Come And Reason Ministries
Come And Reason Ministries helping you learn to discern.
Come And Reason Ministries
Come And Reason Ministries – helping you learn to discern.
As I was trying to explain from scripture that God loves us and wants all of us to be saved, a friend showed me this text: (Isa 45:7 KJV) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” I’d never come across that verse before, and didn’t know what to say. How would you respond to something like that?
God bless, G, Melbourne, Australia
Thanks for the question. This is an example of the danger of taking one passage, from one translation, and building a beliefs system around it. Let’s read a little more broadly.
Does it help to read the same passage from the English Standard Version?
“I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. “
Or the NIV?
“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. “
Likewise, this passage can be understood as God being credited for the evil He permits to occur during this conflict with Satan.
When compared with the rest of Scripture, we know that this text does not mean evil, sin, darkness, suffering, pain, or death originate, arise from, or are found within the heart of God.
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1John 1:5
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; James 1:13
God is love 1John 4:16
The more widely we read Scripture, taking all 66 books together, not leaving anything out the more balanced our understanding and the more clearly we will see God!