Who created evil?

It is impossible to understand where evil came from without having a full understanding of evil. A comprehensive definition of evil is any decision made that does not result in love being returned to GOD. Another way of saying this might be, since GOD loves us very much and desires to be loved in returned, he created man with the ability to express love or withhold love, the root of what many call “Free Will”. Free will is not a foreign concept, and many people say that GOD gave us the ability to choose good or evil. This is such a weak definition of free will that it really doesn’t do GOD or free will any favors. The argument could be made that if free will is the choice between good or evil, then evil must have already existed because it is one of the choices on the list. This is not the definition of free will established by the bible. A better understanding of free will would be that it is more the choice to be loving or unloving toward another (selflessness toward another or selfishness in spite of another). Also, it’s important to mention that evil did not exist until the very first unloving action was chosen. Then, evil was created, not by GOD, but by the first being to be unloving toward GOD, the bible tells us that this being was Satan. Since GOD is all good, then choosing anything other than GOD is choosing something that is not of the good. The bible says in John that GOD is Love; therefore evil is the absence of love.

Consider the conversation between GOD and Satan before evil was created. Satan would have come to GOD and expressed his interest in creating something. GOD would explain to Satan that all things that are good have already been created, that all good was created by GOD and that no more good than what GOD has already created can be created. Satan, not understanding the infinity of GOD’s goodness, would leave and search in vain for something more that can be created that is good. Finally, understanding GOD’s infinity, Satan gets frustrated because he cannot create anything further that is good, because all goodness has existed as infinitely as GOD himself. Unable to see clearly, Satan becomes jealous of GOD. Jealousy is not good, and therefore not of GOD, evil is created. Immediately, Satan is cast away from GOD by his hate, which is the opposite of love. After all, we all know that love and hate cannot coexist.

So why do innocent people end up hurt by evil? Well that is the very nature or evil; it does not “happen” to the guilty, it is “created” by the guilty. GOD is innocent of evil, yet HE was the recipient of Satan’s unloving nature. I believe this to be a fundamental understanding of good and evil and that every decision we make is loving or unloving, good or evil, of GOD or not of GOD. Therefore, if we are not choosing to follow GOD, and GOD is everything that is good, then we are choosing to be evil.