Did God Create Evil? Christian Caller Challenges Rabbi Tovia Singer

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]I was wondering about the passage in Isaiah where God says that he creates light and darkness, good and evil. How we should interpret that.

[00:00:11]>> God created good and evil, right? So let's play a thought experiment and I think this will help you.

[00:00:29]>> Welcome to Revelation on Trial. I'm Tacia Kadosh.

[00:00:32]>> I'm Rabbi Tovia Singer.

[00:00:34]>> Let's get into it.

[00:00:35]>> So such a thoughtful question. Number one, what does that mean? And number two is why is it there?

[00:00:43]like how did it wind up in Isaiah 45.

[00:00:45]So, we're going to ask two questions.

[00:00:47]The first is most important that God created evil and it's not the only place God created good and evil, right? That's what we find in this passage. He formed light. He created darkness. I am the Lord who does all these things. Now, and we have the same thing in Deuteronomy 30. So, let's play a thought experiment and I think this will help you. Imagine if God didn't create evil or an evil inclination.

[00:01:16]Let's say he didn't do that, right? So, what would the world look like? Well, we're all created in the image of God.

[00:01:23]We empirically, we know empirically that there are all kinds of things that are terrible to do. Like, it's terrible to com to murder children. If God did not create an evil inclination in this world, what would we lose?

[00:01:44]>> Free will.

[00:01:45]>> Free will would be gone. Exactly. It's very important that there are temptations and that we can choose because in Jewish thought, if someone puts a gun to your head and says, "Say I love you or I'll kill you." and then you in turn say I love you. That statement is meaningless. When someone says I love you, it's only meaningful if a person could choose to say I don't love you and I don't want a relationship with you. Okay, that's the foundation of Jewish thought. that free will makes it possible for us to be virtuous and therefore a relationship with God of love is one by choice and that's why God created an evil inclination and this is one of the difference between Judaism and Christianity very important the very big difference between Tanakh and the Christian Bible is that in Tanakh man is created in the image of God we get that right from the get-go that God is create that God created man in his image. He literally blew into man's nostrils to write here.

[00:03:03]And it's very interesting that this is really our essence. When people kiss each other that whom they love very much, when young girls dream about the boy they'll one day kiss, they they they think about kissing. Why kissing? Why not touching elbows? because there's nothing more intimate because that's where the spirit of God entered. This is like who you are. So this is so powerful. We're created in the image of God. We have actual free will and that's why God had to create something to balance that off. And that's bad. And therefore, we have a a real choice in the world. We can actually choose to reject relationship with God. And therefore, when you say to God, "I love you, Lord." It's really meaningful because you can walk away from him. I'm going to just add a little truffle into this chocolate to make it that much more delicious cuz I want Tanakh to just just burst for you. Why would we find this passage in Isaiah 45?

[00:04:11]And the answer is because Isaiah 45 begins with God saying that there's a man in the future whose name is Cyrus.

[00:04:19]And he's going to give the command for the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. We have that in Isaiah 45:1. It actually begins in 44:28. It's he's going to keep talking about this. But in between, read Isaiah 45. God is saying through the prophet that don't ask me why I'm choosing him.

[00:04:40]It's It's not who you'd probably go with and he doesn't know my name.

[00:04:45]Now, Cyrus also being that he was the king of Persia, can any of you guess what religion Cyrus belonged to? Well, you guessed it. He was Persian. And therefore, he belonged to an ancient Persian religion which still exists and it's called Zorastianism.

[00:05:06]In fact, um the lead singer of Queen Freddy Mercury was a member of this religion. Zarashian is the ultimate dualism, meaning that there's a god of good, a god of light, and a god of darkness. So that's why, just so you know, we're just this again, we're just injecting truffle into this great chocolate. So we understand 457. But why does it appear here? is cuz Isaiah is condemning the religion of Cyrus. That's a brilliant question.

[00:05:41]>> Without the ability to choose to do the right thing, there's no virtue. God wants us to seek that relationship.

[00:05:49]>> If you have questions about God that nobody will answer straight, this is for you. I understand you didn't leave God.

[00:05:55]You're just trying to understand him.

[00:05:56]But every time you ask something real, you're told to just have faith. So at 2 a.m. you're searching alone trying to make theology add up and it doesn't. I built 7613 the chosen path because you deserve better. Inside you'll get direct answers from rabbis. You'll study the Hebrew Bible in context. And you'll do it alongside people walking the same path. Jewish converts, Noahites, born Jews and seekers untanglingly fear-based faith. We ask real questions here without shame or pressure. You can join us on Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m.

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[00:06:39]>> And shalom. The lone.