The attempts to understand the mysterious origin and existence of evil have generated endless discussion and many speculative theories. For many this is the greatest enigma of life and a heavy intellectual burden. Our own mortality frustrates the situation even more. As Isaiah put it,” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; The people are indeed grass! The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8 NASB.) There is a frustrating difference between the words forever and our own transience.

The intellectual quicksand of human speculation needs to be rejected. Only God was there when evil emerged, and only He can explain our mortal position and its remedy. The whole Bible portrays an ongoing cosmic-historical controversy between
God and good on one side and satan and evil on the other. This struggle was more than evident, e.g., in the story of Job (Job1:1-12), in the case of Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1-5), and in the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). To claim that God is the source of evil means to negate the reality of this controversy and contradict the biblical teachings about the contrasting natures of God and evil.

So, was God taken by surprise? Not at all! God is outside time and knows the end from the beginning. (Isa 46:10, Job 37:16, and 1 John 3:20). While God’s foreknowledge is absolute, it is also noncausative. This means that it is not because God knows the future that it will happen, but because it will happen, God already knows it. So if God is all-powerful and even knew that lucifer and one third of the angels would eventually rebel (Rev 12:4), why did He create him in the first place?

In trying to answer this question, we must recognize that we are dealing with a mystery that goes beyond our cognitive abilities. Firstly, God is love, and love does not exist in isolation; it needs to be expressed to others who can respond to it (1 John4:7-10,16). Such a response can only come from receptive beings created with a free will. While free will leaves the relationship open for the possibility of disloyalty, love is always willing to face the risk. Secondly God’s love is unconditional, impartial, and completely free from favoritism, being extended even to His own enemies (Matthew 5:44-45; Romans 5:6-11.) Thirdly, God’s unconditional love conceived of a salvation plan far more effective than the problem of evil itself, for “where sin abounded, grace abound much more” (Romans 5:20). So God’s unrestrainable love superseded all risks from granting free will to His responsive creatures. 461