Light, Darkness, and the Question of Evil: Did God Create Evil?

A child once asked a question that has echoed through centuries of Christian thought: “If God made everything, and evil is real, did God create evil?” The question is simple, yet it reaches into some of the deepest waters of theology. The prophet Habakkuk declares of God, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil” (Hab. 1:13 KJV). James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17 KJV). Yet Scripture also acknowledges the terrible reality of evil within God’s world.

How do we hold these truths together without bending either Scripture or reason? This study seeks to offer clarity using the same pattern Jesus Himself often used: taking earthly pictures such as light, darkness, heat, and cold, and allowing them to illuminate spiritual truth. These analogies are not just illustrations; they help us avoid the mistake of treating evil as though it were a created substance rather than what Scripture consistently reveals it to be—a distortion, a deprivation, a turning away from the good God gives.

The question is not academic. Children ask it. Adults whisper it in suffering. And the church must answer it with both truth and tenderness.

Historical and Philosophical

The early church wrestled fiercely with the question of God’s goodness in a fallen world. If God is good, eternal, and perfect, how do we account for evil without making Him its author? Augustine of Hippo offered a paradigm that has shaped Christian theology ever since: evil is not a created “thing,” but rather privatio boni, the privation or absence of good. He argued that just as darkness is the absence of light, and cold the absence of heat, so evil is the absence of righteousness in the creation.

This view did not arise from philosophical speculation alone but from attentive reading of Scripture. In Genesis 1, God repeatedly declares His creation “good,” culminating in “very good” when humankind is formed (Gen. 1:31 KJV). There is no hint of a dark, malignant substance made by the Creator. Instead, evil enters only when the will of humanity turns from God’s command.

The Reformers carried this forward. Calvin insisted that God “neither wills nor approves” evil, though He sovereignly overrules it. The Westminster Confession later expressed the doctrine with careful balance: God ordains all that comes to pass, “yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin.”

Philosophers, from Aquinas to modern Christian thinkers like C. S. Lewis and Alvin Plantinga, have often returned to Augustine’s insight: evil is parasitic on good. One does not create darkness; one blocks out the light. One does not create cold; one removes heat. Evil cannot exist apart from the good it distorts.

This framing is crucial for Christians, whether teaching children, counseling the afflicted, or engaging sincere skeptics. It protects God’s goodness, acknowledges evil’s horror, and preserves human responsibility.

What Did God Actually Create?

Genesis provides the foundational answer. Every creative act of God is pronounced “good.” Darkness is not described as an act of evil creation; rather, darkness simply precedes the introduction of light. When God says, “Let there be light,” He brings into existence something positive—the illumination by which creation may be seen and enjoyed.

The apostle John identifies God as light itself: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5 KJV). Darkness, then, is not a rival substance to God’s being. It is the negation of His presence.

If God is perfectly light, perfectly good, perfectly holy, then whatever He creates must reflect His goodness. Scripture never attributes the creation of sin or evil to God. Instead, it describes evil arising in creatures who freely turn from the God who made them.

This is consistent with the analogy of light. One may create light, but one does not create darkness; remove the light, and darkness follows. God created a world capable of knowing and enjoying Him. But He also created rational beings—angels and humans—with the capacity to turn from Him. Such turning does not produce a new substance called “evil.” It produces a vacuum where goodness ought to be.

How Should We Understand Evil?

The Bible consistently connects evil not with God’s craftsmanship but with humanity’s choices. When Israel sinned, God’s prophets never said, “The Lord made you do this.” Rather, they said, “Ye have forsaken the LORD” (Judg. 10:13 KJV). Evil is described as forsaking, wandering, rebelling, darkening of the mind, or hardening of the heart—all images of turning away from the good that God gives.

Paul speaks of unbelievers as walking “in the vanity of their mind,” with their understanding “darkened” (Eph. 4:17–18 KJV). Darkness again represents not a created object but the loss or rejection of light.

