Menassa wrote:Tarsonis wrote:Sure. Take the first phrase right I form the light, and create darkness." But we know that darkness doesn't really exist, rather darkness is the absence of light. In effect the concept of darkness doesn't exist without light. God created darkness by separating night and day:
"And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness."
Technically God didn't create darkness as darkness is absence of light, but in creating light He caused the Darkness to be known.
The same can be understood when reading the second phrase "I make peace and create evil." The theme is the same: by creating the one, the other is defined.
Now the word for peace here is Shalom which you know doesn't really mean martial peace, but the peace/harmony that comes from uniting oneself to God, and God's will. Given the context of Isaiah 45, explaining to the Jews why the Babylonian Diaspora happened, it makes sense that we can understand that the evil here is the wickedness that is the inverse of uniting one's self to God, not evil that is created directly by God.
By defining what shalom is, we also know what anti-shalom is. And ultimately it is defined through the Covenant. By adhering to the covenant, Israel prospered. But when Israel deviated from the Covenant, they suffered. Not because God created that suffering, but rather he pulled back His providence as the Covenant have been violated.
God doesn't directly create evil in the same way that we would say he created the Universe. Rather God defines evil when he makes himself known, evil abounds when God pulls back his providence.
Which is ultimately what Sundiata meant here. God does not directly create evil, he makes no actions that are evil. But neither does he snuff evil out, allowing it to permit for ,which we have faith is, a divine purpose.
It seems that the word being used in Isaiah for 'create' is the exact same word that is used in Genesis to show God's creation of things like, light, animals, and man. As in Isaiah 45 where God is showing Cyrus that he is the master of all things, good and evil are totally in God's control. The same God that will "straighten the crooked paths" (45:2) is the same one who makes peace and creates evil.
You could further argue that Genesis 1: does not specifically say that God 'created' darkness because the darkness was already there when he created light. As 1:1 says "In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth" and 1:2 says "the darkness was on the face of the deep" so then God separates light from the darkness that is already there. I don't believe that Genesis 1 necessarily shows that 'Darkness is the absent of light' and darkness is not a thing to be created.
Except that's entirely observable from our POV. Darkness is the absence of light, the absence of photons to reflect off surfaces and to interact with the optic nerve creating vision. Just like Cold is not actually a thing, but rather the absence of Heat. We don't add cold during refrigeration, rather we remove the heat.
It seems that in this discussion there are two philosophical points that you can follow. Either Evil is the absence of Good or Evil is a specific thing. Regardless of your philosophical opinion on that, God's point in Isaiah is that whatever 'evil' is. He creates it and he is in control of it.
But that's not an issue you can just brush aside, as the what has huge ramifications on the philosophy.
Now you will say 'God creating an absence is a contradiction!' to which I will posit that it needn't be for all the reasons you have said above. If we assume that evil is the absence of Good, by God creating Good he has shown/created evil. Now obviously this doesn't mean God wants evil, as I am sure you know, just that he controls it.
Did God control Cain when he murdered Able? Did the Babylonians sack Judah in the name of God? No. To say that God controls evil is misleading, as it implies God directs the evil. Rather God dispels the evil, and keeps it at bay. Just as light casts out the darkness, the darkness returns when the light leaves.
Further, as I am certain you know, the picture painted by the OT is that God (not a man, angel, devil etc.) is fully in control of everything in the universe, including Evil. Which, whatever it is, he 'created.'
I would disagree. The OT, while portraying God as All Powerful and the origin of all Creation, the goes out of its way to point out that God is in fact not the creator of evil, but rather is creation not conforming to God.
God did not cause Adam and Eve to Fall, the serpent did.
Cain did not murder Abel at God's command, he was jealous of Abel's favor. God didnt flood the world because Humanity was doing the evil he directed, but because the world specifically wasn't doing the Good he directed and Noah was the only guy who was.
Isaac was warned not to dwell in Egypt, Jacob didn't really get the memo.
Israel had an issue with worshiping outside the temple, and because they broke covenant with God, the Assyrians were able to defeat them.
Judah fell to the Babylonians because they broke Covenant with God.
It is technically correct to say that God controls evil, but it must be understood
how God controls evil. Not by directing it, but by dispelling it. These concepts are very important to understand, because if not its very easy to come to the conclusion that God directs evil. I mean *gestures at all of Calvinism*