EVIL and the KINGDOM

Did God Create Evil? ...

At a certain college, there was a professor with a reputation for being tough on Christians.  At the first class each semester, he asked if anyone was a Christian and then proceeded to degrade them and to mock their statement of faith.

One semester, he asked if anyone was a Christian and a young man raised his hand.  The professor asked, “Did God make everything, young man?”  The student replied, “Yes sir, He did!”  The professor responded, “If God made everything, then He made evil.”  The student didn’t have a response and the professor was happy to have once again proved the Christian faith a myth.

Then another student raised his hand and asked, “May I ask you something, sir?”  ”Yes, you may,” responded the professor.  The young man stood up and said, “Sir, is there such a thing as cold?”  “Of course there is, what kind of question is that?”  The young man replied, “Actually, sir, cold doesn’t exist.  What we consider to be cold is really an absence of heat.  Absolute zero is when there is no heat — but cold doesn’t really exist; we’ve only created that term to describe how we feel when heat isn’t there.”  The young man continued, “Sir, is there such a thing as dark?”  Once again, the professor responded, “Of course there is.”  And once again, the student replied, “Actually, sir, darkness doesn’t exist.  Darkness is merely the absence of light. Darkness is only a term man developed to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally, the young man asked, “Sir, is there such a thing as evil?” The professor responded, “Of course.  We have assaults, murders and violence all over the world.  Those things are evil.”  The student replied, “Actually, sir, evil doesn’t exist.  Evil is simply the absence of God.  Evil is a term man developed to describe the absence of God.  He did not create evil.  It isn’t like truth, or love, which exists as virtues like heat or light.  Evil is simply the state where God is not present, like cold without heat or darkness without light.”

The professor had nothing more to say...

—Lee R. Jamieson
Luverne Church of Christ