Did God Create Evil?

QUESTION: If sin originated in heaven, did not God create it?

ANSWER: Sin is not a substance, but the bad quality of a free act in violation of known law. If a son disobeys a good father to his great grief, is it the father's sin? He could have avoided that sin in only one way, by avoiding fatherhood. God could have avoided the incoming of sin by refraining from creating any free moral agents who are first causes of their own moral acts and hence responsible and punishable.

— Steele's Answers pp. 192, 193.

What the Spirit Prompts, the Spirit Can Accomplish

Whatever duty the Spirit prompts a person to do, whether repentance toward God, or saving trust in Jesus Christ, or to seek entire sanctification through his blood and that perfect love which casts out fear, the same Spirit will enable him to accomplish.

Moral obligation always implies gracious ability. In every "ought" there is an implied "can."

But the endowment of the Spirit is not limited to his negative efficiency in the destruction of evil in the inner man. He is the ally of the believer in his offensive war against sin in others, in advancing the kingdom of God by aggression upon the ranks of Christ's enemies. When this ally is neglected there is no progress; the chariot wheels of King Jesus are taken off and the hosts of Satan prevail.

— edited from Jesus Exultant Chapter 11.

Does God Permit Sin?

QUESTION: Can it be truthfully said that God permits sin?

ANSWER: No. Sin he abhors as being only evil. The most that can be said is that he does not prevent it. This he could have done by the non-creation of free moral agents. If he had been satisfied with things and non-moral animals and had been content to be the only personality in the universe, there would have been no sin. Having created free agents, who may commune with him and love and obey him. he cannot prevent their evil use of their freedom without uncreating them and turning them into machines. This would be an unwise use of his omnipotence, and defeat his purpose. It is no more a limitation of almightiness than it is to say that an earthquake cannot shake a demonstration of Euclid. The sphere of omnipotence is the kingdom of Nature; but in God's moral government it has no place. Even with an almighty trip hammer God could not turn a sinner into a saint against his will. If you wish to know what he can do for a self-surrendering will read Eph. 1:19. The possibility of sin is necessarily involved in the existence of free agents, each of whom is the cause uncaused, the first cause, of his own acts and the creator of his own moral character and eternal destiny.

— Steele's Answers pp. 160, 161.

The Propensity to Sin

QUESTION: Opposers to holiness in our town assert that those who have no bent toward sin are incapable of temptation, that Adam before his fall and that Jesus Christ himself had this bent, otherwise they could not be tempted.

ANSWER: If this reasoning is correct, it follows that the devil and his angels had depraved tendencies before they fell into sin, and that they were created with a propensity to sin implanted in them by God. This makes Him the author of sin. If you ask how a perfectly holy soul can sin, we reply that we do not know. How sin got into a holy universe is a question which puzzles all the sages. To give a good reason for sin would justify sin. Sin is unreason. In the Bible the sinner is properly styled a fool. My mind reposes upon a doctrine I cannot explain, that every sinner is the first cause of his own sin, a cause uncaused which no man can explain or comprehend. Every moral intelligences angel, or man is the absolute creator of his own character and destiny.

— from Steele's Answers p. 40. 

Does God Create Evil?

QUESTION: Explain Isaiah 45:7: "I make peace and create evil." Does God create evil?

ANSWER: Yes. Evil has two meanings, sin which is moral evil, and suffering which is natural evil in consequence of sin. This sequence of suffering God has ordained. It comes to many who are not guilty, such as infants suffering and dying, and the wives and children of men who have the alcoholic or opium habit. In fact, we all suffer because of Adam's sin.

Isaiah is asserting the unity of God in opposition to the Persian dualism, Shirman, the evil Being equal in years and in power with Ormuzd, the good Being, and worshiped just as all pagans worship the devil. Isaiah insists that God is not co-ordinate with the devil, but the Supreme Creator and Ruler.

— From Steele's Answers p. 21.