Good and evil

Questions about questions! This world is complex and we feel it immediately. This is precisely why many people look for simplified ways of thinking. For example, that God is (should be) only good. The devil would then be responsible for the evil in the world. That’s how a lot of people see it. We see in it a dualistic image of God and a struggle of good and evil. Countless religious ideas are described in this way. This duality of good and evil is also omnipresent in cinema. It’s the fairy tales that make the cash registers ring.

Among Christians, this dualistic image of God is very common. God is always portrayed as good. Better yet, God is supposed to be exclusively good. The devil, on the other hand, is said to be the cause of all evil. Et voilà, the dualistic image of God is born. God and the devil fight with each other for supremacy – StarWars says hello. This goes so far in some circles, especially charismatic ones, that one goes into “spiritual” battle against the devil. However, this view no longer has anything to do with the Bible. (No, Ephesians 6:10-17 does not speak of this either).

Those who find themselves constantly involved in a struggle between good and evil with an uncertain outcome can experience anxiety, stress, and uncertainty. It is not unproblematic what is happening here.

The longing of creation

A dualistic image of God does not correspond to what the Bible says. God is not in battle with another God of equal strength. God is above everything. In the Bible we read unequivocally and repeatedly: “Everything is from God”. This must include evil, otherwise it is not everything. God causes everything to happen according to the counsel of His will, and not just something and only occasionally (Eph 1:11). This is very different from a dualistic image of God.

However, this statement is not yet an explanation for the hardship of this world. This need is real. It can affect ourselves. There is a burden on this world from which even believers are not exempt. It is a longing and foreboding that it cannot end like this after all. Paul describes it as follows:

“For I reckon that the sufferings of the present period are not worthy of the glory that is about to be revealed in us. For the foreshadowing of creation awa its the unveiling of the sons of God.”
Rom 8:18-19

Paul looks ahead, and knows that God has everything in hand. Nowhere does he describe a battle between good and evil, as if we must wrest dominion from Satan so that God can win. The apostle speaks of a certainty. He “expects” things to change. He trusts that the current situation will be resolved and redeemed.

While he firmly expects salvation by trusting in God, there is no confidence from the rest of the world, but there is a “premonition”. People long for a solution. Hollywood and Bollywood describe this longing and foreboding in many motion pictures. If you look at the themes of the films from this perspective, you can easily recognize the stories that speak of redemption, of a happy ending. These may not be entirely real from a human perspective, but it still corresponds to the longing and foreboding that is pervasive in the world. That is why these motion pictures appeal to many people.

However, Paul writes even more in the Letter to the Romans:

“For the creation was subordinated to vanity (not voluntarily, but for the sake of the subordinate) in the expectation that the creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption to the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
Rom 8:20-21

Here the apostle mentions that the creation did not get into this predicament voluntarily. Rather, it was God’s work that brought about the present situation. It was done “not voluntarily, but for the sake of the subordinate.” Before there is an outcry now, the apostle already continues and writes that all this happened in a certain “expectation” and towards a certain goal. Creation itself will be liberated from the dependence of impermanence. The goal for creation is clear: it is to be liberated to the “freedom of the glory of the children of God”. Or in other words, as the believers go, so goes the rest.

Paul sees the current status of the world as temporary. In faith we see this and can count on it. However, we should quietly let our eyes wander over the horizon, as Paul is demonstrating. The confidence does not stop with the “saved” of the current time, but involves the whole world. There is a view and salvation for the whole world. Then the apostle continues:

“For we know that all creation groans and travails with us until now. But not only they alone, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, awaiting the state of sonship, the release of our body. For it was upon this expectation that we were saved.”
Rom 8:22-24

We are all in the same boat, creation and ourselves. We share the expectation. We ourselves know that we were saved on this expectation. Creation still does not know exactly, but it has a premonition.

No one is good except the One

A dualistic image of God is nowhere taught in the Bible. God is in charge. Even though Satan is called the “god of this eon” (2 Cor. 4:4), this only characterizes this time. However, God Himself continues to be above all this and is called “King of the Aeons” (1Tim 1:17). He rules over all the eons (ages).

