Question: Why does Isaiah 45:7 say that God created evil?
Answer: Isaiah 45:7 in the King James Version reads, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” How does Isaiah 45:7 agree with the view that God did not create evil? There are two key facts that need to be considered. (1) The word translated “evil” is from a Hebrew word that means “adversity, affliction, calamity, distress, misery.” Notice how the other major English Bible translations render the word: “disaster” (NIV, HCSB), “calamity” (NKJV, NAS, ESV), and “woe” (NRSV). The Hebrew word can refer to moral evil, and often does have this meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, due to the diversity of possible definitions, it is unwise to assume that “I create evil” in Isaiah 45:7 refers to God bringing moral evil into existence.
(2) The context of Isaiah 45:7 makes it clear that something other than “bringing moral evil into existence” is in mind. The context of Isaiah 45:7 is God rewarding Israel for obedience and punishing Israel for disobedience. God pours out salvation and blessings on those whom He favors. God brings judgment on those who continue to rebel against Him. “Woe to him who quarrels with his Master” (Isaiah 45:9). That is the person to whom God brings “evil” and “disaster.” So, rather than saying that God created “moral evil,” Isaiah 45:7 is presenting a common theme of Scripture—that God brings disaster on those who continue in hard-hearted rebellion against Him.
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Have you ever studied the question and Scripture, or are you content with posting someone else's bible study?
Any original thinking on your part or does the textbook response suffice?
God created evil by virtue of His creating man. Unless you want to say God shared, copied, reduplicated, or gave His glorious nature to created matter? And if God gave any one aspect of His Deific Nature to man, then man must needs possess ALL God's Deific Nature or he would be fallen short of the glory of God, or the glory
that is God. The word is "sin."
Only two Persons can stand before a Holy God blameless and that is a Holy Son and a Holy Spirit. Since God is the standard by which all things and everyone is judged against, the creation of man did not possess any of God's Nature and this is the reason he sinned for sin comes from sinner; sin does not come from Holy. The last Adam proved this. He was Holy. He was Righteous, He was Sinless and as such did not sin.
But man sinned. He sinned because he was created with a sin nature, one prone to sinning. And the Tree of the KNOWLEDGE of Good and Evil was merely a regular tree of among thousands in the Garden. Eating from the forbidden tree was only the second recorded sin man committed. So, there was no "Fall." God used the tree to give the man the KNOWLEDGE of his sinfulness and that's all. When man sinned, he didn't change. He didn';t go from holy to unholy, or sinless to sinful. These are the Attributes of God's Nature and God is a jealous God. This is why we have a Mediator. Even at the end when we are raised incorruptible, we still cannot stand before God as glorious creatures. We are hid in Christ and Christ is our Mediator. When God looks at any one of us as glorified creatures, we still need a buffer, a Mediator, to represent us to God and God to us. Man wasn't even created eternal, for eternalness is the Nature of God. If man did not sin in the Garden, he would have in the course of time died.
In Isaiah 45:7 the prophet says God created [moral] evil. Knowing there is only ONE God, that there is NONE like Him, and He gives His glory to NO ONE should have led you to the most reasonable conclusion, that man was created sinful, or as the word is defined, "missing the mark."
What is that mark (or standard) "missed?"
The glory of God.
