R.C. Sproul: What Is Evil & Where Did It Come From?

What does the Bible say about evil, and where does evil come from?

Watching I forget for a minute RC is not here. 😔 Hopefully I will hear him again In eternity.🙏

God created evil. Evil comes from God. Easy. This man says evil is nothing. So God created nothing. Makess perfect sense!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂

Jesus Christ, I can't side with you if you don't STOP EVIL!

There is none beside me.
I am the Lord, and there is none else.
I form the light, and create darkness:
I make peace, and create evil:
I the Lord do all these things” (Isaiah 45:6–7, KJV 1900).

I found this talk excellent and well thought out... but I do think you answered the question. You gave examples of where we have no choice but to sin, and therefore cannot be held accountable for sinning.

Multiple places in the bible tell us that. That is why we are not judged by our works, but only on whether we accept that Jesus paid the price for those sins or not. If we put our faith in Jesus, our sins are covered by his sacrifice, not by our works. The only choice we have is whether to accept that Jesus has covered the dins, or to decide we can do it on our own (through works). That is the same choice Eve had when she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As you stated, the purpose of evil is to contrast against the backdrop of good and highlight the good. The only choice we have is to accept that Jesus covered what we do, or to decide we can handle it on our own by being "good" and not sinning. As you stated, the later turns out to be impossible. Once we decide to put all our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and no longer want to be associated with sin. We still will sin, because as you said, we have no choice.. but it will be less and less as we move closer to Jesus.

Romans 10:9
Ephesians 2
Ephesians 2:8-9
Roman 11:6
Galatians 2:16

This is without doubt the toughest question there is in life. Where did Evil come from!!!

Be meek and you will avoid evil. Simples

Whosoever liveth and believeth in me surely will not die.

People that's where it comes from

So what is good? Evil cannot be explained without an explanation of what is evil. We know that God is not evil. Thanks for the series.

It is a darker world without R.C. Sproul.

The more direct and Biblical question, is what is SIN, and where did it come from? "Sin is the transgression of the law" of God, ie., the Commandments. It CAME from Adam and Eve and has been passed down to ALL. We ARE ALL UNGODLY by nature and natural birth. We are NOT merely imperfect, naughty, or evil. We are ALL UNGODLY. "Christ died for the UNGODLY" - not those who are merely imperfect, etc.

In the beginning God created all things even evil

Evil.came.from.drsobedance.when..lucerfur..disoby..and..convince.the..mind.of.humans.

Before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, they didn't know what evil was.

God is all good, evil is the absence of God.

Thank you 🙏

To me people rely on their intellect instead of faith in the word. Borring

Evil is a transgression against God.
Where did evil come from?
Human desire.
The angels also transgressed against God. The angels, like humans, were created by God with the characteristics of will and desire, without any limitations.

Sproul: many words without an intelligent explanation.
The will and desire to find, marry and create a family, is the same will and desire to pursue our neighbor's wife.
The will is only limited in those things humans can't do ( flap our arms and fly)
Desire has no limits.
There was no event in human history where our nature's changed: Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel are proof that we are the same.
Will and desire.
If I am not free to pursue love, love cannot exist. There must be a state of non love, for love to exist.

Sproul cannot provide a satisfying answer because he, and other Calvinists have created a false dichotomy: God is either X or God is Y. No.
God's human creationwas perfect. This means that His creation was exactly as God intended, perfect....having will and desire.
We make the mistake of labeling all unpleasant human experiences as evil....just as Augustine did.
In the beginning 2 humans lived in paradise. Their choice to pursue the promise of Satan, cost Adam and Eve, and mankind paradise.
We were assigned to an earth full of disease, storms and catastrophe, unpleasant and painful, but not evil.
We cannot know why God decided to assign humanity to a world of difficulties or struggles. We can only guess.
But who we are is clear in scripture. We are Adam and Eve ( plus the curses of God, death, painful child birth, and physical labor) who are living on different real estate.

No Spoul, Katrina is not evil, disease is not evil... but humans see all unpleasantness as evil.
But is that God's perspective?
Could suffering serve a spiritual, God, purpose?

Follow the evidence presented in scripture. Cains decision to disobey and Abel's decision to obey. Each pursued different desires.....and no, scripture does not present ANY intervention by God in their desire or choice.

