The Purpose of Evil

I should be aware that countless papers and books have been written, countless debates and discussions engaged, and countless questions have been asked in our history about the purpose of evil. No doubt there have been many answers and conclusions. I think that the most prominent conclusion has been that we cannot truly understand nor know. But isn’t it written that while it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, it is the honor of men to search these things out (Proverbs 25:2)? And I have not found out the answers; instead, in my searching, He has decided to give them to me, and I am eager to write these things for others so that they can be edified and comforted. Of course, only those to whom it is given, just as with me, will understand, and rejoice. I cannot impart these things to any I choose. 

The doctrine goes that evil is there because man chose to sin, that it came with the fall of Adam and Eve. But evil was there before the fall, else how could there have been the Tree of the Knowledge of Good AND Evil? Then the doctrine continues stubbornly along, saying, "There was evil before the fall, when the serpent was cast out of Heaven." But was the serpent cast out of Heaven before creation? First of all, in Genesis 3:1, it says, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made." The serpent was created on the sixth day so how could the serpent have been in Heaven to begin with, much less kicked out, before creation? The argument continues: "Well, Satan was cast out, and entered the serpent, to take vengeance on God for kicking him out, by causing man to fall!" (This is the stuff of the telling of fables and fairytales to children, is it not?). But was Satan cast out of Heaven before the Fall? Do we not read in Job 1 that Satan was among the sons of God in Heaven, who were presenting themselves before the Lord? Was not Job after the Fall? And how is it that Satan was permitted access after being cast out? So those arguments simply do not wash. Furthermore, the Scriptures refer to Satan as the serpent, and not just as one who entered or used a serpent. Thirdly, Jesus said, "I saw Satan, as lightning, fall from Heaven. (Lu. 10:18)." Was He referring to a time before the Fall? Was He not rejoicing at a present happening as His disciples, by faith, were preaching the good news, healing, casting out devils and working miracles? Satan’s power was being effectively challenged in a way it never had theretofore. For this cause Jesus came, to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). 

Satan had never been a "good angel." He was created on the sixth day of creation and was created the way he was. Jesus said he was a murderer from the beginning (John 9:44). Some say that Satan is Lucifer and Lucifer, Satan. Please read Isaiah 14 where alone is mentioned the name Lucifer, and see that the name refers to a man, and not an angel. (This is a topic for another time).

I wandered from the main subject, momentarily, to address some faulty doctrines and ideas related to the subject. Yes, there WAS evil before the Fall, but not because of Satan rebelling. Now, if there was evil, and there was, and it was not because of a creature that introduced it, then it would have been God who created it, with purpose. After all, creatures do not create; they are created, and therefore creatures. The Creator, He creates. He is the One BY Whom all things are made, and FOR Whom all things are made (John 1:3 ; Col.1:16,17). That includes evil.  

"God created evil?!?" you exclaim, "Blasphemy! Heresy! God is a good God; He is Love! He would never, never, ever create evil!" Yes, He would, and did, and does. Again, how does one explain the presence of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in a pristine garden? Who put it there? Who created it? The Creator did, of course. "Yes, but that was only the knowledge of evil, not evil itself!" one argues. Oh? Would God give knowledge of something that does not exist? Was it only a knowledge of good as well? No, God created both good and evil. Isaiah prophesies: "I am Jehovah, and there is none else; forming the light and creating darkness; making peace and creating evil. I Jehovah do all these things" (45:6,7).

This notion that God created only good while Satan introduced evil, by rebelling, is nowhere substantiated in Scripture in the least. Man has conceived such a notion because he cannot bear to accept that his Creator, God of all, would do such a thing. He chooses to believe that his Creator would instead be there for him when evil happens. It is more comforting to believe that he has some good chance of being delivered from evil. It is like children who would prefer to believe that their parents would never spank nor discipline them. Well, good parents do discipline their children; they do give the children that which the children do not want. God has ordained it that way because God is Himself that way. Children view spanking or discipline of any form as evil, and men count the chastening of the Lord as evil. Did not Job fear these things? Did he not count those things which befell him as evil? Yes, he did. As the record goes, he exclaimed to his wife: "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil too?" (Job 2:10)

Now if God created evil as well as good, why did He do so? The Book of Job demonstrates the answer quite clearly. He did so as a necessity in His wisdom. It is an integral part of everything. The Scripture says that He made us subject to vanity (Ro. 8:20). How can we know hot without cold, positive without negative, light without darkness, right without wrong? We cannot know one without the other. It is the Law of Relativity. It is the Law of Opposites. In Job’s case, he only had known his own righteousness, and walked in it wholeheartedly. Evil was brought upon him, by God’s direction, through Satan, God’s servant for evil, to demonstrate, and lead Job to a higher level, to another righteousness, the only one of true value, God’s own. Job’s life was a classic allegory, a vivid demonstration of what each of us must experience in our own way and time, to whatever degree. Yes, we MUST experience evil to know good. That was the purpose of the Fall. 

