Where Did Evil Come From? Understanding the Origin of Evil and Free Will
Evil, sin, death, and deception—how did these things come to exist if God is all-loving and only creates what is good? This is one of the most important questions in all of Scripture. Many struggle with it, yet the Bible offers a clear and powerful answer: evil exists not because God created it, but because He created love—and love requires freedom.
📜 Introduction: Love’s Most Painful Risk
Why does evil exist in a universe created by an all-good, all-loving God? It’s one of the most difficult questions ever asked. If God is light, how can there be darkness? If God is love, how did hatred, envy, and rebellion come to be?
The answer lies in one powerful truth: God created love—and real love demands freedom. In that freedom, there existed the potential to choose a path outside of His will. Not because God designed evil, but because He gave His creation the ability to either love Him or walk away.
And God, in His foreknowledge, knew what would happen. He foresaw Lucifer’s rebellion. He knew Adam and Eve would fall. He knew that grief, pain, and the cross would follow. Yet He still chose to create. This is the depth of His love. A love so pure, so selfless, that it risked rejection in order to make room for relationship.
This study explores how evil came into being—not as a thing God made, but as a result of freedom misused, and how even that tragedy reveals the infinite love and long-suffering of our Creator.
God Is Love—And Love Demands Freedom
📖 1 John 4:8 – “God is love.”
🔎 God is the source of all goodness, truth, beauty, and life. But love, by nature, cannot be forced. It must be freely given.
📖 Deuteronomy 30:19 – “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life…”
🔎 When God created angels and humanity, He gave them the ability to choose whether or not to love, trust, and follow Him.
🔎 This divine gift of free will is at the heart of the great controversy between good and evil. Without choice, there can be no true love—only programming.
🔎 God doesn’t want robots or slaves; He desires sons and daughters who love Him from the heart.
🔎 But with that choice came the risk of rebellion. God saw it coming. And in love, He still said “Let there be light.”
Evil Began With a Choice to Rebel
📖 Ezekiel 28:15 – “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
🔎 The Bible reveals that Lucifer, a high-ranking angel in heaven, was created perfect. He stood in the presence of God. He had wisdom, beauty, and honor. But he became lifted up with pride.
📖 Isaiah 14:13 – “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven… I will be like the most High.”
🔎 Lucifer’s rebellion was born not from external temptation, but from a corrupt desire for self-exaltation. He chose to step outside the perfect law of God. He created a path that did not previously exist.
📖 John 8:44 – “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth… for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
🔎 Evil began with one being’s decision to reject God’s love and law. And through him, sin entered.
Evil Is the Absence of God’s Light
Evil is not a “thing” God made. Just as darkness is not created—it is the absence of light, evil is what fills the void when God’s character is rejected.
📖 John 3:19 – “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…”
🔎 Lucifer’s choice unplugged him from the Source of life. And in that disconnect, lies, death, lust, and hate flowed in like poison. The same happens when people today reject the Spirit of God.
✅ Evil is the tragic byproduct of freedom without love—a hollow place that tries to reign without God.
When Earth Was Taken Hostage—And the Accuser Was Exposed
📖 Romans 6:16 – “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are…”
🔎 When Adam and Eve chose to follow the serpent rather than obey God, they surrendered the dominion God had given them (Genesis 1:26).
🔎 In that moment, Earth was taken hostage—falling under the rulership of the one they obeyed.
📖 2 Corinthians 4:4 – “The god of this world hath blinded the minds…”
🔎 Satan did not become “god” of this world by divine appointment—but through usurpation, by deception. He claimed the crown man gave up.
📖 Luke 4:6 – Satan said to Jesus: “All this power will I give thee… for that is delivered unto me.” And Jesus didn’t argue.
🔎 But here’s the beauty: God allowed the takeover so the evidence could be seen.
📖 Psalm 9:16 – “The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.”
🔎 Satan accused God of tyranny—yet through his own kingdom, he displayed the fruits of his rebellion: oppression, death, false worship, and destruction.
📖 Job 5:13 – “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness…”
✅ God used the rebellion to answer every lie. Every system Satan builds eventually crumbles under its own corruption.
📖 Nahum 1:9 – “Affliction shall not rise up the second time.”
🔎 In the end, the accuser of the Most High proves his own guilt, and the universe sees clearly: God’s way was always just, always good, always true.
The Cross Reveals the True Nature of Evil and Love
📖 Romans 5:8 – “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
🔎 God didn’t create evil—but He took responsibility for defeating it.
At the cross:
Evil exposed its full face—injustice, betrayal, bloodlust, cruelty
Love revealed its full strength—sacrifice, forgiveness, power, and victory
🔎 Jesus chose to enter our suffering. He didn’t just answer the question of evil—He crushed it with selfless love.
📖 Isaiah 53:3-5 – “He is despised and rejected… wounded for our transgressions…”
Love That Grieved—The Risk God Took
God didn’t accidentally allow evil. He chose to allow freedom—and knew it would cost Him everything.
📖 Revelation 13:8 – “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
🔎 Before creating the first star, God foresaw Calvary. He saw the betrayal. The crown of thorns. The darkness of Gethsemane. Yet He still created you and me.
✅ This is the highest proof of divine love: He gave freedom, knowing we might turn against Him, so that those who choose Him will love Him forever.
📖 John 15:13 – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
💡 Final Reflection: Evil Was Chosen—But Love Will Triumph
📖 Revelation 21:4 – “And God shall wipe away all tears… and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying…”
🔎 God made everything good. But He also made it free. Evil came from a choice—a willful rejection of love, truth, and life. But God didn’t abandon us. He entered our darkness, bore our grief, and opened the way back to the Tree of Life.
🔥 Evil was not meant to last. It will be destroyed forever and only love—freely chosen, never forced—will remain.