I AM THE LORD, BEHOLD I MAKE EVIL SAYS THE BIBLE GOD
Christians hold that God makes all things completely and uses nothing to do so. So all depends on him. They say evil is just a distortion not a thing so the question of creating it does not come up. God is the real cause of all things and any other causes are really indirectly to do with him. So God is the primary cause of all but not of evil.
The Bible is said to talk as if God did evil directly when it in fact he is the first cause and it is secondary causes that do the evil. The Christians then read the philosophy of primary and secondary causes into non-philosophical texts to get denying that God does evil. They say, "I am the Lord I do evil" means, "I am the Lord and I create a world in which evil happens. I don't do the evil but let it happen." The excuse is the Bible is simplifying which is insane for the book is not intended for those educated enough to make such distinctions. The world of the time had no problem worshipping Gods with a dark side.
The Bible DOES clearly and repeatedly teach that God DOES EVIL DIRECTLY. He gave the commands to have sinners killed and gave the commands directly. A sabbath breaker was stoned to death at God's command. Jesus walked to his death deliberately and thus harmed his killers if you believe the killer harms themselves as much as the victim. That was a direct evil too. God says, "I create evil." "The Lord is a man of war". If war is a needed evil it is still an evil and God calling himself a warrior is clearly revelling in it. Look at Isaiah 37:26 NIV. “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you [Sennacherib, king of Assyria] have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.” ESV translation is: “Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins.” Asah is the word that ordained or determined is translated from. It means to make or do. It describes God as the only real agent. It is deliberate.
Clever monsters make their evil as indirect as possible. They know we tend to hate the person who is shamelessly evil and favour the one who makes the damage more indirect. Direct or indirect it does not matter. Evildoing is evil doing. If God belief is built on this silly bias we all have then it is not such a good thing is it?
Also we are told that evil is a parasite and attaches itself to good and also to necessary evil, evil that is not intended directly but is unavoidable. For example, a doctor dealing with loads of ectopic pregnancies will say, "I have to remove the tube and the baby will die. This is not abortion for I am not directly killing the baby. The baby's loss of life is an unintended side-effect." So evil in the chosen and malign sense will work on this to make the doctor and those who work with him desensitised and soon they are okay with abortion. That aside, the necessary evil way of thinking leads to an overwhelming temptation to affirm or live out, "the end justifies the means". It is a major give away that the Church tells the doctor not to worry about the children dying. And it knows the doctor does not. A doctor can grieve and still do their job but even that is not advised.
That is life unfortunately. But to centre and promote a God who validates our necessary evil and who is using necessary evil himself is asking for trouble. God belief is not sacred and not all good. The more a religion centres God such as Jesus did the faster we should run from it.
Theologians try to deny that God directly makes mischief. They never mention the book of Proverbs. This scripture expects to be read in devotions and in worship outlets. So the person saying as in Proverbs 1:26 “I will make fun of your calamity, I will mock and laugh when your dread comes” is not just a matter for them. You are prepared to use that text in worship so you are no better. You are making that person’s evil and harmful values your own. Christianity tries to soften this by saying it is legitimate when the person brings inevitable bad consequences on themselves despite being advised well several times. Inevitable? Well bad things don't come on a person without human assistance. The person speaking in Proverbs is wisdom personified and a metaphor for the wisdom of God. You are asked to make a human ideal out of this divine wisdom. The New Testament sees this wisdom person as being the same as Jesus. The Church says that the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, the word, the wisdom of God became man in Jesus.
A God who demands that the community purge evil out by killing
girls caught in adultery is admitting to doing evil and commanding
us to be as bad.