The Purpose of Evil is to Correct Us and Direct Us to God

Now you say, "Well, why would there be need for correction if there was no evil in the first place? But we read that even the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself, the Pattern Son, without sin, learned obedience by the things (the evil) He suffered at the hands of men. He was constantly persecuted by the Jews, and with purpose. He learned obedience. When a man trains a horse, that horse goes through a period of discipline against its own will. The same goes for dogs and other animals. Jesus had a will, His own, separate from the Father’s. He had no sin; He did not choose against the Father’s will, but it is written that He learned obedience, that is, He learned to submit His will to the Father’s, by suffering. He suffered evil at the hands of men. These men were given to do evil.
 
Did not Joseph say to his brothers when they had come to Egypt, "You meant it for evil but God meant it for good?" Joseph learned obedience by the things that he suffered. The things he suffered were the design of God, not Satan. When Jesus stood before Pilate, and Pilate said to Him, "Do you not know that I have power to execute you?" Jesus replied, "No man can have power except it be given from above" (John 19:10,11). So Pilate’s power to do evil was given him by God, and Pilate heeded the demand of the Jews, and turned Jesus over to be crucified. Was that evil? Yes, it was. Was it necessary? Yes, it was. Whose idea was it? Satan’s or God’s? I will give you the Scripture, and you decide: When Peter stood up to speak at Pentecost, he said:  

"Men, Israelites, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by powerful works, and wonders, and miracles, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, this One given to you by the before-determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by lawless hands, crucifying Him, you put Him to death..."(Acts 2). 

Now seeing that God created evil, seeing He purposed it in His wisdom, reading that all He had created was good, we know that we can give Him credit for evil. Don’t credit me for what the Bible teaches. If you don’t believe it, do evil and throw away your Bible. Or, do even more evil and believe and teach that the Bible does not teach what it truly does teach. Misrepresent what the Bible teaches, misrepresent what God has done and Who He is. Thus you will be serving Satan, His servant for evil. Or, do good, believe the Scriptures, and rejoice in the Lord. Why? Because you know that HE IS SOVEREIGN, THAT HE RULES OVER ALL THINGS, THAT ALL THINGS ARE IN HIS HANDS, EVIL INCLUDED. How else could Paul exhort us, saying, "In EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS, FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD CONCERNING YOU?" I tell you that this is the wonderful truth, emancipating truth. My God is BIG, and I mean, much bigger than the one (small "o") of whom (small "w") they teach in the general, nominal, "Christian" populace. The God they speak of and worship in nominal Christendom is a fake, a counterfeit, a loser, a poor concoction of the carnal mind which supposes to take the place of its Creator by devising a different one. How can that work? It can’t.

Either evil is there because necessary, and therefore created by God, or it is an aberration of creation, brought in by rebels, messing up at least 95% of mankind permanently, as the false teaching goes. And where did they get their rebellion? If He is FIRST CAUSE, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, then it must necessarily follow that He created evil. He is the Author of it.  

But I know, by knowing Him personally, and by the testimony of the Scriptures, that He is a good, faithful, truthful, loving God. Therefore, evil is ultimately for the purpose of good. I perceive it as His tool for instruction, and a vehicle to bring us to a knowledge of Him as our Saviour, Redeemer.

Man teaches, from the highest pulpits of the world, that by God’s granting free will to those He created in His image, approximately 95% of the population of mankind will perish. Now if what He created was good (Gen.1), how could it go so bad on its own? Does that make sense? Furthermore, what if you were a scientist, and in advance, you knew that 95% of your experiment was going to go wrong, and not only so, but remain in dire consequence for all eternity? Would you proceed? What man in his right mind would? Or, if you planned to have children, and you knew in advance that almost all of your children would end up in horrible agony for all eternity, would you proceed? You would if you were selfish, heartless, foolish. Not if you were a wise and loving person. But this is a moot point. God created man in His image (good), and will complete His wise creation, redeeming all mankind perfectly. 

Now, if a good creature is created by a good and perfectly wise God, and goes "bad," so to speak, and God arranges redemptive plans, will not His work turn out good after all? But in comes man’s reasoning, in his "badness," from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, from which he was commanded, not forbidden, not to eat. The reasoning goes this way: God gave man a free will, to decide whether he will obey God and see things His way. That one feature of his character rendered that which God created good, evil. Not only so, but the specific ones who chose the evil, that is, Adam, and Eve, did not confess any sin, nor did they repent. But the doctrine goes on to postulate that they will be saved in the end while 95% of their progeny will burn in eternal flames. So by "free will," man, created in God’s image, and good, has effectively destroyed much of God’s work. God’s initial good work did not prevail, and neither did His contingency plan, for the most part! 

