Did God create evil?

It might seem that if God created all things then evil must have been created by God. However, there is an assumption here that needs to be cleared up. Evil is not a "thing" like a rock or electricity. You can't have a jar of evil! Rather, evil is something that occurs. Evil has no existence of its own; it is really a lack in a good thing. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be separated from the dirt. So when God created, it is true that all that existed was good. One of the good things that God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or non-good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a "thing" that required God to create it.

For example, if I were to ask someone "does cold exist?" their answer would likely be yes. Except, this is incorrect. Cold does not exist, cold is the absence of heat. Darkness does not exist, darkness is the absence of light. And evil is the absence of good/God. God did not have to create evil, but rather only allow for the absence of good.

So God did not create evil, He allowed it. Why did He allow it? Check out my other question about it!

God bless.