When Genesis 3 records the first sin, it is not portrayed as a created evil planted by God. Rather, the serpent tempts, the woman sees, the man accepts, and the choice is theirs. The resulting corruption—shame, hiding, fear, and death—flows not from God’s creative act but from humanity’s turning from God’s goodness.

Thus evil is not an entity but a deficiency. It is parasitic, like rust on metal or rot on fruit. Rust has no existence apart from the metal it ruins. Rot is not a separate creation; it is what happens when the fruit ceases to be what it ought to be.

This is why the analogy of evil as “darkness” is deeply biblical. Jesus says, “He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth” (John 12:35 KJV). Darkness, in Scripture, describes the soul without God. Evil exists wherever God’s goodness is rejected.

Doesn’t Isaiah 45:7 Say God Created Evil?

Skeptics often point to Isaiah 45:7 (KJV), where God says, “I make peace, and create evil.” At first glance, this appears to contradict everything we have said. But two clarifications are necessary.

First, the Hebrew word ra can mean “moral evil,” but it also means “calamity,” “disaster,” or “judgment.” Context determines meaning. The surrounding verses speak of God’s sovereign work in raising up Cyrus and bringing nations low. God is declaring His authority over historical events, including judgment upon wickedness.

Second, Scripture elsewhere insists that God is not the author of moral evil (James 1:13; 1 John 1:5). Therefore Isaiah 45:7 cannot mean that God creates sin. Rather, He ordains and governs the consequences of sin in the world. He “creates calamity” in the sense that He judges evil and uses history for His righteous purposes.

This reading aligns with the rest of Scripture, preserves God’s righteousness, and avoids placing moral evil at His feet.

Why Did God Allow Evil?

Why would God create beings capable of turning from Him? The Bible’s answer is rooted in love. God made humans in His image—free, relational, capable of love and trust. But genuine love cannot be forced. A world of robots may obey, but it cannot love. God desired sons and daughters who would walk with Him freely and joyfully.

Freedom opens the possibility of rejecting God—and thus the possibility of evil. Not because God created evil, but because He created creatures capable of choosing something other than Him.

And here the analogy of light returns. God is light. When we turn toward Him, we walk in light. When we turn from Him, we walk into darkness. Darkness is not created; it is chosen by turning away from the Light that alone gives life.

Counterarguments

Counterargument: “But if God knew evil would happen, isn’t He responsible?”

Reply: Foreknowledge is not causation. Knowing what someone will freely choose does not make one the cause of that choice.

Counterargument: “If God is sovereign over all, doesn’t He control evil?”

Reply: God governs evil without performing it or approving it. Joseph said to his brothers, “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Gen. 50:20 KJV). The brothers were responsible for their sin. God was sovereign over its outcome.

Counterargument: “Wouldn’t a world without the possibility of evil be better?”

Reply: Such a world could not include freely loving beings. The best world is one in which creatures freely choose the greatest good—God Himself—even though the possibility of rejecting Him exists.

What This Means For Us

For parents teaching children, the analogy of light and darkness is profoundly helpful. Children understand that darkness needs no switch; it exists wherever the light is gone. So too evil gains ground wherever God’s goodness is absent from human choices.

For believers wrestling with the weight of evil in the world, Scripture offers two comforts. First, evil is not God’s creation; it is the shadow cast when His goodness is refused. Second, Christ has entered the very heart of that darkness, taken its sting upon Himself, and risen as the Light that no darkness can overcome (John 1:5).

In your home, in your classroom, in your church, remind the young and the old alike: Our God does not create evil. He conquers it.

Conclusion

The question “Did God create evil?” finds its answer in the character of God Himself. Scripture calls Him light, goodness, holiness, and love. What He creates reflects who He is. Evil arises not from His hand but from humanity’s refusal of His goodness, just as darkness arises not by creation but by the absence of light.

And into that darkness God has sent His Son—the Light of the world—so that all who follow Him “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12 KJV).

Thank you Father, for sending your Son to be the Light of the World and a lamp unto our feet, that we would not walk in darkness.

Amen.