Apologetics
The Evil God
By David Wiseman
How can there be a “good” Almighty God, Who created all things, and yet there be evil? If evil exists, doesn’t that mean that He must have created it?
This is the question that the Satanist asks. Who can answer it? Doesn’t it seem unanswerable? This could not only be the question of Satanists, but of polytheists and atheists.
First, the wording of this question is all wrong. If there is an Absolute God, then He is the definition of all things. Saying “God is good” is just an attempt to say “God defines good and evil.” What He is must be “good” and what He is not must be “evil” because He is absolute. He is the standard for everything else.
So what this question really asks is, “Is God malicious?” Is God just out to get everyone?
The first question in answer is, “does it matter?” If He defines good and evil, then if He is malicious, wouldn’t that make malice good? So why does the mind revolt at the thought of malice being good? The question of the Satanists relies on the preconceived idea that malice is evil. Where did they get that idea? Well, an atheist would argue that it is from their cultural upbringing. So one must ask, why is it that malice, lying, and treachery are considered evil in every culture on earth? They have been for centuries, even millennia. Why is that?
First, it must be remembered that the original question relies on the idea that God created all things, and that includes every single person living. That is very important.
There is a point at the beginning of every discussion when all the terms are defined. In some cases, this is informal, and the definitions are just assumed. In other cases, it is more formal, and laid out specifically. But without this agreement on terms, the discussion cannot go on, and dies before it begins. There is another basic assumption of any reasonable discussion; that is that logic works. This is never even questioned. Why is that? For the same reason that the Satanists merely assume that malice is evil. It is already imprinted on the mind, so that the person does not even realize that it is there. It is merely assumed. This is called intuitive logic, or intuition. The human mind already has this knowledge in its mind and heart before it is born. There are certain things that are simply known to be facts, and there is no getting around them.
So, assuming that God created all things, He obviously created this basic function, this basic knowledge that malice is wrong. And without this function, nothing can be known. Absolutely nothing can be known or understood unless intuitive logic is assumed. It simply justifies itself.
So God must not be malicious, if this function of the brain is to be counted as true, which it must be, or else nothing can be trusted. It is only by this function that it is possible to know that one exists. It is only by this function that one can know that logic is true. It is only by this function that one can know that there are even such things as good and bad.
So, then, how can the existence of evil be explained? There are several options. Either, as Calvinists say, it is because God knew that evil was necessary to the perfect result, or, as the Armenians argue, it is a result of the free choice of man.
Both of these seem preposterous. The first one would mean that the end justifies the means, which is contrary to every command of Scripture. The second doesn’t make sense because, if God is Omniscient (all-knowing) He must have known that free choice would have known that free choice would lead to evil.
So it is obvious that God is good, and that He is benevolent, but how is that possible? It would be so easy to simply write this off as something that it is impossible to understand. But that seems a lot like a cop out.
If God is outside of time, in eternity, then He must be all-knowing, because He would then be able to see all of time at the same moment from outside, like looking at a timeline. However, if He is, Himself, inside that timeline, He would not be able to see all of it.
What is eternity? That is impossible to say. It is all points, summed up in a single point. Basically, eternity is the lack of time. So what is time? Time is one thing happening after another. Time takes at least two events, one happening after another. The first event can even be “nothing” so to speak. When there is “nothing” then “something” there is time. Just like a timeline. What makes it a “line”? The fact that one thing happened after another, after another, after another. So eternity is basically one event. It is one, single, all-encompassing event.
It seems that, at the very first, entered time as soon as He created it, putting off His omniscience for the time being, in order to be able to interact with mankind. Why did He want to interact with mankind, His creation? Because He loves him, and because He is, truly, a good God.
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