A biblical worldview would even see that there is a cabal of unseen conspirators promoting that evil. How did it manage to sprout like weeds under the eye of an omniscient, omnipotent God and where did it come from in the first place? To answer "the Devil" is too facile and actually leaves the question intact unanswered. The Devil is evil (it's in his very name!) and he certainly is the source of much that is evil, but then, where did his evil come from?
The Bible tells us that mankind is inherently evil-- an uncomfortable thought when applying it to oneself, yet readily understandable when applying it to others. Nonetheless, they surely are, and I attribute their evil to the same source as the Devil's. It wasn't God, he is inherently good, at least it wasn't him directly. God is the ultimate free moral agent: he is conscious and rational, with powers of will and choice.
When God made mankind and angels with similar powers as he possessed and set them free in creation, the root of all evil was laid.
How can those abilities which so distinguish humans from the plethora of the living be responsible for evil? A definition would be helpful before proceeding: evil is simply that which is not good, and more fundamentally, that which is out of harmony with the ultimate good, which is God. Evil is the "un-God." When choice and will were expressed by man or angel independently of, and in opposition to God, evil was born.
How can those abilities which so distinguish humans from the plethora of the living be responsible for evil? A definition would be helpful before proceeding: evil is simply that which is not good, and more fundamentally, that which is out of harmony with the ultimate good, which is God. Evil is the "un-God." When choice and will were expressed by man or angel independently of, and in opposition to God, evil was born.
Evil, then, is the risk inherent in freedom.
All that was made was made as a home for mankind, the crowning achievement of God's creation. When humans embraced evil and thereby shattered the crystal purity of that pristine environment, they alienated both the creation and the creature from God and what was good. As a result, sin, death and evil, which are the fruit of such a choice, have spattered everything in the universe, alive or inanimate, with their rot. Man, beast and the environment we live in have all been tainted by evil.
All that was made was made as a home for mankind, the crowning achievement of God's creation. When humans embraced evil and thereby shattered the crystal purity of that pristine environment, they alienated both the creation and the creature from God and what was good. As a result, sin, death and evil, which are the fruit of such a choice, have spattered everything in the universe, alive or inanimate, with their rot. Man, beast and the environment we live in have all been tainted by evil.
Creation still bears the fingerprints of God, but its smudges betray, all too clearly the evil cost of image bearers going their own way instead of God's.
Evil came from us.
