Does Evil Come From God?

Saint Augustine of Hippo famously declared that “the cause of things . . . is God.”¹ Centuries later, John Calvin gave similar expression to this conviction when he wrote that “all events are governed by God’s secret plan.”² This stream of thought eventually found confessional form in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which states that “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.”³

Within much of the Reformed tradition, this has been understood to mean that every event—every human choice, every tragedy, every sin, every act of evil—unfolds according to God’s eternal decree. Everything is ordained.

Some modern writers defend this view in even more explicit terms. Kevin Stevenson, for example, argues:

"Unfettered by modernistic rationalism, the Bible applies this divine omnicausality to even evil and sinful actions and events . . . Not only does God sovereignly govern free human decisions, but also sin, suffering, and evil."⁴

This theological vision basically presents a stark form of determinism. Every act of rebellion, every atrocity, every eruption of evil are wrapped up the same divine decree. In this framework, evil is not merely permitted by God, it is, in some sense, part of the very plan God ordained.

That raises a serious and unavoidable question: Is this truly what scripture teaches?

With all due respect to my Calvinist friends, I would say no.

God did not create sin. But he did, however, create a world in which sin was possible. The Lord is never the author of evil, nor does darkness proceed from his nature. Scripture does not reveal a God in whom light and darkness mingle, but One in whom “there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Evil does not arise from some hidden chamber in his will. It arises from the tragic misuse of humanity's freedom.

The Creator made human beings capable of genuine response. He designed a world in which his sons and daughters could truly know him, trust him, obey him, and love him. But love, if it is to be real, must be freely given. A love that cannot be refused is not love at all.

In granting humanity freedom, God made room for the highest good: loving communion with himself. Yet that same freedom opened the door to love’s rejection. The possibility of sin exists not because God desired evil, but because he desired relationship. True love flourishes only in the presence of freedom.

C. S. Lewis said:

“Free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness worth having.”⁵

Lewis captures the heart of the matter. Love is meaningful only when it flows from a willing heart. What is forced may imitate love outwardly, but it is not love. It is compliance without affection, obedience without intimacy, submission without communion.

Gregory Boyd presses this point further:

“The very fact that throughout scripture people and angels sometimes say no to God implies that God created agents with the capacity to say no to him . . . Love must be chosen. If the possibility of saying no to God’s love is a necessary corollary to the possibility of saying yes to God’s love, then there is no mystery in the fact that people often say no and that God is genuinely grieved and frustrated when they do so . . . If God’s goal is to have agents participate in his triune love, these agents must possess the capacity to refuse his love . . . Powerful people may be able to force others to do just about anything. Through psychological or physical torture, they may succeed in forcing them to curse their own children or deny their faith. They may even succeed in forcing others to act and say loving things to them. But no one can force another person to actually love them . . . God chose to create a world in which evil was possible only in the sense that he chose to create a world where love was possible. The possibility of evil is not a second decision God makes; it is implied in the single decision to have a world in which love is possible.”⁶

Boyd helps clarify what is at stake. Evil is not a substance God created or a secret impulse hidden within God’s mysterious nature. It is a distortion of a heavenly gift. Sin emerges when created beings turn away from love and bend toward rebellion. It is not some outworking of darkness within God, but the corruption of freedom within creatures.

This matters deeply. If every act of evil is folded into God’s eternal decree in such a way that it becomes the direct outworking of his will, then the moral beauty of God is obscured. The God revealed in Jesus does not merely govern evil from above; he confronts it, grieves over it, exposes it, defeats it, and finally destroys it. He is not secretly aligned with the very darkness he came to overthrow.

God’s desire was—and still is—to raise up children who love him wholeheartedly, not because they are programmed, coerced, or compelled, but because they freely respond to his goodness. Freedom makes real relationship possible. But it also makes sin possible.

The presence of sin does not tarnish God’s character. Rather, it reveals the immeasurable worth he places on love that is freely chosen and freely given.

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1. Augustine, *City of God*, V:9.

2. John Calvin, *Institutes of the Christian Religion*, Book I, ch. 16, §2.

3. *Westminster Confession of Faith*, III:I.

4. Kevin Stevenson, *The Strong Hands of the Potter: A Scriptural Case for Divine Omnicausality* (January 2013).

5. C. S. Lewis, *Mere Christianity*, quoted in Gregory Boyd, *Satan and the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy* (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 50.

6. Gregory Boyd, *Satan and the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy* (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2001), 53–55.