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NASB | Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:31 God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. |
Bible Question: Hello Tom tgc... I appreciate your contribution to this topic to which I have taken such interest, and I appreciate the effort you put into interpereting the creation. However, I must ask how you address the verse in Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." |
Bible Answer: After a careful reading of Isaiah 45 the entire chapter I think a case can be made that you are pulling this one verse out of it's intended context. All of the chapter deals with a charge to Cyrus. Within the context of the entire passage I belive that an agrument can be made the pharse I...created evil refers to physical evil or calamity rather than moral evil. It is also interesting to note that out of the five translations I have open in front of me only the KJV translates this verse to read "I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil : I the Lord do all these things." The NKJV translates the same verse as follows. "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calmity; I, the Lord do all these things." The NIV gives this rendering, " I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord do all these things." The NLT reads, "I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness. I,am the one who sends good times and bad times. I, the Lord am the one who does these things." Finally the NASB puts it this way, "Ths One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and createing calamity; I am the Lord who does all these things." Considering that four out of five text translate the word calamity rather than evil I think this is a very weak passage to build a theological therory on. Futher I belive I have shown that the explanation offered is a viaible explanation, and that it is a real reach to say that this verse proves God created evil. As I attempted to show in my previous post God did create the potential for evil but man actualized it. This is to say that ultimately man is responsible for the evil in this world not God. With all that said let us look at another point. Does God sometimes create or use situations we would consider terrible or as a calamity yes He does. The Bible is full of examples of this. The passage you quote from is one of those examples others would be, the ten plagues on Egypt, the blind man that Jesus heals, or even sending Joseph to Egypt and putting him in the kings court to savce his family from the famine. These are just a few examples that pop to mind, but from none of these can we draw the conclusion that God created evil because each one of these situations can be traced back to orginal cause of all of man's problems that is the fall when sin entered this world through our choice to disobey God. So in short I would answer your question by saying always consider a verse by the context it is set in and always let scripture interpit scripture. I am sorry if I come off gruff that is not my intention at all. I am actually enjoying following this thread it is forcing me to look deep into scripture and be able to back up what I belive with scripture. In The Love Of Christ, tgc |