reply to post by v01i0
Hi
I'd like to respond to your quotes that you claim show that God is the author of evil.
I responded to the same claim in a similar thread with the following. I hope some readers find it helpful.
There is an axiomatic principle of Bible interpretation that enables us to deduce the intended meaning of passages that all relate to the same
subject: we use what is unquestionably clear to interpret what contains ambiguity. Thus the following passage can be taken as demonstrating whether
evil eminates from God Himself:
...God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5
Such statements can then be used to find the intended meaning of the passages you quote. The reason so many of the passages you quote refer to
'evil' is a linguistic issue. When you translate from one language into another the words are hardly ever 100% synonyms. (I've studied linguistic
theory and worked as a professional translator.) This is because each word contains different associations in each language. As a result accurate
translation requires the same word in the source language to be translated differently in the target langauge according to context. This is quite a
different process from how we begin to learn a language at school, where "a = b". The range of some words' meanings is closer than others.
To take a simple example, 'milk' may always be translatable with a single word. But, hang on, the target language may be used by a tribe that herds
animals and has different words for cows milk, goats milk, horses' milk and camels milk. (Incidentally, I was once living in a country where I bought
a bottle of milk with a purple foil top. I'd only been there a few days, and it turned out I'd bought horse's yoghurt - much to the amusement and
merriment of my friends!)
Now imagine how careful you have to be with less common words. All the more so with adjectives and abstract nouns. Just to illustrate, OT Hebrew has a
word that can be translated either 'breath' or 'wind' or 'power'. Although this is an obvious example, the principle holds for all words,
although sometimes less obviously. These are universally acknowledged principles of translation.
Thus when the Bible clearly teaches that evil does not emanate from God Himself any apparent statement to the contrary is, frankly, a matter of
mistranslation, a failure to be sensitive to the context. The first Bible translators were so afraid of being unfaithful to God's words that they
were as literal as possible in their approach. Linguistic research and theory have now uncovered the principle that trying to always equate one word
with another in two languages actually guarantees inaccuracy! This is what has happened where older translations insisted on keeping the word 'evil'
when translating a particular Hebrew word (ra') throughout the OT.
Later translations show greater sensitivity to context, using words such as 'calamity', 'catastrophe', 'disaster', etc., as what is being
referred to is how God is dealing with outright rebellion against Him and His ways. If you now substitute 'evil' with these English words in the
verses you quoted you will find that they make more sense. The verses referring to an 'evil spirit' have a different, straight-forward explanation:
it was the spirits that were evil (not God!), and He simply permitted them to afflict certain people. (There is a connection, however: it is all to do
with God withdrawing His protection from those who hate Him.)
You quoted Deuteronomy 30:15: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil"
In context this actually demonstrates how
God equates choosing evil with rejecting Him! Read the whole chapter, and it will leave you in no doubt:
"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in
His ways and to keep His commandments... that the Lord your God may bless you... If your heart turns away... you shall surely perish... I have set
before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life...
Deut. 30:15,16,17a,18b,19b
Far from distancing God from something He is the creator of, modern translators enable us as native English speakers to understand what the original
writers intended us to understand. They are to be commended for that.
As to your final comment, Satan's rule is via rebellion. That is why it was Christ's business to cast Him out and plunder His kingdom. He is no
viceroy!!!
The Son of God appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8b
AMEN to that.
Here are more
references: 