You are such an idiot and you're probably in the pit. God creates evil He says he creates evil. I create evil I make peace I make sick I heal. What in the Bible do you not understand?? This stuff is in the Bible!! God creates evil. God creates all things. He is the all-powerful. And I'm sure by now you know what He means when He says this!!

Praise God for this humbling and expansive message on sin.

How could God find fault in Calvinism for not only did He cause sin, He determined the individual's sin, and then punishes them for His determined will?

if you congregation needs told ths then they must be weak

No one needs to have the meaning of evil explained with the exception of tiny children. When it comes to the question of where it stems from then the answer is again simple. Man's human nature. Every human alive possesses cunning but only some turn it to pure evil. No god. No Satan. Just pure and simple human nature. Religion is a pathetic hidey hole for those who bury their evil intent. I go to church so I am good. AS IF.

I wonder why Dr Sproul didn’t go to Romans 12:21. If it is Gods will for us to overcome evil with good, then evil must exist. And as God doesn’t change it is His will even in eternity 😱 yet God is the greatest overcomer of evil with good!

Just 7 mins in, this is so good!!

And yet, there exists one other possibility - there is no God. While we have right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust in our definitions of events around/within us yet, alone these dichotomies do not imply the existence of a perfect being. Rather, they demonstrate man's ability to reason, judge, act, and attempt to understand the world in which we live. While man struggles with evolutionary theory (constantly revising it to fit the observable universe) and likewise the problem of evil's source in God's creation, it becomes quite clear that no one has "all the answers". As no one can prove the existence of God nor the Big Bang Theory, it comes back to each individual's "faith" in whatever system of foundation they choose. For the Christian, it was fore-ordained. For the evolutionist, it was free will. Who can truly say which is right for no one can prove either beyond any doubt.

This should have 17 billion views

Turns out even this most complex and fundamental question is explained manifestly in the cross. "It pleased God to crush him."

The High Court sat 24 and 3
Before them stood the 4 empires
Judgement was passed but One had jurisdiction over the conclave
It was decided that the only way to destroy evil was to follow the Most Highest's machination
The ancient plan, set in motion in harmony with the entire creation
The universe in its vastness complete with All knowledge contained within the being of The Creator, in which we live and move within His being
Holy Holy Holy the gallery repeats in astonishment because they had in their view the Most Perfect plan, and they saw it, completed
So again and again they in awe proclaimed: Holy Holy Holy

I cannot wait until this wicked world is OVER!

I just love how all the self proclaimed "Bible scholars" in the comments have it all figured out and can solve this issue in a few sentences. Meanwhile, a seasoned Bible teacher takes almost an hour and still has the humility to say he does not know. There's something to be gained from that.

Another blind fanatic talking and trying to gather other fanatics alike into his weak beliefs.
Explain this:
-What fair and Holly God would make a world where the next generations of his making would forever pay for the sins of His Creation?
-What Fair God tries to limit the intelligence of His making, if not by His own insecurities and fears about His creation becoming too much evolved and surpasses His own knowledge?
-The Bibles were written by men trying to dominate and subjugate other men and it is working, so far.
-The Self-proclaimed Guardians of the Faith are all sinners/rapists of those innocent enough to belive in what they say, those they should protect by vow.
-The alleged Gods have never shown-up after their creation to confirm "By Facts" that that those Testaments made by men were really made by a God.
-These "Gods" never came back to fix their failures. They never prevented the newborn babies and children's sufferings for their errors as God/Creators: Instead, they allowed Evil to exist and punish their creation even more.
-It is very easy to anybody to self-proclaim as being a God but leave such a mess behind for the humanity to suffer.
-What is the difference of being any God or any Devil in this world of such injustices and suffering?
-After seeing all this suffering by the innocent, I am on my own, and I don't need any such a God to live my life as I wish.
-I will pay for any injustice I cause to my brothers freely, without having to pray and kiss the hand who blesses and approves for these torturers to survives by money.
-If I am to be struck by a lightning for these words it would just be a natural phenomenon, since one day I will die with or without praying any empty words to any 'God' I don't believe, anyways.
-It's time for this humanity to open their eyes and start to look for their own sake, instead of feeding money into all of this non-sense.
-I am my own God, a fruit of a "Sin" according to the Bibles, and will either survive or die with a blow to my head but in no need of any religion or opinions telling me what I should do to myself.
-Have a great day and Yea, yea, yea: You can curse me as much as you wish, too: That does not mean anything to me.
*Oh, sorry, just cracked a nasty one!
The unrepentant.

