Why did the prophet Isaiah say God created evil? Isn't this a horrible contradiction?

In Isaiah 45:7 we read, “I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.”

So, why in the world would the prophet make such a statement like this? Why would God be responsible for creating evil when He is good and His mercy endures forever (Psalm 136)?

One must conclude that if God created evil, then He must 1) be evil Himself. And 2), He cannot condemn man for the evil he does since God created it. And 3) Evil must be good.

As always when reading any passage in scripture, context is the key.

The word evil in Hebrew is the word Ra. It has multiple meanings such as hurt, ill, pain, harm, sorrow, mischief, affliction, misery, and calamity. It appears 663 times in the King James Bible (KJV). 431 times it is translated evil. The word evil also appears in the New American Standard Bible version (ASV).

A more accurate rendering of the word evil in the above verse is calamity. God is the creator of calamity.

The prophet in verse seven is making comparisons between natural phenomena, creating light and darkness, peace and calamity. The pairs are polar opposites of one another: light-darkness, peace-evil (i.e. calamity).

The word evil can be misleading because we only regard evil in only one form, moral evil which God is NOT the creator of. Moral evil deals with the wickedness of man which is by man’s freewill choice. God has never been the author of sin. Sin came into the world by the disobedience of one man, Adam (Rom 5:12).

So, what is calamity? Calamity comes in many forms, earthquakes, blizzards, tsunamis, hurricanes, disease, poverty. Another way of saying calamity is natural evil or disasters.

Why do these terrible things exist? They exist as a punishment and judgment to mankind for its wickedness. In other words, moral evil has given birth to natural evil which eventually leads to death. The former is the cause and the latter is the effect.

Had man never sinned, there would not have been any natural disasters.

Once again, we need to diligently study scripture carefully so we come to the correct meaning of a verse. This passage is also a great one to help critics and skeptics of God’s word. This passage has no doubt stumped many because examining verse seven at face value, it appears God is the creator of evil – which some would then conclude God is the author of sin.

This type of reasoning (God being the creator of evil) is an argument called Reductio ad absurdum.

It is a claim or argument based on a false premise which is drawn out to a logical conclusion proving the original argument absurd. Another way of saying it is: The absurdity of the conclusion exposes the impossibility of the original assumption (that God could be the creator of evil).