Where does evil come from?  Is the source the obvious choice of

Satan?  The rebellious fallen angel, who constantly tempts us to sin against

God and man, whose fiery torments await the unfaithful, whose black goatee is

seen in immoral television shows and the smoke of wars, must certainly be to

blame.  Unfortunately, the Prince of Darkness is innocent.  Well then,

wickedness must come from man.  The true fruit of Original Sin is the spite and

cruelty we, ourselves, unleashed on this world, right?  Can you name any evil

larger than the evil man inflicts on his fellow man?  But, for the first time since

the Garden of Eden, man, too, is innocent.  Adam and Eve ate from the Tree

of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the defiance that made this act

possible was in place as soon as God made them in His image.  So, who was

it that allowed Lucifer to stalk the earth scouring for souls?  Who put a tree

that contained the knowledge of evil within the grasp of God’s most

troublesome creation?  The answer is painfully obvious, and overlooked.  Evil

comes from God Himself.

            God is understood to be the embodiment of Good, a loving being competing against the forces of evil.  It must be this way.  Or does it?  It certainly is more comforting this way, but comfort does not equate with truth.  And it is certainly simpler, but simplicity is not necessarily reality.  This is the case here.  By seeking comfort and simplicity, we have overlooked the immense complexity of God.

            The evidence is blazingly obvious, if viewed objectively.  The Old Testament is full of examples of God’s grace and His capacity for vengeance.  God judged the men of the earth wicked, except for Noah, and exterminated them in the Flood.  He allows His chosen people to be slaves in Egypt and in Babylon.  He proclaims a highly flawed king, David, to rule over Israel.  He convinces Abraham he must sacrifice his son as a test of faith.  God sends Satan to take everything away from the righteous Job, simply to see if Job will still love Him.

            But He goes onto reward Job for his devotion.  He reprieves Isaac at the last minute.  He delivers the Israelites from the hand of pharaoh.  HE places a rainbow in the sky for Noah, promising never to flood the entire earth again.  He sends His son, Jesus, to die for our sins.  This is not a duality of good and evil in the universe; this duality is in God Himself.

            Look at the sixth chapter of Revelation.  Three of the horsemen are how they are portrayed in popular culture: War, Famine, and Death.  But the first horseman is not Pestilence, as is widely believed.  “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (Revelations 4:2)  White is the color of purity.  Crowns symbolize royalty, or the thorns of crucifixion.  The first horseman is Jesus Christ, the pure sacrifice, the King of kings.

            Here, Jesus is leading a group that will spread out upon the earth and kill a fourth of the population.  All this mayhem kills both the wicked and the righteous to pave the way for the Final Judgement.

            Even clearer evidence of God’s role in making evil is found in Issiah.  “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” (Issiah 45:4)  In straightforward language, God says to Issiah that He not only allows evil to exist, He created it.  The evil present in the world stems from God and to be able to create anything you must have it inside of you.  You must at least have the capability.  This is the nature of creation.  But if God created evil, it must be for some unknown purpose.

            God created mankind in His image.  This does not mean physical appearance; we do not look like God.  His image is our spirit, our soul, our capability of creation, our conscience, and our dual nature of good and evil.  This is what it means to be in Gods own image, to be all the things that make us human.  And we certainly know evil.  We are, at times, the vilest creatures on earth and, in the next breath, the most righteous.  Our duality is a daily reminder of God’s.

            I am not saying God is evil, no more than I am saying He is good.  These terms do not apply to God.  But we cannot comprehend something beyond good and evil.  And, as a result, we cannot comprehend God.  We will never be able to understand His true nature.

             What I am saying is this.  We have an overabundance of preachers running around proclaiming to tell us the will of God, as if they are capable of knowing it.  They tell us what He wants, what He does not want, and what He proclaimed sinful.  Beware of these men, they know no more about the nature of God than you or I.  They instigate hatred with their teachings.  They instigate shame in their followers based on their limited understanding of the divine to fill their pockets.  Worse yet, they are so full of pride they stand up in front of the people and proclaim their knowledge of God, and we continue to believe them.  They need God to be simple so they reduce Him into a caricature.  But God is complex and refuses to conform to our church leaders’ views.  If they looked at God as He truly is, they would be forced to throw up their hands and admit their true ignorance.  But rather than accept this they let their vanity win and tell us how to live our lives.

            We do not need preachers.  Our conscience is enough to lead us in this life, if we can overcome the lies we were indoctrinated with.  Follow your true heart, not the words of preachers.  God has His own way of guiding us and it does not require the words of fallible men and women.  Remember we got the knowledge of along with the evil in that garden.