Isaiah 45:7 - Did God Create Evil?

VM44

Deputy Dog pointed out this scripture in another thread:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Is God saying here that he creates evil?

--VM44

VM44

The New World Translation renders this scripture as:

"Forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating calamity, I, Jehovah, am doing all these things."

"Evil" is replaced with "Calamity" in the NWT.

So it is OK for God to create Calamity, but not OK for God to create Evil?

--VM44

Isaiah 45:7

I form the light, and create darkness:
I make peace, and create evil:
I the LORD do all these things. KJV

I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things. NIV

The One (A)forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the LORD who does all these. NASB

I form the light, and create darkness;
I make peace, and create evil.
I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things. ASV

Forming light, and preparing darkness,
Making peace, and preparing evil,
I [am] Jehovah, doing all these things.' YLT

Hellrider

Those are the pre-Sata-passages of judaism. No monotheism, and no Satan the devil. Just the gods playing around, causing mayhem for humans, rewarding and punishing them arbitrarily and according to their own will, and in their sick, little game. Not unlike the gods of Greece, Rome, and other civilisations. But try telling that to a jw...

jayhawk1

Evil or calamity... watch it, or you might get into a "parousia" debate that lasts 25 pages... oh, the horror!

Seriously, if nothing else, the Bible implies God made free will. So is that free will capable of evil? By extention, does that mean God made evil?

A person could dabble in philosophy for years on just this topic you and Deputy Dog brought up.

VM44

At one time wasn't Yahweh (Jehovah) the storm god of the Jewish people who also tested men and caused afflictions?

My understanding from reading postings here at JWD is the following.

Eli was the creator god who was good, and Baal was one of the sons of god.

Later, when the monotheistic concept of a single God became the doctrine of the Jewish religion, these afflictions had to be blamed upon someone else, thus Satan was created!

Also the gods Eli and Yahweh were merged into one God with the given name Yahweh (Jehovah).

Baal just was demoted! He went from being a "son of god" to not a god at all! (a false god).

What books are there that go into the details of the above (oversimplified) history of the the concept of God?

--VM44

VM44

I should mention that Yahweh (Jehovah) was also in the beginning only one of the sons of god, the creator god Eli.

--VM44

Flash

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines evil this way:

Evil 1. morally wrong or bad; immoral

I believe evil = lawlessness because it is the complete absence of any restraint in behavior. God is all about living within law. His standard is no lawlessness of any kind in any degree, not even lying is acceptable as small as that is. He opposes any lawlessness within Himself and within His creation like we would oppose cancer within our bodies or within our loved ones. IMO

VM44

But what about God causing calamity? I do not understand how the writer of Isaiah could put that down in writing. What was he trying to say?

--VM44

Flash

But what about God causing calamity?

Based on what I read about how He caused calamity to people it has always been in a disciplinary context. Nothing ever came across as the actions of a bored God tormenting His creatures, which I would consider an act of lawlessness.

Isaiah 45:7 - Did God Create Evil?

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aniron

Hellrider

jayhawk1

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Flash

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