Dear John;
At the end of Ted's post regarding "Can numbers represent evil?" I read your comment, "I came to the conclusion that all numbers were created good just as everything God created was good. God did not create evil. Yet evil came into this world."
I've grappled with this issue, as well - not 'could numbers be evil,' but how did evil come into this world?
I've heard the same question often repeated > "WHY WOULD GOD CREATE EVIL?" And that, of course, is where the dubious signification of "blaming God for every trial, tribulation, accident, disaster, etc. etc." originates. ..."If God is so good and loving and kind, then WHY did He let this/that happen...why didn't He stop it?....why why why???"
Well, I think it is really a two-part question: Did God create evil? and, if so, why did He create evil? For the answer to the first, we look at Isaiah 45:6-7 (King James version) says, "I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Or, if you prefer, the Hebrew Bible says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create calamity; I the Lord, do all these things."
I think we have to accept that God does indeed do all these things. Even Job said in 2:10, "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" So there's the dilemma that God sends good and evil - and not always as we think should be appropriate upon those who receive one or the other. But why?
I believe God created us in His image.....that is, with a divine spark of godliness within us - inherently good, but also with the frailties and vulnerabilities of the human condition. That divine spark in us, the Holy Spirit that is quickened within us when we are saved, is in stark contrast to our essential human nature. Thus we are made in His divine image, three parts - body, soul, spirit, (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) as well as that which embodies good and evil.
Why do I believe this? Because I believe that God is the TOTALITY of all that is. Nothing was made that was not made without Him. Nothing exists without Him....not even evil. However, having said that, I do not believe God is evil. But I do believe God created evil for His purposes and here's an example:
I believe the Bible contains "sublime secrets" - beyond understanding the historical and/or spiritual essence of the surface text I'm reading. I don't believe the Bible is simply mere stories of mere men. I believe there are deeper levels of spiritual understanding, but very few ever go beyond believing what somebody else has taught them, or seek the truth for themselves. But you, John, and Ted, and Bonnie and a few others often do...by using Gematria, which is the alpha-numeric equivalent of letters, is one of the ways that you've learned truth (and wisdom) and gain "proof" through the numeric value of letters in words. I admit that I do not have the ability to comprehend most of it. However, there are some things when we seek to understand, God will give it to us. Take this for instance:
We all know Moses was a great man who led the Jews out of Egypt. We know God implanted His Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) in Moses. But there is so much more to it..... in Exodus 7:1 we read, "See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet." God didn't just make Moses a great prophet - He actually made him AS GOD to the Pharaoh.....in other words He made him a vessel AS GOD -to establish God's will and accomplish it in the world. Thus God says, "You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land." So we see that Moses, apart from being a great man/prophet, was also elevated to the status of "Messiah" (savior of the people) as he led the Israelites out of Egypt.
But it goes much deeper than even that. In fact, it leads us to more understanding of the "good and evil" regarding God. In a nutshell, it's this:
Using Gematria of the letters in Moses name, connected to Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh, (which is Who God says He Himself is: "I am that I am") we find that Moses name (Mosheh - mem (40)-shin (300)-heh (5)) is 345. The numeric equivalent of Eheh (21) Asher (501) Eheyeh (21) (I am that I am) is 543. The significance of this is important because in the sequence 543/345 we find a "palindrome" (which is a word or verse which reads the same forward or backward) so we can SEE that Moses (345) emerges as a 'reflection' of Yahweh (543), which reveals the reason that God said to Moses, "See, I have made you AS God."
What does that have to do with God and His being the Creator of good and evil?
In Exodus 7:10 we read of the account where Aaron throws down his staff in front of Pharaoh and it turned into a serpent. But then, Pharoah's sorcerers and magicians did the same, and these also turned into serpents. "But Aaron's staff swallowed up the staffs of the magicians."
How are we to understand this? How can one serpent be holy while others are not? God cursed ALL serpents when He said to the first of them in Eden, "You are cursed more (above)....every beast of the field. (Gen. 3:14). He curses "Nachash" (the Serpent) specifically above the "beasts of the field."
In the original Hebrew text, "beasts of the field" is chaiotim hashadeh, and not among the more generic 'creatures' (itzirim). "Chaitim" refers to the descendants of the "first two Adams" - #1-Lucifer, who was created by God but whom God did not "breath into his nostrils the breath of life (in other words, did not have a soul), and #2-Adam, (whom God indeed "breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul.")
This "difference" shows that Moses'/Aaron's rod/serpent, representing God, IS holy, while Pharaoh's magician's serpents are NOT. In other words, the "two Adams" who are represented in this passage illustrates that while both the Serpent AND Adam walked on two legs and "desired the woman,", (another lesson for the serpent in the Garden having sexual intercourse with the woman Eve, (therefore establishing the offspring - Cain who killed Abel - and from the Cain's mixed seed, Ham, whom God also cursed, to the founder of the land of Egypt whose king, the Pharaoh, wore a crown of serpents on his head to denote his descent from Nachash, his father the serpent who had intercourse with Eve.).
