Is God evil? (1 John 1)
1 John 1.5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. [tniv]
A University Professor once challenged his students to a question, "Did God create everything that exists?" One bravely answered, "Yes, He did!" The professor answered, "Does evil exist? If so, then God must have created it, therefore based on the principle that our works define who we are, we can assume that God must be evil!"
The professor now quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
From the back of the room came a nervous voice, "May I ask you a question professor?" a young student asked.
"Does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does!"
The young student responded, "Haven't you taught us that darkness is in reality the absence of light. In fact using Newton's prism to break white light into many colours, we can study the various wavelengths of each colour. You cannot measure darkness. The only way to know how dark a space is would be to measure the amount of light present. Darkness is a term used to describe what happens when there is no light present!"
So the young man asked the question to the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"
A little hesitant, the professor responded, "Of course. We see it everyday in man's inhumanity to man. We see it played out in crimes and violence everywhere in the world!"
The young man replied, "Sir evil does not exist or at least not unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. Just like 'darkness', 'evil' is a word man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. Like the darkness which comes when there is no light.
Upon hearing this the professor sat down.
It has been said that the young man's name was Albert Einstein!
