Creative powers can just as easily turn out to be destructive. It rests solely with the moral personality whether they apply themselves to good things or to bad. And if this is lacking, no teacher can supply it or take its place
--Carl Jung (1875–1961)
Even in evil, that dark cloud that hangs over creation, we discern rays of light and hope and gradually come to see, in suffering and temptation, proofs and instruments of the sublimest purposes of wisdom and love.
--WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (1780–1842)
Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.
--SIMONE WEIL (1909–1943)
Evil can never be undone, but only purged and redeemed.
--DOROTHY L. SAYERS (1893–1957)
Moral Evil
(Adapted from Holman's Bible Dictionary)
There are also some biblical teachings which help us to understand moral evil.
First, God limited Himself in giving people freedom. To be truly human, a person must have the power of choice. Apparently God felt that, for reasons which were evident to Him but which we can only partly understand, it was better to make human beings than robots.
Robots might respond in an automatically correct way in every situation, but they would be machines, not persons. Not even God can love machines in the sense that persons can be loved.
It is clear, then, that God did not create evil and sin. He merely provided the options necessary for human freedom. People sin, not God.
Even though evil is because of human revolt and failure, God continues to be active in redeeming people from their self-imposed evil.
God deals with evil through judgment and wrath. The wrath of God is not divine vindictiveness, but is dynamic, persistent opposition to sin (Rom. 1:18). Thus, a principle of judgment upon, and annulment of, evil can be discerned at work in history and even in individual lives.
God deals with evil through the incarnation (God became human in Christ), the cross, and the resurrection. The Bible teaches that God Himself in Jesus Christ became the victim of evil so that there might be victory over evil. It is also indicated in such passages as Colossians 1:24; Philippians 3:10; and 2 Corinthians 12:7 that the Christian can bear suffering for others and assist in God’s redemptive purpose.
On the practical and experiential level we can say with the apostle Paul that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom. 8:37).
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