What Is Bad?
What is bad, and where did evil come from? This post explains from Scripture that God created all things good, but evil entered through rebellion and corruption. The answer is found only in Christ, who makes sinners new.
Everything God created was good.
“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
That settles the starting point. There was no flaw in creation, no hidden evil woven into it. What God made was right, complete, and good.
So the question has to be asked. If everything God created was good, then what is bad?
Bad is not something God created. It is what happens when what God made good is turned away from Him.
Scripture never speaks of evil as something God made in the same way He made the world. Instead, it shows evil entering through rebellion. Satan did not begin as evil, but fell. Man was not created sinful, but chose sin. What was good became corrupted.
That is why Scripture is so clear about God’s nature. “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) And again, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” (James 1:13)
Evil does not come from God. It comes from turning away from Him.
That is where many go wrong. They treat evil like it is some independent force, something that exists on its own. But Scripture shows something different. Evil is not a created thing. It is the corruption of what was created.
A lie is the twisting of truth.
Sin is the rejection of righteousness.
Death is the result of life turned from its source.
Everything traces back to departure.
And this is not just something “out there” in the world. It is in the heart of man. Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” (Matthew 15:19) The problem is not just what man does. The problem is what man has become.
That is why evil cannot be fixed by effort, education, or improvement. Corruption does not correct itself. What is twisted cannot straighten itself.
It must be changed.
This is where Christ comes in. He did not come to improve what was already there. He came to make something new. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
God did not create evil. But He did provide the answer for it.
Bad is real. Evil is real. But neither came from God. They came from rebellion, and they remain wherever that rebellion continues.
And the only way out is not to manage it, explain it, or ignore it.
It is to be made new.
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“What I write is not for everyone, but what I write is meant for someone.” – Dean Butler
This work may be shared for ministry or personal use, but please credit the author when doing so. © Dean Butler
