na ang masamang espiritu na mula sa Dios ay dumating na makapangyarihan kay Saul, at siya’y nanghula sa gitna ng bahay: at si David ay tumugtog ng kaniyang kamay, gaya ng kaniyang ginagawa araw-araw; at hawak ni Saul ang kaniyang sibat sa kaniyang kamay.
Panaghoy 3:38
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
38 Hindi baga sa bibig ng Kataastaasan nanggagaling ang masama’t mabuti?
Awit 111:7
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
7 Ang mga gawa ng kaniyang mga kamay ay katotohanan at kahatulan: lahat niyang mga tuntunin ay tunay.
Awit 111:7
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
7 Ang mga gawa ng kaniyang mga kamay ay katotohanan at kahatulan: lahat niyang mga tuntunin ay tunay.
1 Juan 1:5
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
5 At ito ang pasabing aming narinig sa kaniya at sa inyo’y aming ibinabalita, na ang Dios ay ilaw, at sa kaniya’y walang anomang kadiliman.
Hosea 5:15
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
15 Ako’y yayaon at babalik sa aking dako, hanggang sa kanilang kilalanin ang pagkakasala, at hanapin ang aking mukha: sa kanilang pagdadalamhati ay hahanapin nila akong mainam.
Roma 8:28
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
28 At nalalaman natin na ang lahat ng mga bagay ay nagkakalakip na gumagawa sa ikabubuti ng mga nagsisiibig sa Dios, sa makatuwid baga’y niyaong mga tinawag alinsunod sa kaniyang nasa.
Exodo 7:3
Ang Dating Biblia (1905)
3 At aking papagmamatigasin ang puso ni Faraon, at aking pararamihin ang aking mga tanda at ang aking mga kababalaghan sa lupain ng Egipto.
ANOTHER EXPLANATION
At first it might seem that if God created all things, then evil must have been created by God. However, evil is not a “thing” like a rock or electricity. You cannot have a jar of evil. Evil has no existence of its own; it is really the absence of good. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be separated from the dirt. So when God created, it is true that all He created was good. One of the good things God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So, God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or reject good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a “thing” that required God to create it.
Perhaps a further illustration will help. If a person is asked, “Does cold exist?” the answer would likely be “yes.” However, this is incorrect. Cold does not exist. Cold is the absence of heat. Similarly, darkness does not exist; it is the absence of light. Evil is the absence of good, or better, evil is the absence of God. God did not have to create evil, but rather only allow for the absence of good.
God did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want “robots” that simply did what He wanted them to do because of their “programming.” God allowed for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.
As finite human beings, we can never fully understand an infinite God (Romans 11:33-34). Sometimes we think we understand why God is doing something, only to find out later that it was for a different purpose than we originally thought. God looks at things from a holy, eternal perspective. We look at things from a sinful, earthly, and temporal perspective. Why did God put man on earth knowing that Adam and Eve would sin and therefore bring evil, death, and suffering on all mankind? Why didn’t He just create us all and leave us in heaven where we would be perfect and without suffering? These questions cannot be adequately answered this side of eternity. What we can know is whatever God does is holy and perfect and ultimately will glorify Him. God allowed for the possibility of evil in order to give us a true choice in regards to whether we worship Him. God did not create evil, but He allowed it. If He had not allowed evil, we would be worshiping Him out of obligation, not by a choice of our own will.
SOURCE: https://www.gotquestions.org/did-God-create-evil.html
THE TRUTH (Gal. 5:14) 