Definition of sin is:
Satan's invisible nature.

Awesome conclusion: i don't know the origin of evil but I know the future of it. It is another scholar who addresses these difficult theory about the truth that God is the only One who could and did allow the ungodly to exist

The doctrine was not explicit in the New Testament, but inferred by some theologians and apologists1. The doctrine was debated, schismed, and developed over several centuries3. It was confirmed as official church doctrine at two ecumenical councils: Nicea (325 A.D.) and Constantinople (381 A.D.)34. The councils were influenced by the Roman emperors Constantine and Theodosius4. The debate over the Trinity started relatively late in Christian history. It's NOT scriptural!!

God said: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Therefore I say unto you: because, daily, you live in fear of "good and evil" and believe and expect these more than you believe that God is abundant LIFE and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE within you, supplying you with all things necessary for health and well-being, it is your most feared "good and evil" experiences you attract into your life and body. Your beliefs in "good and evil" obscure - CLOUD OVER - all that God has in store for you if only you will believe in UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

You judge your todays and expect of your tomorrows what you have experienced in the past. Therefore, are the ills of your yesterdays continually repeated in the future.

You are enslaved by your memories and your undeviating beliefs that what was past must return again and again to burden and wound you.

You do not need to heal your body or try to make your life better, you need to heal your beliefs!

Jesus has told you there is nothing solid under the sun.

So if you could heal your beliefs, bring your beliefs into line with the true Intention of God for you, the wrong beliefs governing your body and life, will dissolve like mist in the sun.

Your every circumstance will immediately come back to the Divine Intention behind all creation.

You will find that for every difficulty, for every lack of every kind, there is always a means to end the difficulty, there is always a filling of your basket to meet your need.

What did you think happened when the sick came to Jesus and he laid his hands upon them?

Was Jesus thinking about the illness? Was Jesus wondering if the person will be healed? Was Jesus afraid God may be sleeping or is so far away he cannot be heard?

No! If these were the disbelieving thoughts of Jesus, there will be no healing.

When a person approached Jesus for healing, he immediately rejoiced because Jesus knew that the Power which is God is within him, ready and waiting to heal the moment he asked. Jesus gave thanks because he knew that the Will of God is health, not sickness. Therefore, Jesus prayed that the Will of God be done in the sick person. As Jesus removed the beliefs in sickness from the body of the sick person and KNEW that the Will of God of health is flowing into his system, so does the appearance - the appearance - of sickness change into health and the body is made whole once more. 

Sickness is nothing more than a lowering of vitality - a reduction of LIFE - within the affected part. Restore life to the true Intention and Plan of your system and the entire system functions as it should.

You have been told that God sends sicknesses, plagues, famines, destruction to nations when they do not keep his laws and that you yourself are punished by a wrathful God for sins you have committed. What is punishment but evil-doing under the guise of goodness? Therefore I say unto you: evil does not come from God. How can God be of two parts - good and evil?

It is only in your mind that you conceive good and evil, only in your heart do you think and feel it. These thoughts and feelings have nothing to do with God who is within you, bringing you every good thing if you will but believe this is so.

It is your beliefs in good and evil, and the good and evil in your heart, which brings you sicknesses.

In reality, we live within the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, and we are governed by God, but because you believe in the punishments from God, believe that a blood sacrifice saved you, believe that you are heir to sickness, poverty and misery, you create with your mind, the very things you do not want.

But be not downcast - rejoice and be glad and know that those who experience lack, far from being "punished" and "abandoned" by God, even though they have "sinned," are truly blessed.

Talking too much...get to the point...

