Where does evil come from, if a good God created everything? If the devil is God's creation, then God created the source of evil.

This question is the oldest serious question in theology. It is called “the problem of evil,” and Augustine, Aquinas, Leibniz, Dostoevsky, and C. S. Lewis all worked on it. No one closed it with a single formula.

But Scripture does not leave us without guidance. It gives three affirmations that we hold together:

First: God created everything, and everything was good. Evil is not “a second eternal force,” not an equal rival to God. It appeared inside the created world, not before it.

Second: Evil entered through the freedom of the creature, not through God’s design to make it.

Third: God does not stay outside. He enters evil Himself in Christ, to take it on and defeat it.

Two arguments usually come up in this conversation, and both miss the mark.

First: “If God created everything, then evil too is His doing.” This sounds logical until we realize that evil is not ‘a thing.’ Darkness is not a thing. It is the absence of light. A hole in the wall is not a thing. It is the absence of wall. Evil is a distortion, a parasite on the good.

Second: “If God did not create evil, then something is outside His power.” This is dualism — an ancient heresy in which good and evil are equal. Scripture rejects it directly.

So the question “where does evil come from” is not the question “out of what stuff.” It is the question about freedom — about how a created being can turn away from its Source.

This is the starting point. God did not create “a neutral world.” He created a good world. Evil came later, through violation, not through design.

This is a prophetic word that Christian tradition reads as a description of the fall of Satan. Notice the order: “blameless… till unrighteousness was found.” Created good. Became the source of evil through his own choice, not through a manufacturing defect.

This is the second door through which evil entered the human world — through human freedom, responding to a lie. God did not move Adam’s hand. God did something much more serious and dangerous: He gave freedom.

This is the finale. Evil does not have the last word. The light shines, and the darkness cannot stop it.

Notice where Scripture leads a person with this question.

When the apostles asked Jesus about evil — about the man born blind — He did not answer “here is a theory.” He healed the blind man (John 9). That is the biblical method. Not explain evil, but act against it.

The freedom argument (“evil is the price of real love”) explains a lot, but not everything. Worth saying honestly.

Scripture does not claim a complete answer. It gives enough to trust, and not enough to become self-assured.

Honestly: Scripture does not answer a range of questions.

Why did God permit the fall of Satan, knowing it would happen? Why is creation damaged so deeply? Why specifically does this child have to be born with this illness?

Scripture is silent. And in that silence it does not leave us alone. It gives a direction: the “groaning together” is not forever. “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

Sometimes the question “where does evil come from” must be released for the sake of the question “where is it going.” Where from — we do not fully know. Where to — we do know: God is defeating it.

1. 1
   Name a specific evil before God

   Not 'evil in the world in general.' Specifically. What presses on you.

   • 'Lord, I don't understand why […] happened.'
   • 'I am angry at this evil. I don't want to get used to it.'
2. 2
   Take one step against evil, not just think about it

   Jesus did not theorize — He healed. What is one thing you can do?

   • Help one specific sufferer.
   • Confess your part in evil.
   • Refuse to participate in a small injustice today.
3. 3
   Pray 'deliver us from the evil one'

   This is part of the Lord's Prayer. It is not panic — it is agreement that evil is real.

   • Pray the Our Father slowly.
   • Stop on the last petition. Hold it.