Free will indeed! Then the "theology" goes on to say that by "free will," some good-hearted, discerning, and humble choice few will "accept Jesus as Savior," and live with Him forever. You know what this says? That there is some virtue, some trace of righteousness in man. This free will doctrine, in the end, suggests that by man’s virtue, he can choose right. This is entirely unbiblical, so contrary to the testimony of Scripture. The apostle Paul repeats Isaiah in saying to the Romans:

As it is written: "There is none righteous, no not one;
There is none that understands;
There is none that seeks after God.
They are all gone out of the way;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none that does good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open grave;
With their tongues they have used deceit;
The poison of asps is under their lips,
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes." 

By the Scriptures, it is manifest that "free will," will destroy every man, and not even a few good ones will make it by choice, because there are no good ones. All choose evil. Free will? I don’t think so! I don’t think so! Neither is there mention made of free will in the Scriptures. Choice, obviously, but those who are slaves to sin have no free will. Just think! Man is made in the image of God, Who is good, with a "free will," with that free will chooses that which God would not choose with His free will, and thus goes down to eternal destruction. What utter contradiction and hogwash! 

And what do you do with the Scriptures that declare that ALL shall know Him, from the least to the greatest? Yes, evil has been, but not without good purpose. As I have quoted Paul already, he said to the Romans: "For the creation was not willingly subjected to vanity, but because of Him who subjected it on hope, that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God " (Ro. 8:20,21). 

It is written that there was a multitude in Heaven that no man could number (Rev. 7:9). That hardly sounds like Heaven will be mostly empty except for a few self righteous do-gooders or "choose-gooders" while all the rest of creation will jam-pack the lake of fire and burn forever. The Scripture says that no man can confess Him as Lord except by His Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), that every tongue would confess Jesus is Lord (Romans 14:11) so how can they have His spirit, and be consigned to hell without end? 

It is only the self-righteous who choose to believe they would choose Him while the majority rejects Him. His own people rejected Him! They rejected His will, and now they must fulfill His will by their own?! Those He chose rejected Him, now those that did not choose Him, receive Him! And why did they choose Him? Because there was something "good" in them. So His choice is now not good enough. For salvation, it must be the "good" in His creation for which He must die so that they could make good on their choice. His choice was not good, so His salvation for mankind must depend on THEIR choice. Furthermore, if there is a little bit in you that is good, and chooses good then it is contingent upon you to fulfill all righteousness. It is YOUR work, and not God’s. (I speak "with tongue-in-cheek," as a fool, as Paul said he did on occasion, expressing the foolishness of man. Of course I am expressing the foolishness of theology everywhere preached and taught in nominal Christendom.) 

If God did not create evil, then evil cannot be explained. If there is a true explanation of evil, it must have had a purpose (though many would disagree). We speak of the true Sovereignty of God. The purpose of evil is...to correct, to direct, to chasten, teach, discipline. "He learned obedience by the things He suffered." 

When we build, we CUT boards and stone; we DRIVE nails into wood, piercing; we hammer, pound, chisel, cut, dig, mess. It is part of the whole, along with joining, fastening, erecting, filling, coordinating, unifying. Diamonds are cut, to be shaped into something of value; gold is refined in fire. First the night, then the day; the sorrow, then the joy; the chiseling and cutting and hammering, then the combining and placing, to an end, a desired result. 

It can all be so very simple. We must receive the kingdom as children. Think of the gospels, the sermon on the mount; it is all there! Jesus referred to all things in the very same way. God rules over all, is Initiator of all, Engineer of all, Master of all. It is all there! The Father is Here, in all, you of little faith, that is, of little sight and understanding and knowledge, He was saying. If we knew and believed the Truth, what is there to worry about? "You of little faith"......you don't see, perceive Him HERE and NOW.  

What is faith? Knowing God and His ways, knowing that He is over all things, both good and evil, trusting Him in all things. Yet even the apostle Paul himself feared and fainted at times. We are tested, tried, our "Tree of Knowledge senses" telling us otherwise than how it truly is. We are purged, strengthened, changed into His image. Good and evil began in the Garden of Eden where God began to create man in His own image. He will finish the job, and evil will have fulfilled its purpose. Praise the Lord! Isn’t it wonderful to know that the evil coming our way, and present with us ("Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof," said Jesus) is with good purpose?  

Of those who live in constant fear of evil, and who think that 95% of originally good creation will perish, it is written: 

"To the pure all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and reprobate to every good work" (Titus 1:15,16).  

Of those who have been given grace to know the One, True God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and His ways, it is written: 

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Victor Hafichuk