The Bible differentiates. It does not deny duality, but makes it clear that not God Himself, but only this world knows duality. So while duality is recognized in creation, there is no dualistic image of God. God is above everything. He is the origin and goal of all things and carries everything. A dualistic image of God seems to imagine God as a part of creation.

Our understanding of God can be clouded. We read of such a situation in the Gospels when Jesus enters into conversation with a “superior.”

Then a superior asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may be granted eternal life? But Jesus answered him, “What do you call Me good? No one is good except the One: God.”
Luk 18,18

Jesus rejects that He is a “Good” Teacher. For good is only One, namely God Himself. Let’s pay attention to the difference here:

Jesus does not say: God is only good.
Jesus says: Only God is good.

That’s a huge difference. Truly good, in an absolute sense, is only God. Jesus is not God – this also emerges here. Otherwise, the statement makes no sense. Only God is good. But this does not mean that God is “only good”. We should clearly distinguish between the two thoughts.

The widespread idea that God has something to do only with the good is undifferentiated and simply wrong. He is the origin of all things and not only “good” things. Jesus points out that He is not God. The Supreme should not “idolize” him. Only God Himself is truly good. We should know God. There is the correction.

God creates evil

The idea that God is “only good” is a typical outgrowth of Christian theology. In Judaism, this is seen quite differently. Here one likes to refer to Isaiah, who writes the following words:

“I am YHWH Elohim, and there is no one else! Apart from Me there is no Elohim! I gird you, yet you do not know Me.
So that they may know, those from the rising of the sun and those from the west, that there is no one but Me:
I am YHWH Elohim, and there is no one else!
The I form the light and create the dark,
cause the good and create the evil,
I, YHWH Elohim, make all this.”
Isa 45:6-7

In Judaism, the view that God created evil is widespread. This is not an opinion, but a reference according to Isaiah. This is rarely recognized in Christianity. But that has to do with the image of God that one has created for oneself. The Bible is definitely more versatile and differentiated than one’s own theology or tradition. The word for “create” here is the same as that used for the creation of heaven and earth (hb. bara).

Is God only good?

This question can now be answered in a more differentiated way: Only God is good, but He also created evil. This is about the divinity of God, similar to what Job had to experience. When Job messed with God, he had to correct supposed images about God. He needed to know the divinity of God. Job then reports:

“And Job answered the LORD, and said, I have known that thou art able to do all things, and that no plan is impracticable for thee. “Who is it that veils counsel without knowledge?” So I gave my opinion and yet understood nothing, things that are too wonderful for me and which I did not know. Listen, and I will speak! I want to ask you, and you shall let me know! I had heard of you by hearsay, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I reject my gossip and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:1-6

It is absurd to associate God only with goodness. Undoubtedly, light and love are characteristics of his being. God is not vengeful. But that does not mean that He is not responsible for the evil. God Himself is not evil, but it is testified by Isaiah that He created evil. We have to internalize that first.

Those who believe that God has nothing to do with evil do not have a God worthy of the name.

Often people react irritably when you mention these thoughts. This does not fit at all into one’s own understanding of God. All kinds of theories have also been put forward, from the fall of Satan to original sin and those other doctrines, so that the question of ultimate responsibility can be put aside. But it can be summed up very simply: Anyone who believes that God has nothing to do with evil has no God worthy of the name.

It is therefore astonishing that many Christians on the one hand confess that God is above everything, but at the same time speak of Satan as if he were the anti-God, a second God who, so to speak, takes the spoils from the “real God”. This has nothing to do with the image of God in the Bible. If God is “God”, then He alone is above everything, then He alone is good, then He alone brings everything to an end.

Real trust in God begins there.

Deepening

This brief introduction to a complex subject does not mention all aspects or answer all questions. That was not the concern either. Some Bible passages you may have read here for the first time. The statements are congruent with all of Scripture. Why is this topic really about? It is about our understanding of God and our trust in God. If God is truly in charge of everything without exception, what does that change?