Does God create darkness and evil?

How do you interpret this passage:
Isaiah 45:5-7

5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.

7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Seems to fly in the face of the widely held, modern day conception of God.

especially the "create evil " part.

If you substitute distress, calamities and natural disasters for *evil* then there is complete consistency. And that is really what the Hebrew word ra means in this context.

Brown-Driver-Briggs
II. רַע126 noun masculine Job 30:26 evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity; — absolute רַע Numbers 11:1 +,בְּרָע Exodus 5:19 +, רָ֑ע Genesis 48:16 +; —

1 evil, distress, adversity: יָרֵא רַע fear evil Psalm 23:4;Zephaniah 3:15; בּוֺרֵא רָ֑ע Isaiah 45:7 (of God), הביא רעIsaiah 31:2; מתאננים רַע Numbers 11:1

This is a consequence of the curse which came upon creation after the Fall. God is Light and in Him is no darkness (evil, wickedness) at all.

Conceptions are held by men who commonly misconceive.

We know that God created all things, the heavens and the earth and everything contained in each. Lucifer fell, tempted Eve and so the story goes. So the questions becomes why, why did God create raraah: bad, evil, adversity, affliction, calamity...?
I think of it this way. God already had the angels in heaven that obviously knew He existed, so maybe he wanted a family that didn’t know him by sight but by heart through faith. Faith and love in the face of adversity...
Really is a perfect plan when you dive into it, though hard to fathom. I haven’t been able think up a better way to create a world and test its inhabitants yet 🤷‍♂️

Im just gonna quote this: (John Macarthur)

"If God is sovereign, is He responsible for evil?
No. Scripture says that when God finished His creation, He saw everything and declared it "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Many Scriptures affirm that God is not the author of evil: "God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone" (James 1:13). "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33)—and if that is true, He cannot in any way be the author of evil.

Occasionally someone will quote Isaiah 45:7 (KJV) and claim it proves God made evil as a part of His creation: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (emphasis added).

But the New American Standard Bible gives the sense of Isaiah 45:6-7 more clearly: "There is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these." In other words, God devises calamity as a judgment for the wicked. But in no sense is He the author of evil.

Also here is the link of the article for those interested:
https://www.gty.org/library/articles/A189/is-god-responsible-for-evil

By looking at the text.

He creates Light and darkness, and He creates peace and calamity or distress/adversity.

Some think God is like Mr. burns on medication....



But He's not Mr. Burns.

Righteous and upright is He!

Deuteronomy 32:3-4
For I proclaim the name of the Lord:
Ascribe greatness to our God.
4He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

For me it is addressing all who believe the Father just as did Abraham. This is now the true Israel comprised of those who truly praqise Yah, just as Leah declared when naming JUdah. Those who truly praise God are the true Jews and the dtrue Israel.

Non of the quote flies in the face of any who believe Jesus, Yeshua.

Evil is the result of sin, disobedience is sin, and evil is the knowledge resulting from sin.
So imo, yes, God created evil.. A tornado could be construed as evil, people who experience it would attest to it being a calamity.
A disaster can't be described as good, things that bring pain, suffering, and death are evil, and God created it all.
Nature itself is evil, even animals prey on each other, and everything living dies.
God is good, what He created was good, but we chose the knowledge of good & evil, and God delivered on both counts, as promised.

God created darkness and evil to show the direct opposition of light and good. Darkness and evil are not necessarily sin, but the results of sin. God may choose to bring evil upon a nation as the result of their sin. See Nineveh.

I view this as more of an after-effect of what God does.


Darkness is an absence of light. And so we can see that evil is an absence of the Peace of God.

In Job, Scripture tells us why God created storms... on my phone, can't pull up exact Chpt..vs.. but storms can be considered calamity n such.. as someone said.

Interesting… I would offer.

I form not create light. God who is not a man as us is light not a creation. He can create it on as he did on day 4 or turn the temporal switch off at the end of the ages..

When he said; let there be light. . it would seem His presence entered the picture as the authority behind the voice. He pronounced it (His presence) as good . The invisible finger prints of God his seal of the unseen glory .

When the Son of man was called good master knowing no man could serve two masters. (The flesh and the Spirit) The Son of man Jesus gave glory to the unseen father and said. . God alone is good.

We walk by faith a shadow of the unseen eternal .

But he creates (not forms) evil .Evil is known in two ways. It is that comes by violating the loving authority of are father and are disciplined( no blessing) . When the unbelieving Jew would violate the warning. He would bring a evil on them of. Being destroyed by the gentiles . When he would inform them to go they would not .When they gathered themselves they would go in a hope of their own fleshly strength. He would create a evil to turn those elected to repent.

In effect he told them over and over like the example in Deuteronomy 7:7-9 . that it was not because they had more people are bigger that he did love them setting his affection on them . But because he loved them .it was his love working in them that did conquer the enemies of the soul. He is the redeemer


It would seem the first three days God would hide his glory for 12 hours and revel his presence for 12 . He never call darkness or night good. Not part of the final revealing on the last day..

The Bible says that God cannot be tempted with evil nor does He tempt any person.

And He is holy, good, and just.

All evil that happens comes from the fallen angels, and rebellious people.

God said that Lucifer was created perfect in his ways until iniquity was found in him, so the angels were all created without sin but with a choice and some sinned, but it was them that did it and not God.

God said that He created man to be upright but they sought out many inventions, which God created Adam and Eve without sin but with a choice and they sinned, but it was them that did it and not God.

Adam and Eve's sin does not come upon people for we are not responsible for the sins of others, but when they ate of the forbidden tree it gave them a choice so all their offspring is born with a choice, and are born not knowing God so they will sin before they do right and follow God.

And since the sin of Adam and Eve does not come upon them only the aspect of choice they are born innocent until they sin so their sin came from them and not God, which the angels always behold the face of the Father for the little ones.

God created all things good, and for angels and people to do good, and all evil comes from them if they are rebellious, so God creating the darkness, and creating evil would mean that God did not cause the evil, and did not come from Him but evil would of not come about if God did not create them.

So it is because of God creating everything why evil came about, but He did not do it Himself but it came from the rebellious angels and people.

And God allows the problems on earth to happen that is negative, and judges people and punishes the wicked but that cannot be considered evil for God does not do evil, and cannot be tempted with evil, and He is a righteous judge, so the evil must come from the rebellious angels and people and not from God.

1Ki 9:9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

The Bible says that the LORD brought upon the Hebrews evil which is something that affected them in a negative way, but it was for their rebelliousness so God is not evil for He is the righteous judge.