So when God cursed Nachash (the Serpent) for having sexual intercourse with Eve......the term "beasts of the field" designates their offspring .....the evil ones, the ones of mixed seed, the ones who are "unlearned", the soul-less ones.
(This idea of the Serpent having sexual relations with Eve, thus contaminating Adam's bloodline, is not far fetched when you stop and consider that the "sons of God" (meaning the fallen angels) married (and slept with) the "daughters of men" and thus begat "giants and men of renown.) This is the reason God "reserved those certain fallen angels in chains (whose goal was to contaminate Adam's bloodline, thus preventing the Messiah from coming) while other fallen angels continued to roam the earth with satan, the "prince of the air." And this is also the reason God raised up Noah and caused the flood, in order to rid the world of this out-of-control progeny of the serpent, (Noah was found "righteous" but his son, Ham, was never called righteous and was, in fact, cursed by God.)
Anyway, God cursed the serpent "above all the beasts of the field," meaning the descendants of Cain who carried the "seed of the serpent." So it was that Aaron's rod "turned into a Serpent that swallowed up the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians. Aaron's rod was a new rod, given to him by Yahweh (Ex. 7:9) but Pharaoh's rod was the old rod, given to him by Nachash, the serpent in Eden, whom Pharaoh wore for a crown on his head.
This "rod" also has other meanings> when the Rod of Aaron defeated the rod of Pharaoh it refers to "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Ps. 23:4).......and it is the Rod of Isaiah when he proclaimed "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse" (Is. 11:1) (which is to say, the Messiah, the Annointed One of Israel.)....it is also the rod on which Moses erected a "serpent" in the desert upon which all who "looked" were "healed." (Numbers 21:8.) In short, and as 'proof', the Gematria of "Messiah" and "Serpent" are the same!
So God created BOTH Serpents - good and evil.....One Holy and one not......TWO Adams......one a breathing soul and one soul-less.
The past is also the future > just as Aaron's serpent swallowed the other serpents, thus uniting the "Serpent of Israel" with the "Serpent of Egypt"....so the Messiah of Israel, when He returns, will swallow death and hell and unite us to God forever.
I like what I read at the end of one of the studies I did on this. It said, "The day is short; the task is great; the workmen are lazy; the reward is large and the Master insistent....You are not called upon to complete the work, yet neither are you free to evade it."
In other words, I know I will never understand completely until I get there, but I desire to know however much I can understand before I get there. What say you, John? If I understand you the way I think I do, you are of the same heart, mind, and spirit.
Well, I will conclude with this> I liked the painted wooden sign I saw the other day in an Amish furniture shop. It said:
GOD IS ALWAYS ALWAYS GOOD!
Amen.
P.S.: I would like to mention, if you have heard of the recent Amish school shooting in Lancaster, PA, one of our Amish friends, whom we do business with, was related to the 12 year old girl who was shot and killed. Beniel (sounds like 'Daniel' only with Ben in front) told us how the Amish community has forgiven the shooter and even attended his funeral to "grieve with the shooter's family." He also told us yesterday that the fund which was established to offset the medical expenses would "soon be closed" because they did not want to accept any money beyond what was needed to defray the medical costs, and that goal has been reached. He also shared that "Hollywood" had contacted them in an effort to "buy" the Amish schoolhouse where the shooting took place. He said they wanted to possibly shoot a movie about it there, and that it would become a tourist attraction. Beniel told us that they are going to tear the building down to prevent any such thing. He is a gentle humble man. Listening to him, I felt such sadness for the evil that entered their community, and the suffering they've endured, but also a sadness for all of us who wonder how such things can happen. Even though this post was about whether God created evil, or why He created it, what I know and believe with all my heart & soul, even when I can't understand it, is "...we know that all things work together for good to those who love God....." Amen.
Shalom, Sherry Vance
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Thanks, Sherry. I agree with this whole-heartedly, "GOD IS ALWAYS ALWAYS GOOD!" God couldn't possibly have created evil; calamity, yes, but not evil. The word 'evil' in the KJV can be misleading.
Isa 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
OT:7451
ra` (rah); from OT:7489; bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral):
KJV - adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, displease (-ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), exceedingly, great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), mark, mischief (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st), wretchedness, wrong. [Incl. feminine ra` ah; as adjective or noun.].
The Luferian evil is different!Ezek 28:15
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
OT:5766
`evel (eh'-vel); or `avel (aw'-vel); and (feminine) `avlah (av-law'); or `owlah (o-law'); or `olah (o-law'); from OT:5765; (moral) evil:
OT:5766
KJV - iniquity, perverseness, unjust (-ly), unrighteousness (-ly); wicked (-ness).
John