Seems like silly question, doesn't it? At least it would to most Bible believers. Evil spirits come from Satan. But that's not what the Bible says.
The phrase "evil spirit(s)" occurs 14 times (in 13 verses) in the Bible, in 8 of which the evil spirits were sent directly and explicitly by God.
The first evil spirit was sent by God to kill people in war.
Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. Judges 9:23
God sent the next evil spirit to cause Saul to have a mental breakdown. (But luckily, David plays his harp and makes Saul's "evil spirit from the Lord" go away.)
But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. 1 Samuel 16:14-16And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. 1 Samuel 16:23
Then God sent an evil spirit to cause Saul to prophesy and sit with a javelin in his hand.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. 1 Samuel 18:10The other 6 "evil spirit" occurrences are in the New Testament. The Bible doesn't say where the evil spirits came from, but they are usually associated with some type of illness (Which come from God, right?).And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand. 1 Samuel 19:9
And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Luke 7:21
And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, Luke 8:2
So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. ... And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Acts 19:12-16
So the Bible is fairly clear on evil spirits: they are either sent directly by God or their origin is unknown. The Bible never attributes evil spirits to Satan.
(Thanks to Sternwallow at the Raving Atheists Forum for this one.)
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11 comments:
Yes, Scripture appears consistent again, as you mention. If God created all, then God created both good and evil.
hehehe awsome, I just challenged my uber-conservative buddy to a book club style read and review of the bible. he thinks that the bible is the only truth, but admits hes never read it. its little gems like this that should keep this ammusing. Ive read bits of it but not much. Im a very liberal atheist so we have interesting conversations to say the least. We've known each other since first grade so we can really get under each others skin and let things slip that might normally get you punched by a theist and clink beers together and were cool again.
anyway thanks this was a good post and im about to read why god hates christmas trees which promises to lend me another smile.
There are many, many branches of Christianity who don't believe in the devil or satan or evil spirits as little ghost things that fly around and infect people with badness.
Your points are good. And along with juda's point, yes, it's abundantly clear that evil is often sent by God since God made good and evil. There isn't too much else you can take from Isaiah 45:7. In those instances where God isn't the one bringing evil, it's always the individual who is to blame (not some supernatural ethereal force).
JudahGabriel said...
Yes, Scripture appears consistent again, as you mention. If God created all, then God created both good and evil.
Yup. God allows extreme poverty to occur, ravaging diseases like AIDS and ebola in Africa, murderers, etc.
If he 'designs everyone from before they were born' as most christians say, he is thus directly responsible for every murderer on the planet.
He is responsible for designing kids to grow up orphans, in extreme povery, die of cancer. He is responible for all of it.
This is why, from a philosophical standpoint, God cannot exist. That doesn't even take into account his homocidal maniac ways in the old testament.
who said God can't destroy people any way he pleases??? Everyone is doomed to hell anyway.
How can you blame God when the cause of most ofof the things you mentioned is mankind? If a man and a woman have unprotected sex and their child is born with AIDs, is this not the parents' fault? If millions of people are dying from hunger every year, why are you blaming God when 99% of the world's population has never lifted a finger to help? If a man kills another man in rage, where's the logic in blaming anyone other then the man who committed the act?
You imply that suffering in human life is inconsistent either with the power or with the love of God: that as a God of love either He has not the power to prevent the suffering, or if He has the power then He has not the will, and is not a God of love. It is assumed that the prevention of suffering as it now affects the apparently innocent is something we should expect from a God of love who is also Almighty. Are these assumptions really justified?
It must be asked: What is it we are really doing when we demand that God remove suffering? Are we not asking that God should (a) suspend natural law, (b) divert the consequences of heredity, and (c) turn aside the effects of man's inhumanity to man? Have we the right to expect God to save men from the consequences of human acts?
These questions can only be asked of situations when the hand of man is involved. Earthquakes, tempests, famines and floods are called 'acts of God' because usually there is no other explanation for their occurrence. So if we look beyond human acts to natural disaster, we find that it falls upon all, innocent and guilty alike. As soon as we begin to question the suffering of innocent victims of these disasters another dilemma is raised. Are we saying that the calamities should be selective in their working, searching out only those who deserve to suffer'?
Underlying all the loose thinking on the subject is one basic assumption: it is that suffering is evil in itself. The Bible view is radically different: suffering is not evil in itself, but a symptom of a deeper evil. The Scriptures portray suffering as a consequence of sin: not necessarily the sin of the individual who suffers, but sin in the history of man and in human society
No no no no no.
Look. God could have created the world so that poverty,disease, etc would not have existed. He chose to create a world where it does not exist.
Thus he is NOT benevolent.
If God created us from the womb, he designed murders and purposefully designed people to go to hell.
Thus he is NOT benevolent. (And from that we have no freewill)
God created a hell and sends 90% of the world's population there when he could accept everyone.
Thus he is NOT benevolent.
Can I make it any more clear?
In other words, you would have been much happier if an all loving God had created a world that was free of suffering and disease and pain and death and where its inhabitants had no need for a supreme deity or salvation?
God created us yes, but Scripture is abundantly clear that responsibility rests with the individual. Deut 30:19 "...I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life." The decisions we make are ours and ours alone. Deut 30:19 is the logical, opposing viewpoint to your statement that we possess no freewill. One of you is wrong.
We aren't robots. Everyone has freewill. Look around, how much of the evil in your life is caused by man? Murder, famine, war, disease, they all stem from sinful man choosing not to follow God. Is this not the fundamental teaching laid out in Genesis with Adam and Eve? Did God force Adam to sin? Absolutely not.
One more thing: where in the Bible are we told God sends people to hell? If you found out hell didn't exist, would you look at things differently...?
I have to agree with Jason: humanity got itself into this mess of sickness and poverty by rejecting God in the first place. Now we're blaming God and questioning his existence because evil exists in the world.
I found this 20 year old BBC article pertinent to the topic here. It talks about the discovery of a virus Jake mentioned in passing, asking how God could allow such a thing. The article, in retrospect, shows how humans have allowed sickness and disease through living outside the way God outlined humanity to live. Purely a natural thing too -- it's not as if God miraculously and supernaturally intervened, but rather, setup a perfectly self-sustained cause-and-effect relationship of living a life opposing the way God outlined.
I also find it telling that nearly every anti-theist I've talked to or known of is almost entirely consumed with hatred and mocking. I suppose one has to be hateful if one's entire purpose in life is to disprove the existence of a loving God.
ahhhh it's like AIDS was created by Dog to infect monkeys alone, but it was man's sinful cross-species sex with monkeys what made AIDS infectious to humankind.
Please remove previous comment, bad link.
But see on where evil spirits came from.
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