Our Family Bible School class touched on an interesting topic. The origin of evil.
Usually these discussions arise out of a passage of Scripture. In this case we were in James, chapter one. The passage focuses more on God not tempting anyone. This is not a statement on the origin of evil. But people’s thoughts immediately raced backwards.
And so, our intern is to review the area of the Lord’s Prayer that talks about “and lead us not into temptation,” from the perspective of the original Koine Greek. That was a good start.
But sitting with a group watching the Western Final of the Canadian Football League, some of the same discussion arose again. And again, the answer was illusive.
In God is no evil – by definition. In the Christian view of God, God is good and no evil dwells in Him. God created the universe, including angels and humans. And somewhere, evil had entrance.
The discussion came to that point and then there was all sorts of divergence. You can literally read libraries which touch on the matter of the origin of evil – from philosophical texts to works of fiction. We will not solve this overnight, but I believe it is important to strengthen our faith by exploring the tough issues – but also to leave space for faith, admitting that there are mysteries which we will never solve.