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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 9, 1867

Infidel Objections to the Bible Answered. No. 4.

God is the Author of Evil. Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good? Lam. iii, 38. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Jer. xviii, 11. I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. Isa. xiv, 7. Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? Amos iii, 6. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. Eze. xx, 25.

God is not the Author of Evil. God is not the author of confusion. 1 Cor. xiv, 33. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. Deut. xxxii, 4. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. James i, 13.

SUCH is the heterogeneous mass of scripture out of which the skeptic endeavors to manufacture an objection to the Bible. It is not easy to see the bearing of all these texts upon the question at issue. For instance, what has 1 Cor. xiv, 33, spoken in relation to some irregularity in the church at Corinth, to do with the Lord’s creating evil among the nations to which some of the other texts refer? And what has Eze. xx, 25, which states that God imposed upon Israel burdensome ceremonies, because they had transgressed his moral precepts, to do with God’s tempting any man? Jas. i, 13.

Whatever apparent discrepancy there is between these texts, is all harmonized by the fact that the word evil has two meanings in the Bible. It is used 1. To denote the judgments of war, &c., which God brings upon nations at certain times to punish them for their sins; and 2. The evil or sins which men commit against God. On this point Alexander Hall says:

“God says: ‘I make peace, and create evil.’ But what kind of evil? Not moral evil, or sin, by any means; but physical evil, such as was threatened against Nineveh. ‘And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not.’ Jonah iii, 10. Did God repent of the sin he was about to commit against the Ninevites? All evil, which God is said to create, we understand to be judgments which he brings upon men for their disobedience. Thus it is said: ‘Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?’ Amos iii, 6.”

It is a little singular that in connection with Jas. i, 13, the objector did not refer to Gen. xxii, 1: “God did tempt Abraham,” &c. These texts are also fully explained by looking at the definition of the word. To tempt means not only to seduce to sin, but to prove, test, or try. This latter is the meaning of the word in Gen. xxii, 1. God proved Abraham, tested him, to see if he would walk by faith on his word. In Jas. i, 13, it means to seduce to sin. Dr. Clarke has the following comment on this passage:

Verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.] This is a mere Jewish sentiment, and on it the Jews speak some excellent things. In Shemoth Rabba, sec. 31, fol. 129, and in Rab. Tanchum, fol. 29, 4, we have these words: “Blessed is the man who stands in his temptation; for there is no man whom God does not try. He tries the rich, to see if they will open their hands to the poor. He tries the poor to see if they will receive affliction and not murmur. If, therefore, the rich stand in his temptation, and give alms to the poor, he shall enjoy his riches in this world, and his horn shall be exalted in the world to come, and the holy blessed God shall deliver him from the punishment of hell. If the poor stand in his temptation, and do not repine, (kick back) he shall have double in the world to come.” This is exactly the sentiment of James. Every man is in this life in a state of temptation or trial, and in this state he is a candidate for another and a better world; he that stands in his trial shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. It is only love to God that can enable a man to endure the trials of life. Love feels no loads; all practicable things are possible to him who loveth.

There may be an allusion here to the contests in the Grecian games. He is crowned who conquers, and none else.

Verse 13. Let no man say] Lest the former sentiment should be misapplied, as the word temptation has two grand meanings, solicitation to sin, and trial from providential situation or circumstances, James, taking up the word in the former sense, after having used it in the latter, says: Let no man say when he is tempted, (solicited to sin,) I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he (thus) any man. Thus the author has explained and guarded his meaning.