Jesus taught us how to pray, "... lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil ...".
The evil that Jesus refers to is Satan.
And we understand that the corrupted angel became Satan. So the second question of this speech is how did the angels, who were not created evil, fall?
I guess that previously unfallen angels were created without evil, but with an imaginary will.
It wasn't free will.
Free will is defined as a choice inherent in humans that even God cannot intervene. When the will is set according to God's decree, it is not free will.
After being created by God, it (Satan) imagined that one day he would be willing to become like God. It (Satan) challenged the will of God's infinite and absolute authority. It persuaded the other angels with his challenging imagination.
Then, God declared that the imagining was far beyond His authority, and , God judged Satan to receive eternal punishment in hell, after the creation of the world and the end of human history. So, as a fallen angel, it became the evil Satan. Other angels who were persuaded by Satan became demons. Satan tempted Eve to fall like that. Evil Satan and demons will tempt Adam's descendants until the end of the world.
It is not unrighteous for God to create imaginable angels. But when the angels imagined being like God, they fell and became evil.
Some of the fallen mankind will be saved through faith through the substitutionary work of Jesus, but the Bible does not say that Satan and some of the devils who have fallen also have a way of salvation. The good God, who does not have evil, did not create evil Himself. The archangel called Lucifer had the arrogance to compare himself with God with it's own imagination. The beginning of it's pride was from the imagination God had given it. It's depraved pride imagination is forever unforgivable.

When there was only GOD there was not evil. Evil is linked to the reality, physical and spiritual, post creation. So what fundamentally changed? The existence of fiction. When only GOD there was no fiction, only Fact/Truth. For GOD was everything not just in everything or creator of everything or a will sustaining everything, he was all and all forever, his mere thoughts led to more truth/fact. There was nothing else, only truth and no potential for untruth/fiction. The Father of Lies, existing within a post creation universe of else-ness - where there is now something else besides the perfect, complete, eternal truth of GOD, leverages the potential for other else-ness beyond what has actually been created. For the creation, unlike GOD, is changing, and it exists in time. And therefore is unknown to all creatures NOT GOD. Creatures can formulate a potential else-ness that is not of GODS will. in fact, because they are not GOD and do not know 100% all things and future things, any formulation from a creature will be un-GODly. If the definition of sin is ungodliness, then everything not GOD including thoughts, is in some respect sinful. The will only comes into play at the transference of the ungodly, aka the lie. The punishment/liability is not for the sin, aka the fiction that pre-existed the transference. The liability is a consequence of the inaction of not correcting & countering a untruth and destroying it with truth. AKA allowing the father of lies to breed a second lie, leads to further lies. And we know that what sets us free is not - not sinning, what sets us free is the Truth and only the Truth. When we are transformed and become one with GOD it will be impossible for us to not counter and destroy all fiction we encounter with truth.

I am agreeing with Augustine...Gods glory is amplified against dark evil. Christ sacrifice on the cross is under ful control over evil. Right through the bible controls evil to do good. Judas was ordained to be evil ....he had a predetermined task in order for Gods will to be fulfilled. I cannot understand it..but i accept Gods will always for He knows best

The finitude of creation makes its infiniture impossible. It is destructible. That is the nature of sin.
Sin is built into the nature of creation.

The freedom to obey or disobey has been built into our being by God. The only thing we can give to God is our obedience. Even our good works are like filthy rags but that is all we have to offer, not as a payment but as a offering of our of our respect and appreciation.

I don't think it's that hard. When we read Isaiah 45:7- 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Its not too hard to conclude that God created evil jist like God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In order for us to have any understanding, we must know both. If we didn't have contrast or opposite, we wouldn't even have definitons of things...you cannot have sweet without bitter, you cannot have light without dark, joy without sorrow ect...this was the whole point. God created evil (Satan) out of the corrupt dust of the earth in the first chapter of Genesis...it was all for a purpose.

Isaiah 45:7 all is out of God

Since 1971-72 I have (very much) listened to and read R C's writings...and loved all he has done. To take all the subjects on that which he has done and, for me, always staggered me with his God-given ability to make/enable me to grasp the truth...or even enable me to grasp a part of these things that nobody else ever came close to...or they never even tried to take these monumental questions on. He was very intelligent, yet he would be able to look upon the simplest of us and somehow very gently leave us with things to take away from whatever he was teaching.
I am happy he is in heaven with his God and Savior in complete bliss, though I am still often wanting to see that beautiful face, hear that voice that I never tire of. Thank you Lord for such a man, such a wonderful friend as R. C.

Didn't God answer the question in genesis after he punish Adam, eve and the snake when he said behold! Man has become like one of us to know good and evil.

Good and evil come from humans, simple as that.